Generating evidence for decision-making on the use of the oral cholera vaccine
This funding call seeks to generate evidence for decision-making on the use of the oral cholera vaccine (OCV), with a focus on real-world impact and preparing for future preventative vaccination campaigns. Successful teams will support and engage with policymakers and/or implementing partners who are responsible for preventing and controlling cholera.
Scheme at a glance
- Career stage:
- Early-career researcher, Established researcher, Leading a research programme, Mid-career researcher, Postdoctoral research, Returning to research
- Where your administering organisation is based:
- Anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China)
- Level of funding:
Up to £2.5 million
- Duration of funding:
Up to 5 years
Next deadline
If you are disabled or have a long-term health condition, we can support you with the application process.
About this call
Cholera is a disease which, if not controlled early and ideally prevented, can lead to large outbreaks and epidemics. Wellcome wants to fund research and support policy-making that will help affected communities prevent infectious diseases from escalating out of control – now and in the future.
The tools to control and prevent cholera exist: surveillance; safe water, sanitation and hygiene; vaccines; and case management – but resources are limited and so more evidence is needed to help decision-makers decide where and how to deploy resources to the greatest effect. The oral cholera vaccine (OCV) is a vital part of the toolkit to both react to and prevent outbreaks, but there is a severely constrained supply, and effectiveness can vary across different populations and settings.
The Cholera Roadmap Research Agenda, launched in 2021 by the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) with support from Wellcome, outlines many important priorities for research. This funding call aims to generate more evidence on three prioritised and connected areas:
- defining hotspots to help target OCV campaigns,
- the impact of different OCV dosing schedules: one dose, two dose and different dose intervals, and
- the subsequent duration of protection provided according to age and pre-existing immunity.
Given the importance of open and timely data sharing for evidence-informed responses to outbreak diseases, successful applicants will be required to share research findings and data relevant to any cholera outbreak or cholera vaccination campaign regularly during the lifetime of the grant and as widely as possible. This is in addition to Wellcome’s standard grant conditions and policies on publication and open access.
About your proposal
Before applying
Preliminary applications are not required but to help us select appropriate experts to review the application, please email e.preparedness@wellcome.org with the name of the country/countries where you are proposing to conduct the research study. No other information is required, and this doesn’t commit you to submitting a full application. Please email us before 21st April 2023.
Your application – what we’re looking for and how it will be assessed
The maximum word count for the project description in the application is 3,500 words.
To help countries plan future preventative OCV campaigns, we need to strengthen cholera hotspot mapping and the evidence on the impact of one dose, two doses, and dose intervals. We are looking to support a range of studies in different settings so that we can build a clearer picture of how this impact and the subsequent duration of protection may change according to a community’s history of exposure to cholera or OCV.
The focus of the funding call is to generate useful and useable evidence for decision-making on the impact of OCV. To ensure the evidence reflects global and national context and needs, proposals must include activities to support policy engagement and research uptake. See the research uptake section for specific requirements and expectations.
Proposals must:
- Generate evidence on the effectiveness and/or impact of OCV.
- Include children under 5 in the study participants.
- Measure the duration of protection, ideally including data from 3-5 years post vaccination.
- Measure direct and indirect protection (population immunity).
- Describe and justify the choice of study location and population and how this relates to the funding call priorities.
- Include a risk mitigation plan.
- Describe how the proposal aligns with and will feed into National Cholera Control Plans.
- Include a description of how the study will engage with communities likely to be impacted by the research.
- Include a dedicated section on the research uptake plan, with a dedicated budget allocated to this activity. If needed, your budget can include hiring a staff member where a proportion of their time will be dedicated to research uptake. Guidance on developing a research uptake plan is available from the FCDO. For example, a research uptake plan should include:
- an initial mapping of relevant stakeholders and the local/national/global context
- an assessment of internal and external research uptake capacity
- an initial communication plan for regular and timely data and evidence sharing throughout the lifetime of the project
- an initial outline of research uptake objectives and metrics.
Successful proposals will be given additional support to further develop and tailor their research uptake plan at the start of the project to account for any changes to the global or national context that may have occurred between submitting an application and starting the study.
Proposals may:
- If appropriate, begin with or include hotspot mapping and transmission research that will generate data to support applications for future preventative vaccination campaigns. Proposals should demonstrate how this research is linked to the OCV research objectives.
- Evaluate the impact of one or two doses of OCV.
- If evaluating the impact of two doses, assess any time interval between doses.
- Collect and analyse data from any previous, ongoing, or planned OCV study or campaign (reactive or preventative). It is anticipated that projects will start in 2024 but we recognise that the nature of outbreaks and supply constraints for OCV may make it challenging to plan certain research study designs at this time and in the future. If suitable, please include this in your risk mitigation plan. If needed, we will work with successful applicants on adjusting the plan if OCV supply and/or cholera epidemiology changes.
- Use any study design suitable for generating robust evidence on the funding call priorities.
- Be a new study or build off a pre-existing study.
- Assess immunological responses as well as incidence.
- Be based in one or more locations/countries.
- Explore other complementary research priority questions outlined in the Cholera Roadmap Research Agenda from any Pillar (not limited to OCV).
Proposals cannot ask for funds for the implementation of vaccination campaigns.
Research uptake
Wellcome expects successful applicants to design and conduct their research in collaboration with policy and/or implementation actors in order to be responsive to global/national/local needs and increase the likelihood of policy influence and research uptake. By policy or implementation actor, we mean those who can influence policy or decision-making around how vaccination campaigns are conducted. This includes but is not limited to the following:
- policymakers
- policy advisers from national or local government
- national task forces
- national or global non-government organisations (NGOs)
- advocates
- affected communities
- the wider public.
These actors can either be involved as coapplicants who are core members of the research team and commit a minimum of 20% of their time (see criteria for coapplicants in the Eligibility section), or collaborators that are essential to the delivery of the project but where there is no minimum time commitment. The research partnerships should be underpinned by equitable partnership principles. Learn more about equitable partnership principles from the UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR).
To further support research uptake, successful applicants will be:
- invited to a workshop at the start of their grant to further develop and tailor the research uptake strategy (Wellcome will pay costs associated with attending the workshop and applicants do not have to cost this into their proposal)
- invited to present or participate at relevant GTFCC meetings
- asked to submit details of their project to the open access GTFCC Research Tracker
- required to submit a mid-project report on their research uptake strategy.
Applicants can and should allocate budget specifically to research uptake activities. See 'What we offer' for more information.
Assessment criteria
Applications will be reviewed by a panel of experts who will consider a series of criteria, including:
- Strategic importance, approach, and methods – 50%
- Which evidence gaps the study will address and the value of these for different locations.
- The timeliness of the opportunity in the current cholera epidemic context and likely impact on decision-making.
- Suitability, quality and feasibility of the study design and methods, including the proposed timeline for the study.
- The choice of location/s.
- How it aligns with the priorities set out in the GTFCC’s Cholera Roadmap Research Agenda and the overall Ending Cholera Roadmap strategy.
- The extent to which the proposal involves applicants and stakeholders from a cholera-affected country in the research, the communication, and the use of data and evidence.
- The team, skills and experience – 25%
- The research skills and experience of all team members, relative to their career stage and role.
- Prior experience engaging with policy/implementing partners.
- Research uptake skills or skills for translating research and evidence into accessible and actionable formats. For example, the ability to understand the decision-making context, or facilitate engagement with policy and practice stakeholders to support a dialogue between research and implementation.
- The transdisciplinary nature of your research team and whether it contains the right combination of expertise.
- Team structure and project management plans.
- Research uptake, research capacity and capability strengthening – 25%
- Quality and suitability of the research uptake plan.
- Appropriate budget allocated.
- The added value of any in-country research capacity strengthening and/or capability strengthening.
Eligibility and suitability
Who can apply
You can apply to this scheme if you are a transdisciplinary research team, which involves multiple disciplines taking an integrated rather than discipline-specific approach. For example, your team may include:
- researchers
- healthcare professionals
- policymakers
- implementing partners
- community stakeholders
- communications
- policy and/or public engagement experts.
The team must:
- Contain expertise in immunology, vaccinology and epidemiology, as well as experience of operational or implementation research. We expect teams to contain at least one applicant with expertise in research for cholera prevention and control. Teams must also demonstrate experience of collaborating and/or engaging with implementing partners and policy stakeholders to influence vaccine or infectious disease control decision-making.
- Be led by or have at least one co-applicant who is hosted at an institution based in a cholera-affected country, defined as any country which is currently experiencing a cholera outbreak, or has experienced an outbreak in the last 5 years, or is listed in the Global Task Force Roadmap (Annex A) based on 'Updated global burden of cholera in endemic countries'.
- Contain coapplicants or collaborating partners that are central to the design, adoption or implementation of cholera control policies. By policy or implementation partner, we mean those who can influence policy or decision-making around how vaccination campaigns are conducted. This includes but is not limited to policymakers, policy advisers from national or local government, national task forces, national or global NGOs, advocates, affected communities or the wider public.
- Promote a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment.
Career stage and experience
The applicants must meet the following criteria at the point of submitting the application.
The lead applicant
- Can be based anywhere in the world (except mainland China) so long as the research team includes a coapplicant who is based at an institution in a cholera-affected country. If this is not the case, the lead applicant must be based at an institution in a cholera-affected country.
- Must be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this project.
- Must be based at an eligible administering organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions and grant funding policies.
- Must have the experience needed to drive and lead a research programme addressing the research question(s).
- Must have experience of people and research management and training, as appropriate for their career stage. Early-career researchers without this experience must state which areas they will require training in and how they will receive such training. See the 'What we offer' section for allowable costs.
- Must have experience of, or demonstrate commitment to, effectively enabling research uptake, for example by engaging with policy and implementation stakeholders in the design and implementation of the research, and communicating research outputs (evidence and data) in a way that is useful and timely for global and national decision-making.
- Must have a permanent, open-ended, or long-term rolling contract for the duration of the award.
For requesting salary, please see the 'What we offer' section for allowable costs.
The coapplicants:
- Can be based anywhere in the world (except in mainland China).
- Must be essential for the delivery of the proposed research and make a significant contribution, for example designing an aspect of the research, writing the application, managing the programme, leading on a specific work package or aim, or being responsible for research uptake.
- Must demonstrate the team’s commitment to enabling the use of research evidence in vaccine decision-making, for example engaging with policy and implementation stakeholders in the design, implementation or communication of the research.
- Must be able to contribute at least 20% of their time to this project.
- Must have a guarantee of space from their host institution for the duration of their commitment to the award, but do not need to have a permanent, open-ended, or long-term rolling contract at their administering institution.
- Must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions and grant funding policies.
- Can be based in the same or in different organisations, can be at any career stage, and come from any discipline, but the added value of the team approach must be clear.
Proposals are limited to 8 coapplicants.
When research occurs in more than one country, applications must include coapplicants based in each country where the research will take place.
Teams must include in-country policy or implementation partners. These partners can either be involved as coapplicants who are core members of the team and must contribute at least 20% of their time to the project, or named collaborators who are essential to the delivery of the project. There is no minimum time commitment for collaborators.
Collaborators
There is no limit to the number of collaborators an application can have but the added value must be clear.
Time spent away from research and part-time working
You can apply if you've been away from research (for example, for a career break, maternity leave, or long-term sick leave). We'll allow for this when we consider your application.
Lead and coapplicants can be part-time. There is no formal minimum, but part-time working needs to be compatible with delivering the proposal successfully.
Who can’t apply
You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.
Restrictions if you are applying for or hold other Wellcome awards
You can only be an applicant on a maximum of two applications to this funding call:
- You can only be lead applicant on one application (but can be a coapplicant on one other), or
- You can be a coapplicant on a maximum of two applications.
You must be able to demonstrate that you can dedicate enough time and resources to both projects if funded.
If you already hold other active awards with Wellcome from previous funding opportunities:
- An early-career researcher can be a lead applicant on one Wellcome award and a coapplicant on one other Wellcome award.
- A mid-career researcher can be a lead applicant on one Wellcome award and a coapplicant on two other Wellcome awards.
- An established researcher can be a lead applicant on two Wellcome awards, one as the sole applicant and one as lead applicant for a team, or both as the lead applicant for a team. They can also be a coapplicant on two other Wellcome awards.
What’s expected of the administering organisation
Your administering organisation can be a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- not-for-profit or government body.
The lead and coapplicants must all be based at eligible organisations that can sign up to our grant conditions and grant funding policies.
We expect organisations based in the UK to meet the responsibilities required by the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers for institutions, managers and researchers.
Any organisation which receives Wellcome funding that is based outside the UK is expected, at minimum, to follow the principles of the Concordat. We also expect your administering organisation to:
- Give you, and any staff employed on the grant, at least 10 days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuing professional development in line with the Concordat. This should include the responsible conduct of research, research leadership, people management, diversity and inclusion, and the promotion of a healthy research culture.
- Provide a system of onboarding, embedding and planning for you when you start the award.
- Provide you with the status and benefits of other staff of similar seniority.
If your administering organisation receives core funding from Wellcome, this award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.
What we offer
- Duration of award: projects of any duration up to 5 years. The project must start within one year of the Award Letter being issued.
- Level of funding: projects of any budget up to £2.5 million.
You should ask for a level and duration of funding that’s justifiable for your proposed research.
What we don’t offer
See 'Other costs' for costs we will and will not provide.
We don’t fund overheads unless they're eligible under our overheads policy.
Costs associated with implementing vaccination campaigns will not be supported.
Lead applicant
If you are based in the UK or the Republic of Ireland, you cannot ask for your salary.
You can ask for a contribution to your salary if you are based in another high-income country (not UK or ROI) or a low-and middle-income country (LMIC) and hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that states that you have to get your salary from external grant funding.
The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time you contribute to the award, for example if you contribute 30% of your time to the award we will fund 30% of your salary.
You will have to contribute at least 20% of your research time to this award.
Your administering organisation must confirm:
- that your employment contract states you must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- that they will underwrite the salary and post for the period of time that you will be working on the grant.
Coapplicants
If any coapplicant employed on your grant holds a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that states that they have to get their salary from external grant funding, you can ask us for a contribution to their salary in your application.
The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time they contribute to the award, for example if they contribute 30% of their time to the award we will fund 30% of their salary.
They will have to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this programme.
Your administering organisation must confirm:
- that the coapplicant’s employment contract states they must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- that they will underwrite the salary and post for the period of time that the person will be working on the grant.
Coapplicants can also ask for salary where they:
- Are employed by a charity, social enterprise or commercial organisation. The amount they request must be proportionate to the time they will spend on the grant.
- Don’t have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract and they:
- Will spend 80% of their time on this grant. They can ask for their full salary. Their post does not need to be underwritten and can be contingent on the application being successful.
- Will spend less than 80% of their time on the grant. They can request a salary proportionate to the time they will spend on the grant. The administering organisation must guarantee space and salary support if they cannot get it from other sources for the period of time they are working on the grant. Their post cannot be contingent on the application being successful.
- Are employed on the award as postgraduate research assistants. If they are to spend 100% of their time on the award, their post does not need to be underwritten by the administering organisation and can be contingent on the application being successful.
Alternatively, coapplicants may get their salary through employment on another grant.
Staff working on your programme
We will cover the salary costs of all staff, full or part-time, who will work on your grant.
Staff members may include:
- research assistants or technicians employed on your grant
- specialist service staff, for example data analysis, fieldwork and clinical studies
- project manager, if you have multiple applicants on your programme
- support if you or a member of staff employed on your grant is disabled or has a long-term health condition – see 'Disability-related adjustment support'.
Teaching buyout
If you’re a humanities and social science researcher, you can ask for funds for research or teaching replacement to cover the cost of a temporary replacement lecturer. You must retain at least a 10% commitment to teaching.
Costs:
- can cover up to 33% FTE of your contracted time
- are usually for a person at a more junior level than the postholder
- can be spread across the full period of the grant.
If you already get buyout costs from another grant (funded by Wellcome or elsewhere), you can ask us for this cost, but only for the period of time on your award when you won't receive buyout costs from another grant.
You must provide a letter from your employing organisation, confirming that your contract includes a teaching commitment. You should include this in your grant application.
PhD fees
We do not provide studentships on this award. But if applicants employ a research assistant or a technician on the grant, they can ask for the costs to cover their Research Masters or PhD fees. Each applicant can ask for fees for one research assistant or technician at a time on the grant.
We will only pay the international student fee rate for low- and middle-income nationals who are registered to study for a Research Masters or PhD in a high-income country. In all other situations, we will pay home student fees.
Staff salaries should be appropriate to skills, responsibilities and expertise. You should ask your host organisation to use their salary scales to calculate these costs, which should include:
- basic salary
- employer’s contributions, including any statutory obligations (for example, National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs
- Apprentice Levy charges for UK-based salaries
- any incremental progression up the salary scale
- locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.
You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. If the pay award is not yet known, applicants should use the International Monetary Fund inflation rate, selecting the ‘inflation, average consumer price’ option as indicator.
From Year 2 onwards, you should use your organisation’s current pay rates. We’ll provide a separate inflation allowance for salary inflation costs.
Read about the responsibilities of grantholders and host organisations for people working on a Wellcome grant.
If you have named people on your grant whose salaries will be funded by Wellcome, you can ask for visa or work permit costs to help them take up their posts at the host organisation. You can also ask for:
- visa costs for the person's partner and dependent children
- essential associated costs, such as travel to attend appointments at a visa application centre or embassy, and essential English language tests
- Immigration Health Surcharge costs for the person, their partner and dependent children if they will be in the UK for six months or more.
If you or a member of staff working on your grant is disabled or has a long-term health condition, you can ask for adjustment support to help you carry out your project.
Costs can include, but are not limited to:
- additional costs for staff to help with day-to-day activities related to your project
- assistive technology to help use computers, research equipment or materials – for example, text to audio software
- care costs for assistance animals if you need to travel.
We will not pay for capital or building costs, such as access ramps.
You can ask for these costs if your government and/or employer:
- does not cover any of the costs
- only covers some of the costs (if they do, we will only meet the shortfall).
The costs we provide must not replace the support you may get from the government or your organisation, who are responsible for providing these costs.
If you don't know what these costs are now, you can ask for them after we've awarded your grant.
You can ask for costs to cover the following types of training.
Continuing professional development and professional skills training
You can ask for a contribution towards these costs.
Types of training can include:
- research leadership, professional and people management skills
- career development support
- responsible conduct of research
- diversity and inclusion
- promotion of a healthy research culture.
We expect your host organisation to provide and fund this training. However, if these types of training are not available, or the quality is inadequate, you can ask for up to £500 a year for you and each member of staff employed on your grant who will be:
- in a post of 12 months duration or more, and
- working on the grant for at least 50% of their time.
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
Research skills training
You can ask for costs to cover training for the technical and research skills you need to deliver your proposed research.
You can ask for whatever research skills training you need for you, and each member of staff employed on your grant, who will be:
- in post for 12 months or more, and
- working on the grant for at least 50% of their time.
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
Research uptake skills training
You can ask for costs to cover training for the skills needed to deliver the activities in the research uptake plan. This could include knowledge brokering/knowledge translation courses or other training/courses aimed at research staff to better enable them to engage with policy and/or practice actors to facilitate the use of research evidence.
You can ask for whatever research uptake skills training you need for you, and each member of staff employed on your grant, who will be:
- leads on the research uptake strategy, or
- who will be both:
- in post for 12 months or more, and
- working on the grant for at least 50% of their time.
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your project, including:
- laboratory chemicals and materials (for example, reagents, isotopes, peptides, enzymes, antibodies, gases, proteins, cell/tissue/bacterial culture, plasticware and glassware)
- project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
- printing associated with fieldwork and empirical research
- associated charges for shipping, delivery and freight.
You can ask for funds to buy animals if they are essential to your project. We will also fund the charge-out rates for animal house facilities if your organisation uses full economic costing methodology. These costs include:
- running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
- appropriate estates costs
- cage and equipment depreciation costs, but not building depreciation costs.
We may not pay the full charge-out rate for an animal house facility if we've provided significant funding towards the infrastructure and/or core support of the facility.
If your organisation does not use full economic costing methodology to establish charge-out rates for animal house facilities, you can ask for funds to cover:
- the cost of buying animals
- running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
- staff costs, for example, contributions towards the salaries of animal house technicians.
We will not provide estates or depreciation costs.
Equipment purchase
You can ask for basic items of equipment that are essential to your research project.
Costs may include purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training, where necessary.
We will cover VAT and import duties if:
- the usual UK exemptions on equipment used for medical research don’t apply
- you’re applying from a non-UK organisation, and you can show these costs can’t be recovered.
You can also ask for specialised equipment if:
- it is essential to the success of the proposed research project
- it is not available at your host organisation or through collaboration, and
- you’ll be the main user and have priority access to the equipment.
If a complete piece of specialised equipment costs £100,000 or more, we expect a contribution of at least 25% of the total costs, including maintenance, from the host organisation or another source. In some cases, we may expect a larger contribution. We’ll discuss this with you after we’ve assessed your application. Contributions can include benefits in kind, such as refurbishment or the underwriting of a key support post.
Multi-component items must not be broken down into component parts to avoid this contribution.
Equipment maintenance
We will cover maintenance costs for equipment if:
- you are requesting it in your application
- it is existing equipment that is:
- funded by us or another source
- essential to the proposed research project
- more than five years old
- cost effective to keep maintaining it.
We won’t cover maintenance costs for equipment if there is a mechanism in place to recoup these costs through access charges.
Computer equipment
We will cover the cost of one personal computer or laptop per person up to £1,500.
We won't pay for:
- more expensive items, unless you can justify them
- installation or training costs.
You can ask for the cost of access to shared equipment, facilities or services if they’re essential to your project.
These may include materials and consumables, plus a proportion of:
- maintenance and service contracts
- staff time costs for dedicated technical staff employed to operate the equipment or facility.
We don’t cover the costs of:
- estates and utilities
- depreciation or insurance
- other staff, for example, contributions towards departmental technical, administrative and management staff time.
If the facilities or equipment were paid for by a Wellcome grant, you can only ask for access charges if:
- the grant has ended
- any support for running costs and maintenance contracts has ended.
You can ask for overheads if your grant will be based at a:
- university outside the UK or the Republic of Ireland
- research organisation that does not receive core funding for overheads
- charitable or not-for-profit organisation
- small or medium-sized commercial organisation.
You can also ask for overheads on any part of your grant that is sub-contracted to any of the organisations listed above.
If you’re based at a UK university, you can’t ask for overheads for sub-contracted activity if your university will include the sub-contracted funding in its annual report to the UK Charity Research Support Fund.
Overheads can include:
- estates, for example, building and premises
- non-project dedicated administrative and support staff
- administration, for example, finance, library, and room hire.
The total cost for overheads should not be more than:
- 20% of the direct research costs if you’re based in a low- or middle-income country
- 15% of the direct research costs if you’re based anywhere else.
These costs must directly support the activity funded by the grant.
How to apply for these costs
In your grant application, you must:
- give a full breakdown of costs (you can't ask for a percentage of the research costs)
- explain why these costs are necessary for your research
- include a letter from the finance director of your host organisation, or the sub-contracted organisation, confirming that the breakdown is a true representation of the costs incurred.
Conference attendance
You can ask for a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees and the costs to offset the carbon emissions of your travel. The limits are:
- Grantholder – £2,000 a year.
- Research and technical staff on your grant – £1,000 each a year.
We provide costs to cover caring responsibilities if you or any staff employed on your grant attend a conference. This includes childcare and any other caring responsibility you have. We will pay these if:
- Wellcome is providing the salary
- the conference is directly related to the research
- the caring costs are over and above what they'd normally pay for care
- the conference organiser and their employing organisation are unable to cover the costs.
You can ask for up to £1,000 per person for each conference.
Collaborative travel
You can ask for travel and subsistence costs for collaborative visits for you and any staff employed on your grant. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.
Other travel
We will pay for other essential visits, for example to facilities, for sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.
Carbon offset costs
This applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.
You can ask for:
- Essential travel costs, even if the low carbon option is more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying).
- Project-related resources or activities that provide an alternative to travel, such as video conferencing, communication and file-sharing software.
- Costs to offset the carbon emissions generated by the essential travel. If carbon offsetting for travel is not part of your organisational sustainability strategy, you can ask us for a similar level of support for other sustainability initiatives. Your organisation must get our approval before submitting an application.
We won't pay for the core infrastructure that your administering organisation should provide, unless you're eligible to ask for these costs under our overheads policy. Examples of these costs include:
- organisation-wide video conferencing packages
- high-speed broadband
- HD screens.
See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
Subsistence costs
If you’re away for up to one month, you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (for example, refreshments or newspapers).
If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.
If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.
If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.
If you’re from a low- or middle-income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £10 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.
If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.
The allowance we provide will be based on family and business needs. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. Please contact us if you need help calculating the costs.
We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.
Overseas research
If you or any research staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your home laboratory, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.
If you or any staff employed on your grant will be spending time in another country, we’ll help you with the additional costs of working on the project overseas.
Our overseas allowances are:
- a contribution towards the personal cost of carrying out research overseas, to ensure that you are not disadvantaged
- provided on the assumption that you’ll be paying income tax, either in your home country or the country you will be working in (your personal tax is your responsibility).
- provided on the understanding that you or your partner will not receive equivalent allowances from elsewhere
- determined by the amount of time you will spend away from your home country.
Carbon offset costs
We expect the people we fund to choose travel that has a lower carbon impact, where practical, even if it’s more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying).
You can ask for costs to offset the carbon generated by the travel as part of your overseas allowances. If carbon offsetting for travel is not part of your organisational sustainability strategy, you can ask us for a similar level of support for other sustainability initiatives. Your organisation must get our approval for other sustainability initiatives to be included in applications.
See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
If you will be away more than 12 months, we will provide overseas allowances for your partner and any dependants if they are travelling with you.
If you will be away for 12 months or less and can justify why your partner and dependants must travel with you, we may provide overseas allowances for them.
We define your partner as the person:
- you’re married to
- you’re not married to but with whom you’ve been in a relationship for at least a year
and
- you live with at the same permanent address and share some form of joint financial commitment with, such as a mortgage.
See a list of low- and middle-income countries, as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
You can ask for the following allowances. You need to provide estimated costs as accurately as possible.
We will pay your travel costs at the beginning and end of your overseas work. Costs can be for air, ferry, train or coach fares.
All fares should be:
- in line with our carbon offset policy
- booked in advance where possible.
If you are away for up to 12 months, you can ask for up to 80kg of additional baggage or unaccompanied airline freight for your outward and return journeys.
If you are away for more than 12 months, you can ask for the costs of shipping your personal items at the beginning and end of your overseas work.
We will pay the full cost of transporting:
- half a standard shipping container if you’re travelling alone
- a whole standard shipping container (20ft) if you’re travelling with a partner and/or dependants.
We will pay the cost of your medical insurance and travel insurance.
If you will be working in a low- or middle-income country we will also cover the cost of emergency evacuation cover.
We won’t pay for medical insurance if you will be based in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
We will pay the costs of visas, vaccinations and anti-malaria treatment.
You can ask for this if you’ll be based in a low- or middle-income country and it is necessary.
Costs can include guards, panic buttons and alarms. You should ask your employing organisation for advice on the level of security you need.
If you’re away for up to one month, you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (for example, refreshments or newspapers).
If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.
If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.
If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.
If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £10 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.
If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.
The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. If you need help calculating the costs please contact us.
We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.
If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay:
Local nursery or school fees
You can ask for these costs if you are in a location where there isn’t free local education of the same standard as in your home country.
Costs include:
- local nursery school fees up to a maximum of 30 hours a week for 3 to 4-year-olds
- local junior or secondary school fees, up to the end of secondary school education.
Local international school fees
You can ask for these costs if local schools do not provide the same standard of education as in your home country. We will only pay the published termly school fees.
We will not cover the costs of:
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment.
Boarding school fees
We will consider paying the cost of boarding school fees in your home country if:
- a local international school is not available
- both parents, guardians or the sole care giver live outside the home country.
The allowance covers:
- up to a maximum of £30,000 a year for each child for the published termly fees only
- the cost of return airfares at the start and end of each school term, in line with our carbon offset policy for travel.
We will not cover the costs of:
- additional annual leave airfares
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment.
We will cover the cost of providing special needs education as far as possible. Please contact us to discuss your needs.
We would not usually expect to provide an education allowance if you will be working in a high-income country.
If you will be away for more than 12 months, we’ll pay for you to travel back to your home country for annual leave. This is in addition to your outward and return travel costs and depends on how long you will be away:
- 12-24 months – 1 annual leave trip
- 25-36 months – 2 annual leave trips
- 37-48 months – 3 annual leave trips
- 49-60 months – 4 annual leave trips
- 61-72 months – 5 annual leave trips
- 73-84 months – 6 annual leave trips
- 85-96 months – 7 annual leave trips.
All fares should be:
- in line with our carbon offset policy
- booked in advance where possible.
If you will be away for more than 12 months, you can ask for up to 100 hours of lessons in the local language for you and/or your partner during the first 12 months of your visit.
We will cover 100% of the costs for local language school classes or up to 50% of the costs of individual tuition.
We will not cover the cost of examinations or personal learning materials such as DVDs and books.
We cover fieldwork costs if they’re essential and you can justify them. Costs can include:
- survey and data collection, including communication and data collection services and any associated costs such as essential field materials, travel costs and language translation services
- the purchase, hire and running costs of vehicles dedicated to your project
- expenses for subjects and volunteers, including the recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel costs
- statistical analysis.
You can ask for other fieldwork costs that aren’t listed here, but you’ll need to justify them.
How we calculate your inflation allowance
We will add an inflation allowance to your award. Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award.
We will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based using data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling.
| Award duration (in months) | Inflation allowance |
|---|---|
| 0-12 | 0.0% |
| 13-24 | 1.19% |
| 25-36 | 2.41% |
| 37-48 | 3.64% |
| 49-60 | 4.89% |
The costs in your application must be based on current known costs, excluding inflation.
You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed; if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use the IMF rate for the currency your award will be made in.
If your organisation receives open access block grant funding, you can ask them to cover your open access article processing charges.
If you're at an organisation that does not receive block grant funding, we’ll supplement your grant when your paper has been accepted for publication.
You cannot ask for these charges in your grant application.
If you need to carry out clinical research using NHS patients or facilities, we will cover some of the research costs.
Annex A of the guidelines for attributing the costs of health and social care research and development (AcoRD) sets out the costs we cover, and which costs should be funded through the Department of Health and Social Care in England, or its equivalent in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. If you're based in the Republic of Ireland, we would expect you to adhere to the spirit of these principles.
Read more information on our clinical trials policy.
If your proposal involves clinical research using NHS resources, check if you need to upload a SoECAT form with your full application.
You can ask for costs that are essential to the project. These can include:
- materials, including printing and publishing
- other costs relating to engagement activities that are essential to carry out your research, such as patient involvement (including under-served groups) and community engagement
- dissemination of research results and findings arising from Wellcome funded research and workshops.
We will provide funds if you need to outsource project work to:
- contract research organisations
- other fee-for-service providers.
Allowed costs
You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them in your application):
- costs associated with delivering the research uptake strategy
- specialist publications that are relevant to the research and not available in institutional libraries
- consultancy fees
- expenses for subjects and volunteers – includes recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel, as well as interviewee expenses
- reasonable research-associated costs related to the feedback of health-related findings but not any healthcare-associated costs
- costs associated with developing an outputs management plan
- questionnaires, recruitment material, newsletters etc for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
- recruitment, advertising and interviewee travel costs for staff to be employed on the grant
- purchase, hire and running costs of project-dedicated vehicles
- project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
- costs to host/a contribution towards the cost of hosting:
- a conference
- a session within a conference
- a symposium
- a seminar series
- advisory board meetings, if appropriate
- workshops for engaging with local/national policy or practice stakeholders
Contribution towards hosting a meeting, as defined above
The meeting should either be:
- for research purposes, for example data gathering or
- to discuss and disseminate your research findings, for example to policy makers.
Costs can include:
- travel and accommodation for keynote speakers
- external room hire and catering
- event publicity and conference materials
- childcare and other caring responsibility costs for delegates
- any costs related to accessibility and inclusion.
Disallowed costs
We will not pay for:
- Estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities. This also includes phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study.*
- Page charges and the cost of colour prints.
- Research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record.*
- PhD stipends.
- Charge-out costs for major facilities.*
- Departmental technical and administrative services, and use of existing equipment.
- Cleaning, waste and other disposal costs.*
- Indirect costs – this includes general administration costs such as personnel, finance, library, room hire and some departmental services.
- Office furniture, such as chairs, desks and filing cabinets.
- Clothing such as lab coats and shoes.
- Non-research related activities such as catering, room and venue hire for staff parties, team-building events and social activities.
- Indemnity insurance (insurance cover against claims made by subjects or patients associated with a research programme).
- Ethics reviews, unless you are in a low- or middle-income country.
- Radiation protection costs.
- Contingency funds.
- Organisation insurance.
- Clinical examination or course fees.
- Working capital costs of commercial organisations.
*We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.
How to apply
- Before you apply
- Email us at e.preparedness@wellcome.org with the name of the country/countries where you are proposing to conduct the research study by 21st April 2023. This will be used to help us select appropriate expert reviewers. You don’t need to include any other information, and this does not commit you to submitting a full application.
- Make sure you read everything on this page.
- Get some tips to help you write your grant application.
- Submit your application to your host organisation for approval
- Get some guidance on using Grant Tracker.
- Complete your application on Grant Tracker.
- View the sample application form [PDF 233KB].
- Ensure your application contains all relevant headings and content required in the 'About your proposal' section.
- Submit it to the 'authorised organisational approver' at your administering organisation for approval. Make sure you leave enough time for the approver to review and submit your application before the deadline. The approver may ask you to make changes to your application.
- Administering organisation reviews your application and submits it to us
- Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (GMT+1) on 6 July 2023.
- Panel review
- A panel will be chosen based on their expertise within the relevant research field and will assess the proposals.
- The panel will review proposals and make funding recommendations to Wellcome.
- Committee membership will be comprised of a diverse range of international members and will take into account Wellcome’s diversity and inclusion priorities.
- Once the panel has been appointed, we will update this webpage to include their details.
- Funding decision
You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made.
Please note we may contact applicants via email on an individual basis in September following the panel review and before a funding decision is made to collect any additional essential information.
- Feedback
Written feedback will be provided to all unsuccessful applicants, including the reasons for a decision.
Key dates
You must submit your application by 17:00 (BST) on 6 July 2023. We don’t accept late applications.
Open to applications
Tell us where your research would be based
21 April 2023Email usApplication deadline
6 July 2023Panel meeting
August/September 2023Decision
End of September 2023
Contact us
If you are interested in applying, please email e.preparedness@wellcome.org with the name of the country(ies) where your proposed research study would be located.
If you have a question about your proposal or the remit of the funding call, contact us at e.preparedness@wellcome.org. We do not answer questions on the competitiveness of proposals.
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer, or completing the application form, send our Funding Information Advisers a message.