This scheme funds PhD programmes that offer health professionals outstanding research training in supportive and inclusive research environments.
Fellows' salaries, fees and other costs
Five annual intakes of fellows, starting in autumn 2022
You can apply for this award if you're the proposed director of a PhD programme for health professionals.
The programme you propose must aim to provide outstanding research training in supportive and inclusive research environments.
The programme must have one director who is the lead applicant. It can also include additional co-directors.
The director and any co-directors must:
The programme must be administered by an eligible host organisation in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
Programmes can:
You can apply either for a new programme or to renew an existing Wellcome PhD Programme for Clinicians.
The programme must provide training in research within our new vision and strategy. This includes discovery research as well as research within our health challenges.
Programmes can focus on any discipline – including science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), clinical research and experimental medicine, and humanities and social science – as long as the research is related to health.
Programmes can be broad or focused on a specific research theme (for example, data science) or clinical specialty (for example, primary care).
The programme must be open to all registered health professionals unless specifically designed around the needs of a particular group.
Building a better research culture must be central to your programme.
Programmes must have:
In addition, for programmes to be competitive they should have:
If your organisation is applying to host more than one PhD programme:
Your organisation can also be part of multiple applications in which they are not the host organisation.
You must submit a separate application form for each programme.
If you are applying to renew an existing Wellcome-funded PhD programme, your application will be considered in competition with all the other applications.
You can't apply for this award if you're looking for funding to do your own PhD – see our PhD Training Fellowships for Clinicians instead.
You must provide evidence of institutional commitment to deliver and sustain the programme and to promote a positive research culture. We expect organisations to:
If different groups of applicants want to apply for a single-centre programme at the same organisation, the organisation must prioritise potential applications and decide which one to submit to us.
We'll provide funding for five annual intakes of fellows for each PhD programme.
Each intake should have three to five fellows.
Each PhD fellowship is for three years, which should include dedicated time for maintaining clinical skills.
We expect successful programmes to plan their recruitment so that the first fellows start their training in autumn 2022.
We will make a single award for each programme, based on the number of fellows in each intake. For each fellow, we will provide support for:
We'll also make a fixed contribution towards:
For more information, read our Frequently asked questions about PhD Programmes for Health Professionals [PDF 283KB].
We don't fund overheads.
We don’t provide administrative costs.
We don't fund Master's courses.
You must submit your application through the Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker (WTGT)(opens in a new tab).
Complete the application form on Grant Tracker and submit it to the 'authorised organisational approver' at your host 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.
You can view a PDF version of the online form here: Sample full application form for PhD Programmes for Health Professionals [PDF 176KB]
The lead applicant on the form must be the proposed director.
On the application form, you must provide an ORCID ID for each proposed supervisor. Supervisors must make sure that any relevant information is up to date and visible to everyone. At a minimum, we need to be able to see current positions and publication records. In addition, you must upload CV information for ten of the proposed supervisors. Please use our Supervisor CV template for PhD Programmes for Health Professionals [DOCX 28KB]. CVs must be uploaded as a single PDF document.
You must also upload a letter of institutional support from the vice chancellor(s) or equivalent on behalf of the host organisation(s).
Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (GMT) on the deadline day.
Wellcome staff will assess your application. If your proposal is eligible and suitable, you will be invited to an interview.
The PhD Programmes for Health Professionals Committee will interview invited applicants. Details will be available nearer the time.
We'll give you a decision by the end of August 2021.
If you are disabled or have a chronic health condition, we can support you with the application process.
What you need to know if you're a grant applicant or grantholder
Log in to our online grants system (Grant Tracker). You can save your application and return to it any time.
You must submit your application by 17:00 GMT on the deadline day. We don't accept late applications.
Closed to new applications
See 'How to apply' on this page for a recording
If you have a general question about this scheme, contact our information officers:
for questions about the scope or content of your proposal, please contact the funding team:
Watch a webinar recording about PhD Programmes for Health Professionals(opens in a new tab), which took place on 14 January 2021.