Climate and Mental Health Award: Uncovering mechanisms between heat and mental health
This award will fund projects to advance our understanding of the biological, psychological and/or social mechanisms through which heat affects anxiety, depression and psychosis in the most impacted groups globally.
Successful applications will identify relevant climate-resilient and/or mental health interventions with a realistic potential for real-world application.
Overview
- Lead applicant career stage:
- Administering organisation location:
- Anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China)
- Frequency:
- One-off
- Funding amount:
£1 - 3 million per project
- Funding duration:
3 - 5 years
- Coapplicants:
- Accepted
Getting support with your application
We offer disability-related support for applicants. Read the disability-related support guidance if you:
- are disabled or have a long-term health condition and you need help applying for funding
- need help completing your project, for example, costs for assistive technology
If you need help with anything else, please contact us.
Who can apply
Your experience
You can apply to this call if you are a team of researchers:
- from any discipline relevant to mental health science and climate science
- from an eligible organisation
- based anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China)
We encourage applications from:
- researchers at any stage of their career, including early career researchers and/or those who are new to the fields of either mental health science or climate science
- researchers from or based in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)
The team must:
- Include one lead applicant who will be accountable for the delivery of grant activities and at least one coapplicant.
- Include a lead and/or coapplicants from both mental health science and meteorological/climate science, including those working on human biometeorology and/or climate science. We consider a broad range of disciplines to be relevant to mental health science, including but not limited to those listed on the page, what we do and don't fund in mental health.
- Include all the necessary expertise, technical skills and organisational support to deliver the proposed research.
- Include lived experience expertise and/or the skills needed to effectively involve and collaborate with people with lived experience of mental health challenges.
- Be transdisciplinary, meaning the team combines knowledge from different scientific disciplines with that of public and private sector stakeholders and citizens. See this OECD report for further information on what we mean by transdisciplinary.
- Ensure the contribution of each coapplicant (and collaborator, if applicable) is clearly justified in the application.
- Demonstrate how they will approach ethical and equitable partnerships, including how this will be approached between researchers in low- or middle-income countries and high-income countries (if applicable).
- Include at least one team member (lead applicant or coapplicant) based in each country where the research will take place.
- Be of an appropriate size for the proposed research. Teams must consist of at least two applicants (the lead applicant and one coapplicant) and must not exceed eight applicants (the lead applicant and seven coapplicants). This requirement does not limit the number of collaborators.
- Actively foster a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment within the team and across represented organisations.
The lead applicant must:
- Have the experience and support structures in place to lead the proposed research.
- Have experience of people and research management, as appropriate for their career stage.
- Have experience of or a demonstrated commitment to effectively lead a team that embeds lived experience expertise, as relevant to the research project.
- Actively promote a diverse, inclusive and supportive environment within the team and across their organisation.
- Have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract (or the guarantee of one) for the duration of the award. Their contract cannot be conditional on receiving this award.
- Be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this project.
- Be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to Wellcome’s grant conditions.
- Be the lead applicant on only one application to this award.
Coapplicants can be based at the same or different organisations as other applicants, including in different countries. They can also be at any career stage and come from any relevant discipline. The contribution of each coapplicant should be clearly justified in the application, demonstrating their value to the team.
Each coapplicant must:
- Be essential for the delivery of the project and make a significant contribution, for example, in designing the proposed research or leading a specific component of the project.
- Demonstrate the team’s commitment to effectively embed lived experience expertise, as relevant to the research project.
- Have a guarantee of space from their administering organisation for the duration of their commitment to the project, but do not need to have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract.
- Be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this project.
- Be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions. This can include a sole trader/self-employed person’s business.
- Be on no more than two applications to this award (either listed twice as a coapplicant or once as a lead applicant and once as a coapplicant).
Read more about when coapplicants can request salary, and what other costs can be covered.
Collaborators are distinct from coapplicants as they will support the delivery of the project but will not lead on a specific component of the research. For example, collaborators could provide technical, clinical or subject-matter expertise on statistical analysis or measurement of specific variables. They could also provide access to tools or resources, such as longitudinal datasets, climate projections or models, clinical records, or organisations led by or working in collaboration with lived experience experts.
Collaborators are not assessed for eligibility and they are not required to give a minimum research time commitment to the award. Collaborators are not paid for their input, but you can request costs for their expenses.
Read about the different applicant roles at Wellcome.
Applicants should draw on available resources to frame their approach to ethical and equitable partnerships, as it applies to their research.
Useful resources:
- UKCDR & ESSENCE Equitable Partnerships Resource Hub
- TRUST Code: A Global Code of Conduct for Equitable Research Partnerships
- Learning Materials
- Morton B, Vercueil A, Masekela R, Heinz E, Reime, L, Saleh S, et al. (2021). Consensus statement on measures to promote equitable authorship in the publication of research from international partnerships. Anaesthesia, 3(77): 264-276.
If you’ve spent time away from research
Career breaks, parental leave, sick leave
You can apply for this award if you have spent time away from research (for example, for a career break, parental leave or long-term sick leave). We will take this into consideration during the review of your application.
Retirement
If you have retired, you must have a guarantee of space from your administering organisation and you must contact us before applying.
Working part-time
Lead and coapplicants can be part-time. There is no formal minimum, but part-time applicants should still be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to the project and their part-time work should be compatible with delivering the project successfully.
Who can’t apply
You cannot apply if you have already applied for, or hold, the maximum number of Wellcome awards for your career stage. Find out how many Wellcome awards you can apply for, or hold, at one time depending on your career stage.
You cannot apply to this award if you plan to transfer funds into mainland China.
Is your organisation right for this call?
What your administering organisation must do
Your administering organisation must:
- Be able to sign up to Wellcome’s grant conditions and grant funding policies.
- Give you the space and resources you’ll need from the start date to the end date of the award.
- If based in the UK, meet the responsibilities required by the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. If based outside the UK, at a minimum the organisation must follow the principles of the Concordat.
- Give you and any staff employed on the grant 10 days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuing professional development (CPD) in line with the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.
- Provide a system of onboarding, embedding and planning for you when you join the organisation and/or start the award.
- Provide you with the status and benefits of other academic staff of similar seniority.
Where your administering organisation is based
Your administering organisation can be based anywhere in the world apart from mainland China.
Your administering organisation can be a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- non-academic healthcare organisation
- not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation
One organisation can submit multiple different applications.
Commercial organisations are not eligible to apply as administering organisations for this call. This means that the lead applicant cannot be based at a commercial organisation. However, coapplicants and collaborators can be based at commercial organisations.
Collaboration agreements
If your application involves a collaboration or partnership between multiple organisations, the partners must enter into a suitable collaboration agreement, including provisions that cover:
- confidentiality
- publication rights
- access to background intellectual property
- ownership of foreground intellectual property
- arrangements for the protection, management and exploitation of foreground intellectual property
The lead applicant’s administering organisation is required under our grant conditions to own all the foreground intellectual property arising from the project and to take the lead in any commercialisation activity. For guidance, applicants are advised to read Wellcome's intellectual property policy.
What is a research environment?
Wellcome believes that a diversity of people and expertise leads to richer understanding and more impactful discoveries. Excellent research happens in environments where people from all backgrounds are treated with respect, supported and enabled to thrive.
Our definition of a research environment is not restricted to the quality of the infrastructure, but also includes the culture and behaviours that create excellent research practice. This includes research that is inclusive in design and practice, ethical and engaged with relevant community stakeholders as well as open and transparent.
Is your research right for this call?
What your research proposal must include
This call will fund research that advances our understanding of the mechanisms in which heat can affect anxiety, depression or psychosis. Mechanisms of interest can be at the biological, psychological and/or social level. Projects must focus on the populations most impacted by heat, mental health problems or the intersection of both. Projects supported by this award must also illustrate the translational implications of the research either now or in the future.
Research proposals should cover these topics:
- heat
- communities most impacted
- mental health conditions in scope
- mechanisms of focus
- causal insights
- translational opportunities
- collaboration between mental health scientists and climate scientists
- lived experience involvement
Heat
Projects must focus on heat as a stressor of relevance to climate change. This may include:
- extreme heat events
- chronic exposure to unusually high temperatures
- elevated indoor temperatures due to high external ambient temperatures
- urban heat island effects
Teams must clearly describe what type of heat they are examining and justify why and how they plan to measure it.
Research must focus on ambient temperature and not on temperature generated mechanically (for example, by workers being exposed to a furnace) or by physical exertion (for example, athletes raising core body temperature by exercise). However, applicants may consider how these types of heat interact with elevated ambient temperature (for example, outdoor workers working in hot environments). The only exception to this are studies testing the mechanisms between heat and mental health in laboratory settings (either in humans or with animal models), where artificially generated heat would be allowed.
We encourage applicants to consider potential environmental effect modifiers and/or confounding variables such as humidity, air pollution, access to air conditioning and other relevant variables, depending on the nature of the project.
Work on exposure to cold temperatures is not eligible for this call.
Most impacted communities
Projects must focus on communities most impacted as part of their study.
By most impacted, we mean most affected by heat or by mental health problems and/or at the intersection of heat and mental health.
Projects are expected to meaningfully engage relevant stakeholders and communities from the outset. This should be reflected in the composition of the team and the design of the research proposal. Wellcome supports the use of an engaged research approach, which asks researchers to include community engagement in the design of their project while being inclusive of a range of stakeholders.
For this award, relevant stakeholders and communities could include:
- local or national governments
- civil society and community-based organisations
- international or multilateral organisations
- private sector partners
The only exception to this are studies focusing solely on animal models. These studies are eligible but we expect the authors to justify why their findings may be of relevance to most impacted communities.
Mental health conditions in scope
This funding call is focused on projects that investigate anxiety, depression and psychotic disorders.
This includes:
- all types of anxiety and depressive disorders (including obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder)
- all forms of psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia, postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder)
- transdiagnostic symptoms strongly associated with the above conditions (for example, threat hyperreactivity, repetitive negative thinking or suicidality)
- physical health outcomes in populations living with anxiety, depression and/or psychotic disorders (for example, emergency hospital admissions, or mortality, including completed suicides)
We recognise that the current diagnostic categories are imperfect but removing all categories or creating new ones also presents difficulties. While we do not specify any particular diagnostic or classification system, we expect applicants to use a framework and measurement approach that fits the aim of their study and to provide a clear justification.
Projects can include populations living with other physical or mental health conditions as long as the focus remains on anxiety, depression and/or psychosis.
We recognise that climate anxiety (anxiety relating to climate and ecological crises) may be of interest for those studying the intersection between heat and mental health. We see the changing climate as an important issue that may contribute to or cause clinically significant anxiety. Projects may study climate anxiety in the context of anxiety that reaches the level of a mental health problem that impairs functioning. The link between anxiety related to thoughts or fears about climate change and heat would need to be made explicit for this call.
Mechanisms of focus
Applicants need to reference evidence for the association between heat and their mental health outcome of focus.
Applicants also need to provide evidence to justify the choice of the mechanism(s) of focus. While we recognise the exploratory nature of this area, this justification must be based either on preliminary evidence (for example, pilot data) or on indirect evidence for the relationship both between heat and the mechanism(s) under investigation as well as between mental health and the mechanism(s) of focus.
We encourage proposals conducting research on one mechanism at multiple levels of explanation (for example, molecular, cellular, systems, cognitive, behavioural, social, environmental or societal). Projects can also look at multiple mechanisms at the same time and at their interactions.
Causal insights
Projects should move beyond building correlational evidence on the relationship between heat and mental health. Projects funded by this call should lead to deeper understandings of the causal mechanisms behind this relationship. Understanding the mechanisms that connect heat and mental health will help us develop new and improved ways to predict, identify and intervene for mental health problems as early as possible.
We are not setting specific methods that must be used. Some possible methods include:
- experimental and quasi-experimental designs (for example, experimental medicine approaches or randomised controlled trials)
- manipulation or use of experimental models (for example, iPSC-derived neurons, glia, organoids or animal models)
- network models (for example, Bayesian networks)
- causal mediation analysis and structural equation modelling based on longitudinal data
- observational designs allowing causal inference (for example, Mendelian randomisation, difference in differences design or propensity score matching)
- causal models (for example, causal pie model, Pear’s structural causal model or Rubin causal model)
Proposals need to justify the inclusion of any work packages that do not use causal methodologies. Qualitative research, observational longitudinal analysis and/or measurement development/validation is allowed for this call if it helps to address the overall research question(s).
Translational opportunities
Proposals must consider and clearly describe the potential impact of the proposed project and how, if successful, it would contribute to translational work supporting real-world application (either directly or over time). Our recent report provides more information on the translation pipeline in mental health research.
Translational opportunities may include:
- considerations for improving mental health interventions (for example, psychotropic medications) in the context of heat
- integration of mental health consideration in heat adaptation plans and the integration of heat considerations within mental health policies
- better understanding of the development, maintenance, and resolution of anxiety, depression and psychosis under the stressor of heat with implications for possible new or improved early interventions
Collaboration between mental health scientists and climate scientists
Projects must bring together climate scientists and mental health scientists as well as additional expertise as relevant, including but not limited to:
- climate scientists
- meteorologists/biometeorologists
- psychiatrists, psychologists and social scientists
- science, technology, engineering and mathematics
- humanities (for example, historians and ethicists)
- epidemiologists
- lived experience experts
- clinical and allied health sciences
- experimental medicine
- neuroscientists
Each project must have a minimum of one climate scientist and one mental health scientist as part of the core team (the lead applicant and coapplicants).
Lived experience involvement
Research proposals must involve lived experience expertise of anxiety, depression and/or psychosis unless there is a strong justification for not doing so.
We recognise that there is a range of ways that research teams can involve and collaborate with lived experience experts. This may include, but is not limited to:
- expert advisors
- coapplicants
- collaborators
- advisory group members
We are open to any methods of involvement that teams choose but lived experience experts must be involved in the most appropriate and ethical ways to inform multiple aspects and stages of the research project.
Lived experience experts should be engaged as colleagues who use their personal knowledge and expertise to inform the strategic direction, governance, design and delivery of the research.
Projects with human participants must use, as a minimum, one or more of our recommended common measures in the collection of new data. You may also collect data using any other measure(s).
This work must also comply with our policy on research involving human participants.
Kinds of research that are not right for this call
Research that is not right for this call includes projects that:
- focus on evaluating the efficacy or effectiveness of an intervention
- focus mainly on environmental variables that are not heat (for example, cold temperatures or air pollution)
- focus on other conditions besides anxiety, depression and psychosis (for example, projects where the primary focus is on neurodevelopmental conditions, neurodegenerative conditions and mental health conditions outside of the broad categories of anxiety, depression and/or psychosis)
- propose methods that would only allow for correlation/associative insights into mechanisms rather than causal insights
- focus on populations that are not most impacted in the context under investigation
- are prevalence studies exploring different rates of mental health problems under different environmental conditions (for example, hot and cold climates) but do not test mechanisms
- focus on a mechanism that has no direct or indirect evidence for its link to heat and mental health
- do not have appropriate expertise from both mental health and climate sciences
- do not comply with Wellcome’s research environment principles of open science and relevant diverse inputs
Research costs we'll cover
You can ask Wellcome to pay for:
Lead applicant
If you are based in the UK or Republic of Ireland at a higher education institute (HEI), research institute or non-academic healthcare organisation, you cannot ask for your salary.
If you are based at a charity, non-governmental organisation (NGO) or social enterprise, you can ask for a contribution to your salary, equal to the time you will spend on the award.
If you are based outside of the UK or Republic of Ireland, you can ask for a contribution to your salary if you 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
Coapplicants must contribute at least 20% of their research time to this programme.
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.
Your host organisation must confirm:
- that the coapplicant’s employment contract states they must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- that they will underwrite the post, including any salary costs not covered by Wellcome, 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. In this case, 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. In this case, they can request salary proportionate to the time they will spend on the grant. The host 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 post graduate research assistants. If they are to spend 100% of their time on the award, their post does not need to be underwritten by the host 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
- experts with lived experience
- 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
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 this 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/Research Masters 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 PhD/Research Masters fees. Each applicant can ask for fees for up to two research assistants or technicians in total on the grant, to a maximum of eight per team. Early-career applicants (up to and including holders of early-career fellowships) may not supervise a PhD student alone but can be a co-supervisor with a mid-career or established colleague. If fees are not requested at the application stage grant funds cannot be repurposed for them during the award.
Research assistants/technicians should be defined as staff members and incur a lower fee than the student rate. Where organisations do not have a staff rate, they may request fees at the home student rate. If no other rate is available, they may request the international student rate.
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 an 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.
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 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
We do cover these costs if related to animal housing facilities.
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
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
- cost effective and environmentally sustainable 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 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.
We will provide funds if you need to outsource project work to:
- contract research organisations
- other fee-for-service providers
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.
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.
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a higher education institution, a research institute, a non-academic healthcare organisation, a not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation or a small company.
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:
- Lead applicant – £2,000 a year
- Coapplicants – £2,000 each a year
- Staff employed on the 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. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.
Carbon offset costs
This applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.
You can ask for:
- the cost of a low carbon mode of transport, even if it 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 host 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 environmental sustainability policy for what you and your organisation can 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 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. 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 organisation, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a higher education institution, a research institute, a non-academic healthcare organisation, a not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation or a small company.
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, even if it’s more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying). We will not pay for business class flights.
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 environmental sustainability policy 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
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 environmental sustainability 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 570 hours a year 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 environmental sustainability policy
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 environmental sustainability 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.
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 collaborating with people with lived experience, patient involvement (including under-served groups) and community engagement
- dissemination of research results and findings arising from Wellcome funded research and workshops
For more information, please refer to our guidance on using an engaged research approach.
If you are involving people with lived experience at the application design stage, you cannot include a consultation charge for this work. Wellcome will not be held responsible for any costs associated with the production of a response to this funding call.
We expect people with lived experience involved in approved applications to be appropriately compensated or paid for their time. The budget that must be requested during the application process should include appropriate remuneration for lived experience experts and costs for involvement.
We cannot advise on ways to appropriately compensate or pay people with lived experience, as approaches differ between organisations and contexts. However, when thinking about appropriate compensation or payment, we would encourage you to think about the experience, knowledge, and skills that someone will be bringing to the project, as well as their responsibility within the process. Make sure that you have appropriately budgeted for the costs needed to support meaningful involvement, as set out in your proposal. For example, this could include (but not be limited to):
- consultant fees for lived experience experts on the project
- travel costs
- salary costs for lived experience researchers embedded in a team
- expenses to support meetings or workshops
It is not possible for us to advise on social security, in terms of people with lived experience being paid for their involvement, as the arrangements will be different in different countries. It is the responsibility of the research team to ensure that they are abiding by any relevant regulations in their context, and we would encourage you to seek advice from relevant local organisations if needed.
You can ask for overheads if your grant will be based at a:
- university outside the UK
- 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.
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
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a higher education institution, a research institute, a non-academic healthcare organisation, a not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation or a small company.
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
- understanding and reducing the environmental impact of research
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 only and
- working on Wellcome funded awards for at least 50% full time equivalent
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 a post of 12 months duration or more only and
- working on Wellcome funded awards for at least 50% full time equivalent
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
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.
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.
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 | 1.01% |
| 25-36 | 2.04% |
| 37-48 | 3.09% |
| 49-60 | 4.13% |
| 61-72 | 5.20% |
| 73-84 | 6.28% |
| 85-96 | 7.38% |
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.
Allowed costs
You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them in your application):
- specialist publications that are relevant to the research and not available in institutional libraries
- consultancy fees, including for lived experience experts
- 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
- public engagement materials where dissemination (including printing and publishing) is a key activity of the project
- 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 hosting:
- a conference
- a session within a conference
- a symposium
- a seminar series
- advisory board meetings, if appropriate
- The meeting should either be:
- for research purposes, for example data gathering
- to 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*
- 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
- cleaning, waste and other disposal costs*
- 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
- Make sure you read everything on this page.
- You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application. There is an option to check if your project is within the scope of this funding call.
- If this is the first time your organisation is applying for Wellcome funding, please contact fundingsupport@wellcome.org at least three days before the deadline to add your organisation to the system.
- Watch the recording of the funding webinar we held about this award (recorded on 9 October 2024).
Submit your application to your administering organisation for approval
- Complete your application form on Wellcome Funding.
- Submit it to the 'authorised 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 approves and submits it to Wellcome
- Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (GMT) on the deadline day, 21 January 2025.
Shortlisting
- We will check your eligibility for the call and that your proposed research is within the call’s scope of funding. If your application is ineligible or is not within the funding scope, we will withdraw your application and contact you to explain why.
- A committee will assess eligible and in-scope applications against the assessment criteria outlined on this page, to make shortlisting 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.
- If your application is shortlisted, we will invite you for interview. We anticipate shortlisting decisions to be sent to applicants in March 2025. Interviews will be held virtually.
Written expert review
- We will seek external written expert review on shortlisted applications. Reviewers will be selected based on their expertise within the relevant research field and not on their level of seniority.
- Unattributed comments will be sent to shortlisted applicants before the interview.
Interview
- The committee will interview shortlisted applicants online and make funding recommendations to Wellcome. Interviews are scheduled to take place 28-30 May 2025.
- The lead applicant will attend the interview, accompanied by up to three coapplicants.
- Accessibility requirements will be accommodated.
- You will be asked to give a presentation at the start of your interview. Details of the requirements for this presentation, and the date when slides need to be submitted to Wellcome, will be shared in advance.
- We will provide further information on the structure of the interview and committee membership before the interview.
- The focus of the interview will be on questions and answers. The committee will assess the application against the full set of assessment criteria, rather than one specific aspect of the proposal.
- The committee will consider your application, the expert reviewers’ comments and interview responses when making funding recommendations to Wellcome.
Funding decision
- Final funding decisions will be made by Wellcome’s Mental Health and Climate and Health Teams.
- You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made in June 2025.
- The reasons for a decision will be provided to unsuccessful interviewed applicants in writing.
Timing considerations for your application
You must leave enough time for:
- reading everything on this page before applying
- you and your coapplicants to complete the application
- your administering organisation to review and submit the application
- the authorised organisational approver at your administering organisation to approve and submit your application to Wellcome by 17.00 GMT on the deadline day
Where to apply
Apply for this scheme on the Wellcome Funding platform. You can save your application and return to it at any time.
How applications are assessed
For consistency, we will evaluate all applications using the same weighted assessment criteria.
Essential criteria and weightings
There are four weighted assessment criteria for applications:
research question(s), proposed methodology and translation (55%)
suitability and expertise of the team (15%)
lived experience involvement (15%)
suitability of research location and approach to research environment (15%)
Research question(s), proposed methodology and translation (55% weighting)
Potential and impact
- The proposed research will lead to an increased understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the relationship between heat and anxiety, depression and/or psychosis.
Rationale and strength of evidence
- There is evidence that heat negatively impacts anxiety, depression and/or psychosis through the proposed mechanism.
- There is a clear rationale for using the specific measure/conceptualization of heat proposed and this is relevant as a stressor in the context of climate change.
- There is a clear rationale for why the community of study is considered to be most impacted in context.
- The rationale for choosing a particular mental health outcome includes evidence that the outcome is considered relevant and important to people with lived experience who are most applicable to your research (a brief rationale is sufficient).
Proposed methodology
- The research design clearly addresses the research question(s) and proposed hypothesis, seeking to gain causal insights on how heat affects the selected mental health outcomes.
- The research design features methods that make causal inferences rather than infer associations between heat and mental health.
- The project is well-designed and feasible using the resources and timelines proposed (for example, a recruitment plan is in place and is achievable and all components of the project have been appropriately costed).
- The project includes work on most impacted populations. The study design should ensure the population is appropriately represented (for example, through sampling approaches, study site selection, inclusion/exclusion criteria or sub-group analyses).
Path to translation
- The project will contribute (directly or in the future) towards translational research resulting in either climate resilient solutions and/or mental health interventions. We have produced a report to help researchers in mental health consider the translational impact of their research from the earliest stages.
- This could include, for example:
- providing evidence that directly influences policy (for example, heat action plans)
- public engagement activities to raise awareness of the links between heat and mental health and underlying mechanisms
- a small pilot of an intervention that addresses the mechanism(s) under investigation (for example, a heat adaptation technique, a proof of concept for improved mental health interventions such as a psychotropic medication)
- developing a screening tool to assess risk of heat induced mental health problems
- development and validation of a new measure
- The application identifies possible translational partners that could undertake this work.
- The potential for scale-up across different settings and the potential impact of the translational implication should be taken into consideration.
Suitability and expertise of the team (15% weighting)
The project features an integrated, collaborative plan of work that includes climate scientists, mental health scientists and individuals with lived experience.
The lead applicant has (appropriate to their career stage):
- research experience relevant to the project, as shown through research outputs and/or preliminary data
- the experience needed to drive and lead a collaborative, large-scale research project and/or the necessary support structures in place to enable this
- experience of people and research management
The coapplicant(s) has/have:
- the expertise, time and resources needed to deliver the project, with their contribution to the project being significant and justified
The team:
- has the necessary expertise and technical skills, as well as the appropriate variety of disciplines and perspectives, to deliver the proposed project
- includes lived experience experts and/or has the necessary skills to effectively involve and collaborate with people with lived experience of mental health problems in the different stages of the proposed research
- has members who are all necessary to deliver the proposed research and there is proof of concept that the proposed collaboration will be feasible and effective (for example, the team has appropriate management plans in place describing how the collaboration will be equitably organised and managed day-to-day)
- has contributed towards and is committed to fostering a positive and inclusive research environment, which demonstrates a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion
Lived experience involvement (15% weighting)
- People with lived experience are meaningfully involved at multiple stages, including the conception, planning, design, delivery and dissemination of the project. There is a clear rationale for their inclusion (or exclusion) at each stage. You can access guidance on embedding lived experience expertise in your research.
- Lived experience perspectives are represented across the project, including in leadership and governance roles.
- Lived experience experts have relevant experience and expertise applicable to the research, including being representative of the research location.
- People with lived experience are compensated appropriately for their time.
Suitability of research location and approach to research environment (15% weighting)
Research location
- The administering organisation is supportive of the research project. For example, it aligns with the organisation’s strategy and it provides in-kind or financial support in the form of PhD students, administrative or technical support, and training opportunities.
- The applicants have access to the necessary research infrastructure.
Research environment
- The application provides a detailed description of how the team will foster a positive and inclusive research culture. This could include, but is not limited to, information about:
- development
- research practices
- leadership
- appropriate safeguarding measures for team members and collaborators, including people with lived experience
- There is a clear plan on how to manage an integrated collaborative project.
Ethical, open, equitable and engaged research conduct
The application provides:
- An implementation plan with details about appropriate oversight, governance, monitoring, standard operating procedures and methods for course correction (as needed).
- A detailed description of a suitable outputs management plan.
- Information about how the research outputs will be made available to those who need them (for example, policymakers, communities and industry) and in which formats.
- Details about the relevant ethical, social and cultural implications of the proposed work, and how the study team plans to manage these issues, both in the conduct and oversight of the study and in the communication of its findings.
Key dates
Application process timeline
You must submit your application by 17:00 GMT on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.
- Week commencing 30 September 2024
Full details of the award are published and the call opens to applications
- 9 October 2024, 9:30 - 10:30 BSTWatch the recording
Funding webinar
- 31 October 2024
Neuromatch deadline
- 18 December 2024
Scope check deadline
- 21 January 2025
Application deadline
- March 2025
Shortlisting
- 28 - 30 May 2025
Interviews
Interviews will be held virtually.
- June 2025
Funding decision
Downloads
Contact us
Scope questions
If you are unclear about whether your proposed idea would be in scope for this call, you can send a very brief summary of your idea (no more than 200 words) to us by 18 December 2024.
Please include the title of the call (Climate and Mental Health Award) in the subject line.
Based on the information provided, we will aim to reply to your email within one week, with an 'in scope' or 'out of scope' response.
We do not answer questions on the competitiveness of proposals.
Please note that this is not a requirement and will not impact your likelihood of being funded. The confirmation that a proposed idea is in scope does not constitute an active invitation to apply for the call.
Questions on eligibility, what we offer and applications
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer or about completing the application form using Wellcome Funding, send our funding information advisers a message.