Postdoctoral Research Training Fellowships for Clinicians (Closed)

Who can apply

You can apply for a Postdoctoral Research Training Fellowship if you’ve taken one of the following career paths: 

• You undertook a PhD early in your career and want to refresh your research skills.

You’ll have graduated with a MB/PhD qualification, or achieved a high-quality PhD in a relevant subject, either during or before starting your initial clinical qualification.

Medical and dental candidates should have completed foundation training, and demonstrated significant progress towards gaining the core clinical competencies that would be expected of a speciality trainee/academic clinical fellow.

• You recently completed a PhD and wish to gain high-quality postdoctoral training experience

You’ll have completed, or be about to complete, a higher degree (preferably a PhD), or you’ll have no more than two years’ postdoctoral experience from the date of your PhD viva to the full application deadline.

Medical or dental candidates should have a national training number (NTN) or a certificate of completion of training (CCT), or the equivalent.

Veterinary candidates should have a degree in veterinary medicine (eg BVSc, BVM&S, BVMS, BVetMed or VetMB) and some experience in clinical practice.

Clinical psychology candidates should have a professional doctorate-level qualification in clinical psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society.

GP candidates should contact us to clarify their eligibility.

All candidates for this fellowship should also have:

• a strong track record in their area of research 
• sponsorship from an eligible host organisation in the UK or Republic of Ireland 
• a research project that is within our scientific remit 

If you've been away from research (eg for a career break, maternity leave, or long-term sick leave), we'll allow for this when we consider your application. If you've taken formal maternity, paternity, adoption or long-term sick leave, we’ll allow an extra six months for each period of leave when we consider your postdoctoral experience.

Who can't apply

You can’t normally apply if you: 

• hold an established academic post – we’re willing to consider a preliminary application if you have a strong justification for moving to a different organisation 
• hold a fellowship at an equivalent level, supported by another UK funding body
• are currently applying for another Wellcome Trust fellowship.

If you’ve already been unsuccessful with a full application for this scheme, please contact us before you apply again.

What we're looking for

Our reviewers will assess:

• your track record and aptitude for a career as a clinical academic
• the scientific merit and feasibility of your proposed project
• the suitability of your sponsor and research environment.

What's expected of your host organisation

You must have an eligible sponsoring organisation in the UK or Republic of Ireland that will administer your fellowship. You must also have:

• a sponsor who holds an established post (or an honorary academic appointment) at your sponsoring organisation and is committed to helping you achieve your career aspirations
• a research sponsor in every laboratory you work in, who’ll offer you scientific guidance, space and access to resources
• a mentor who’ll provide you with independent support and advice.

You should give careful thought to your choice of supervisor, mentor and research sponsor. They should have strong track records in research and mentorship, provide guidance during the application process and support during the fellowship. Your sponsor can also be your research sponsor or mentor, but one person can’t do all three roles.

If you propose to work mainly in a low- or middle-income country, you must identify an eligible training organisation and sponsor in that location

A Postdoctoral Research Training Fellowship is usually for two to four years, depending on whether you’re planning to reintegrate into your clinical training programme. The fellowship may be held on a part-time basis. Awards are normally from £250,000 to £400,000. The support includes

• a basic salary (determined by your host organisation) during the research-dedicated years

  During any period in which you're reintegrating into your clinical training programme, the Trust and the relevant clinical training authority will fund your salary on a shared basis. If you hold - or are awarded - an Honorary Clinical Contract, we'll consider a salary at consultant level.

  You should ask your host organisation to calculate your salary. It should reflect the skills, responsibilities and expertise needed to carry out the role, and include:

  • your basic salary
  • employer’s contributions, including any statutory obligations (eg National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs
  • any incremental progression up the salary scale
  • locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.

  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. For Year 1 include any known pay awards for this period or an assumed percentage equivalent to our current inflation rate of 1.6% if this hasn’t been confirmed.

  From Year 2 onwards, we will automatically increase your salary, based on our current inflation allowance rates.

   

  We will also provide:

  • - a fellowship supplement of £2,500 a year if you are a veterinary graduate who will be paid on a non-clinical salary scale
  • - the extra employer's contributions needed to cover the supplement.

  The supplement is fixed. It won’t be increased each year.

  Find out more about employing staff.

• personal removal expenses

  If you have to move to take up the post at your host organisation, you can ask for £1,000. You'll need to justify this.

• research expenses

  • staff

    In exceptional circumstances, you can ask for funding for a research assistant or technician to work full-time or part-time on your project. This will usually be one post, but if you’re doing fieldwork or clinical studies in a low- or middle-income country, we’ll consider requests for more research staff.

    How to cost salaries for research staff

    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 (eg National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs
    • any incremental progression up the salary scale
    • locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.

    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. For Year 1 include any known pay awards for this period or an assumed percentage equivalent to our current inflation rate of 2.0% if this hasn’t been confirmed.

    From Year 2 onwards, we’ll automatically increase the salaries, based on our current inflation allowance rates.

    Find out more about the different staff categories and employing staff.

    We may make a contribution towards the salary of departmental technicians funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and its equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. You will need to provide a full audit record of their time on your project.

  • materials and consumables

    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.

  • animals

    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.

  • equipment

    Equipment purchase

    You can ask for smaller items of equipment that are essential to your proposed project. Costs may include purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training, where necessary.

    If you want to request larger items, please contact us before applying.

    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.

    Equipment maintenance

    We will cover maintenance costs for equipment if:

    • you are requesting it in your application
    • it is existing equipment that is:
      • funded by us or another source
      • essential to the proposed research project
      • more than five years old
      • cost effective to keep maintaining it.

    We won’t cover maintenance costs for equipment if there is a mechanism in place to recoup these costs through access charges.

    Computer equipment

    We will cover the cost of one personal computer or laptop per person up to £1,500.

    We won't pay for:

    • more expensive items, unless you can justify them
    • installation or training costs.

  • access charges

    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.

  • travel and subsistence

    Travel costs

    Conference attendance

    You can ask for a contribution of up to £1,500 a year towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees.

    Collaborative travel

    We provide travel and subsistence costs for UK and overseas visits to collaborators, and for collaborators to visit your laboratory. 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.

    Overseas research

    If you’ll be doing research away from your home laboratory, you can ask for:

    • return travel costs
    • subsistence costs if you’ll be away from your host organisation for less than 12 months (see below for more information)
    • overseas allowances if you’ll be away from your host organisation for 12 months or more.

    You should use the most suitable and economical form of travel. Please include a breakdown for each part of your trip eg air fares and number of journeys.

    Subsistence costs

    If you're working overseas or away from your host organisation for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs.

    These include a daily allowance for living expenses.

    If your host organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.

    If your host organisation doesn't have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.

    You can ask for:

    • outward and return airfares

      We will pay the airfares at the beginning and end of your time abroad, for you, and if justified, your partner and dependent children. All flights should be economy class.  

    • freight allowance

      We will pay up to 80kg of additional airline baggage or unaccompanied airline freight for your outward and return journey.

    • health insurance (if you will be based outside the UK or Republic of Ireland)

      Your health insurance should be comprehensive and include emergency evacuation cover (if necessary) for you, your partner and dependent children.

    • visa/vaccination costs

      visa/vaccination costs and any anti-malarial treatment for you, your partner and dependent children

    If you're away for more than one month but less than 12 months, you can also ask for:

    • rental costs

      reasonable actual rental costs (instead of subsistence)

    • housing security costs

      You can ask for these if you'll be based in a low- or middle-income country and they are necessary. Costs include guards, panic buttons and alarms. You should ask your employer for advice on the level of costs.

    If you're away for more than one month, receive a salary from an organisation in a low- or middle-income country and will be based in a high-income country, you can also ask for:

    up to £10 a day to cover any extra costs, eg transport.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • overseas allowances

    If you or any staff will be spending more than 12 months in another country, we’ll help you with the costs of working on the project overseas.

    Our overseas allowances are based 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.

    We have 2 categories of allowances for this scheme:

    • 1. You are employed in the UK and will be working in a low- or middle-income country, including one of our Africa and Asia Programmes

      You need to provide the following costs, as accurately as possible.

      • outward and return airfares

        We will pay the airfares at the beginning and end of your time abroad, for you, your partner and dependent children. All flights should be economy class.  

      • freight allowance up to £8,000 (£4,000 each way)
      • BUPA Worldwide Medical Insurance with the Option of Worldwide Medical Plus, including emergency evacuation cover for you and your family
      • visa/vaccination costs and anti-malarial treatment for you, your partner and dependent children

      • a contribution towards housing costs

        Up to:

        • £3,000 a year if you are single
        • £4,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
        • £5,000 a year if your children are travelling with you

        If you will be working at one of the Africa and Asia Programmes you can ask for a higher contribution. You should ask the programme administrators for advice on the level of costs you can ask for.

      • housing security costs

      • education allowance

        We will give you an education allowance if you will:

        • have dependent children travelling with you 
        • be working in a location where there isn’t a free education in English of the same standard as the UK.

        The allowance covers:

        • 90% of nursery school fees for 3 to 4 year olds up to a maximum of 15 hours a week
        • 90% of local junior school fees
        • 90% of local secondary school fees
        • 90% of UK boarding school fees if both parents and/or guardians will be living outside the UK                   
        • economy class return airfares for any children at a UK boarding school, at the beginning and end of each school term.

        The allowance doesn’t cover:

        • education costs for your children over the age of 18, once they have finished secondary school, eg university fees.

      • annual leave airfares

        If you are spending two or more years in another country, we’ll pay a contribution towards annual leave airfares for you, your partner and dependent children to return to the UK.

        The number of return flights we’ll pay for depends on how long you’ll be spending overseas:

        • 24-35 months: 1 annual leave flight
        • 36-47 months: 2 annual leave flights
        • 48-59 months: 3 annual leave flights

        Flights should be economy class.

    • 2. You are employed in the UK and will be working in a high-income country

      You need to provide the costs for outward and return airfares, health insurance and education allowance if you need them. These should be as accurate as possible. We will work out the other costs.

      • outward and return airfares

        Your funds can cover the airfares at the beginning and end of your time abroad, for you, your partner and dependent children. All flights should be economy class.  

      freight allowance up to £8,000 (£4,000 each way)

      BUPA Worldwide Medical Insurance with the Option of Worldwide Medical Plus for you and your family

      a contribution of £200 towards visa/vaccination costs for you, your partner and dependent children

      • a contribution towards housing costs

        Up to:

        • £3,000 a year if you are single
        • £4,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
        • £5,000 a year if your children are travelling with you

      • education allowance

        You can use the funds to cover an education allowance if you will:

        • have dependent children travelling with you 
        • be working in a location where there isn’t a free education in English of the same standard as the UK.

        The allowance can cover:

        • 90% of nursery school fees for 3 to 4 year olds up to a maximum of 15 hours a week
        • 90% of local junior school fees
        • 90% of local secondary school fees
        • 90% of UK boarding school fees if both parents and/or guardians will be living outside the UK                   
        • economy class return airfares for any children at a UK boarding school, at the beginning and end of each school term.

        The allowance can't cover education costs:

        • if you'll be working in an English-speaking high-income country as you will usually have access to suitable public/state schools for your children
        • education costs for your children over the age of 18, once they have finished secondary school, eg university fees.

      • annual leave airfares

        If you are spending two or more years in another country, you can use some of your funds towards annual leave airfares for you, your partner and dependent children to return to the UK.

        The rates are:

        • £500 a year if you are single
        • £1,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
        • £1,300 a year if your children are travelling with you

        The number of return flights it can cover depends on how long you’ll be spending overseas:

        • 24-35 months: 1 annual leave flight
        • 36-47 months: 2 annual leave flights
        • 48-59 months: 3 annual leave flights

        Flights should be economy class.

  • fieldwork expenses

    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.

  • Flexible Funding Allowance

    Your grant includes a Flexible Funding Allowance (FFA), which you can use to pay for unanticipated costs. These can include directly incurred costs of your research, such as:

    • consumables, animals or equipment
    • the actual salary costs of people supported on your award
    • extending the award by a short period
    • page charges and/or costs for colour prints in journals (charges not related to the cost of making a paper compliant with our open access policy).

    You don’t have to apply for an FFA. We calculate it and add it to your award.

    The FFA is 2.5% of your total eligible costs and does not include an inflation allowance. It is capped at £50,000.

  • inflation allowance

    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. You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars.

    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.

  • open access charges

    If your organisation receives block funding through the UK’s Charity Open Access Fund (COAF) you can ask them to cover your open access article processing charges.

    If you're based at an organisation that doesn't receive COAF 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.

  • clinical research costs

    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.

  • other costs

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

    • 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
    • formal transferable skills and personal development training, including the International Funders Award
    • 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*
    • PhD stipends
    • 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.

    Costs grantholders can claim on biomedical science research grants.

You can also apply for Research Enrichment funding to increase the impact of your work through activities in public engagement and diversity and inclusion.

If you’re based in a low- or middle-income country, we’ll provide appropriate allowances.

If you’re awarded this fellowship

The fellowship is designed to be flexible to your research/clinical training requirements. In your application, you should include provision for two to three years of full-time research.

You may want to integrate up to 12 months of clinical training into your fellowship (ie split your research and clinical duties for up to a total of 12 months). For example, you can apply for:

• four years' support, with years one and two dedicated to research, with research time decreasing to 50 per cent in year three and 25 per cent in year four
• three years' support, with two years dedicated to research, and one year with a 50:50 split between research and clinical duties.

During the research-focused years of the fellowship, your sponsor should not expect you to spend more than eight hours or two programmed activities a week on clinical work.

After completing one year of this fellowship, you can apply for enhancement funds. These funds allow you to explore new opportunities or paths of discovery, or support unanticipated costs.

What we don’t offer

We don’t provide funding for examination or course fees.

We don't fund on a proportion of full economic costs in UK universities.

Dates

This scheme has now closed to new applicants. See our Clinical Research Career Development Fellowships.