Innovator Awards: Digital Technologies (Closed)

We will cover the salary costs of all staff, full or part time, who will work on your project. Staff members typically include research assistants or technicians employed on your grant. If you’re doing fieldwork or clinical studies in a low- or middle-income country, we’ll consider requests for more research staff.

We don’t usually provide a salary for the lead applicant for this scheme. But if you, or any applicants, hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract and have to get your salary from external grant funding, you can ask us for this in your application. See the ‘Eligibility and suitability’ section above for more information.

We don't provide studentship stipends.

Visa and work permit costs

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 if you can justify these
Immigration Health Surcharge costs for the person, their partner and dependent children if they will be in the UK for six months or more.

We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your proposed research, including:

laboratory chemicals and materials (eg reagents, isotopes, peptides, enzymes, antibodies, gases, proteins, cell/tissue/bacterial culture, plasticware and glassware)
associated charges for shipping, delivery and freight
project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting.

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 doesn’t 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, eg contributions towards the salaries of animal house technicians.

We won’t provide estates or depreciation costs.

You can ask for the cost of access to shared equipment or facilities if they’re essential to your research 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 eg 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.

We've changed our overheads policy for grant applications submitted from 1 October 2019. Read our updated policy and the 'How to ask for these costs' section below.

How to ask for these costs

This process applies if you’re now eligible to ask for overhead costs.

In your 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, confirming that the breakdown is a true representation of the costs incurred.

Our previous policy

This information applies to grant applications submitted up to 30 September 2019.

We cover research management and support costs if:

your host organisation is in a low- or middle-income country and your grant will be directly awarded to that organisation,

or

part of your grant will be sub-contracted to an organisation in a low- or middle-income country.

We don't cover these costs if your host organisation will include the sub-contracted funding in its annual report to the UK Charity Research Support Fund.

They can include:

training costs, eg transferable skills and personal development training for you and any other people employed on your grant
costs for short-term professional training for administrative, technical and support staff
administration, eg grant management, technical and administrative services
other costs which are necessary for your research, eg computing and internet access costs, access to electronic resources, facility and running costs such as utilities, furniture, waste disposal and incineration, and building maintenance.

The total research management and support costs should not be more than 20% of the direct research costs you're requesting.

See a list of low- and middle-income countries.

You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a university, a not-for-profit organisation or a small company.

Travel costs

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
Applicants who are asking for a salary on the grant – £2,000 a year
Staff employed on your grant – £1,000 each a year

You’ll need to specify the amount you’re requesting for each person.

You can also ask for costs to cover caring responsibilities if any staff employed on your grant attend a conference. This includes childcare and any other caring responsibility they have, provided:

Wellcome is paying their 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, eg to facilities, for sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.

Carbon offset costs

This is a new policy. It applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.

You can ask for:

the cost of low carbon travel where practical, even if it's 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 of the journeys you make.

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 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 (eg 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 laboratory, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.

We'll help you with the additional costs of working on the project overseas if you are:

applying from a university, a not-for-profit organisation or a small company
you or any staff employed on your grant will be spending time in another country.

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.

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 (eg 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 (eg 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 Grants Management.

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.
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 will provide funds if you need to outsource project work to:

contract research organisations
other fee-for-service providers.

If you are applying from a university we will add an inflation allowance to your award.

How we calculate your inflation allowance

Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award. If the costs in your application are in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars, you’ll receive the following allowance:

Award duration (in months)	Inflation allowance
0-12	0.0%
13-24	1.0%
25-36	2.0%
37-48	3.0%
49-60	4.1%
61-72	5.1%
73-84	6.2%

These rates are calculated using compound inflation at 2.0% a year from Year 2 onwards.

If your costs are in any other currency, we will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based.

What to include in your application

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 our inflation rate.

Wellcome's studentship stipend scales for non-clinical/basic science PhD studentships include an annual increase for inflation.

: If your organisation receives block funding, you can ask them to cover your open access article processing charges.

If you're at an organisation that doesn't receive block grant funding, we’ll supplement your grant when your paper has been accepted for publication.

You can't ask for these charges in your grant application.

: We will cover the costs for an experienced project manager. They will be responsible for managing and coordinating the day-to-day project activities and communications within your organisation and between collaborators and sub-contractors.

: If you need to carry out clinical trials or 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 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.

Further information on our clinical trials policy.

Costs you may ask for (you will have to justify these costs in your application):

fieldwork costs, including survey and data collection and statistical analysis
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
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.

Costs we won’t pay:

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*
charge-out costs for major facilities* – departmental technical and administrative services, and use of existing equipment
cleaning, waste and other disposal costs*

*We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.

indirect costs – this includes general administration costs such as personnel, finance, library, room hire and some departmental services
office furniture, such as chairs, desks, filing cabinets, etc.
clothing such as lab coats, shoes, protective clothing
non-research related activities, eg 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.

cloud computing resources

data storage

Innovator Awards: Digital Technologies (Closed)

Scheme at a glance

This scheme is now closed

Who can apply

What we’re looking for

Multidisciplinary collaborations and partnerships

Your proposal

Past and current innovations award holders

Who can't apply

Visa and work permit costs

How to ask for these costs

Our previous policy

Travel costs

Conference attendance

Collaborative travel

Other travel

Carbon offset costs

Subsistence costs

Overseas research

How we calculate your inflation allowance

What to include in your application

What we don’t offer

Stages of application

Read our application guidance

Submit your full application

Shortlisting

Review

Decision

Terms and conditions

Disabled applicants

Dates

Scheme opens to applications

Applications deadline

Shortlisting

Review

Scheme at a glance

This scheme is now closed

Eligibility and suitability

Who can apply

What we’re looking for

Multidisciplinary collaborations and partnerships

Your proposal

Past and current innovations award holders

Who can't apply

What we offer

Visa and work permit costs

How to ask for these costs

Our previous policy

Travel costs

Conference attendance

Collaborative travel

Other travel

Carbon offset costs

Subsistence costs

Overseas research

How we calculate your inflation allowance

What to include in your application

What we don’t offer

How to apply

Stages of application

Read our application guidance

Submit your full application

Shortlisting

Review

Decision

Terms and conditions

Disabled applicants

Dates

Scheme opens to applications

Applications deadline

Shortlisting

Review

Contact us