This scheme provides support for postdoctoral researchers who aim to become independent scientists leading their own groups. The scheme is a partnership between the Royal Society and the Wellcome Trust.
The way we fund research is changing to support our new strategy. A simplified set of funding schemes will be open for applications in summer 2021.
This scheme will close to applicants during 2021. See 'key dates' on this page for the final application deadline.
Usually up to around £1.2 million, including salary and research expenses
5 years (see the 'What we offer' section on this page for an update on extensions)
This scheme will close in 2021. These are the final dates.
3 September 2020, 17:00 BST (was 10 September)
19 November 2020, 17:00 GMT
Due to Covid-19, we may not be able to hold interviews. Candidates will be contacted with further details.
3 December 2020, 17:00 GMT
23 February 2021, 17:00 GMT
Due to Covid-19, we may not be able to hold interviews. Candidates will be contacted with further details.
This is the final round.
29 March 2021, 17:00 BST
24 June 2021, 17:00 BST
Due to Covid-19, we may not be able to hold interviews. Candidates will be contacted with further details.
You can apply for a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship if you’re already driving your own research and you’re ready to lead an independent research programme.
You must have a PhD and significant postdoctoral research experience.
You should have made important contributions to your area of research, eg publications, patents, software development or an impact on policy.
You must have sponsorship from a head of department or equivalent at an eligible host organisation in the UK. Applicants who want to be based in the Republic of Ireland should apply for a Research Career Development Fellowship instead.
If you're proposing to stay in your current department, you should describe in your application how this proposal will further your independent scientific career.
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.
You should identify an important question that’s within our scientific remit.
We will review:
At the end of this fellowship, you should:
We have more information to help you decide if this scheme is right for your career stage:
You can also find out about Extensions to Sir Henry Dale Fellowships [PDF 354KB].
See the 'What we offer' section on this page for an update on extensions.
You can't usually apply if:
You can’t apply if you want to combine research with a continuing clinical career in medicine, psychology, dentistry or veterinary practice. Instead, see our clinical fellowship schemes.
You can only submit two full applications to this scheme. If you've already been unsuccessful with a full application, please contact us before you apply again.
You can't apply to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.
You must have a sponsor who is a head of department or equivalent (eg centre director or head of school) in your host organisation.
If you propose to work in a low- or middle-income country during your fellowship, you may also need a sponsor in that location.
Your sponsor must guarantee that the host organisation will provide:
Your sponsor should not expect you to spend more than six hours a week on non-research activities (eg teaching or administration).
Your sponsor’s support and mentorship should be part of a longer-term commitment to help you achieve your career aspirations.
A Sir Henry Dale Fellowship is for five years and is usually up to around £1.2 million.
You should ask for a level of funding that's justifiable for your proposed research. If your proposal is for more than £1.2 million, please contact us before you apply.
New applicants, including those who have already applied but not yet been notified of a decision, who are awarded a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, will no longer be able to apply for an extension at the end of their award.
Current Sir Henry Dale Fellowship holders can apply for a 3 year extension if their award ends on or before 31 October 2022. They must submit their application by 24 June 2021 (see the ‘key dates’ section on this page). Those whose awards end after this time will not be eligible for an extension.
The fellowship may be held on a part-time basis.
The award includes:
We will fund the total cost of your salary for the entire period of the grant.
You should ask your host organisation to calculate this. It should reflect the skills, responsibilities and expertise needed to carry out the role, and include:
You should exclude any Wellcome Trust fellowship supplement that was part of a previous grant.
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 will automatically increase your salary, based on our current inflation allowance rates.
Find out more about fellows working on a Wellcome grant.
If Wellcome is going to pay your salary on the grant, you can ask for visa and work permit costs to help you take up the post at your host organisation. You can also ask for:
We will provide:
The supplement is fixed. It won't be increased each year.
We will add this supplement to your award – you do not need to add it to your application.
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.
We will cover the cost of a postdoctoral research assistant, research assistant or technician.
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.
We don't provide studentship stipends.
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:
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:
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.
From Year 2 onwards, you should use your organisation’s current pay rates. We’ll provide a separate inflation allowance for salary inflation costs.
Find out more about people working on a Wellcome grant.
We may make a contribution towards the salary of departmental technicians funded by Research England and its equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. You will need to provide a full audit record of their time on your project.
We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your proposed research, including:
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:
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:
We won’t provide estates or depreciation costs.
You can ask for items of equipment that are essential to your proposed research project. Costs may include purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training, where necessary.
We will cover VAT and import duties if:
You can ask for larger items of equipment if they're not available at your host organisation.
If a complete piece of equipment costs £100,000 or more, we expect a contribution of at least 25 per cent 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.
We will cover maintenance costs for equipment if:
We won’t cover maintenance costs for equipment if there is a mechanism in place to recoup these costs through access charges.
We will cover the cost of one personal computer or laptop per person up to £1,500.
We won't pay for:
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:
We don’t cover the costs of:
If the facilities or equipment were paid for by a Wellcome grant, you can only ask for access charges if:
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:
You’ll need to specify the amount you’re requesting for each person.
You can also ask for 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, provided:
You can ask for up to £1,000 per person for each conference.
We provide travel and subsistence costs for you and any research staff employed on your grant for UK and overseas visits to collaborators, and for collaborators to visit your laboratory. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.
We will pay for other essential visits, for example to facilities, for sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.
This is a new policy. It applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.
You can ask for:
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:
See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
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.
If you or any research staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your home laboratory, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.
If you or any staff employed on your grant will be spending time in another country, we’ll help you with the additional costs of working on the project overseas.
Our overseas allowances are:
We expect the people we fund to choose travel that has a lower carbon impact, where practical, even if it’s more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying).
You can ask for costs to offset the carbon generated by the travel, as part of your overseas allowances.
See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
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.
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:
and
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:
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:
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 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:
Boarding school fees
We will consider paying the cost of boarding school fees in your home country if:
The allowance covers:
We will not cover the costs of:
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:
All fares should be:
If you will be away for more than 12 months, you can ask for up to 100 hours of lessons in the local language for you and/or your partner during the first 12 months of your visit.
We will cover 100% of the costs for local language school classes or up to 50% of the costs of individual tuition.
We will not cover the cost of examinations or personal learning materials such as DVDs and books.
We cover fieldwork costs if they’re essential and you can justify them. Costs can include:
You can ask for other fieldwork costs that aren’t listed here, but you’ll need to justify them.
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, 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.
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.
Costs you may ask for (you will have to justify these costs in your application):
Costs we won’t pay:
*We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.
Costs grantholders can claim on biomedical science research grants.
We will add this cost to your award – you do not need to add it to your application.
You can also apply for Research Enrichment funding to increase the impact of your work through activities in public engagement and diversity and inclusion.
You'll be able to access training and development opportunities offered by the Royal Society.
Each year we award Wellcome-Beit Prizes to our most promising fellows who are starting to lead their own independent research programmes. We provide £25,000 to each fellow, to use in their research.
If you’re from outside the UK, you're guaranteed an endorsement of a Tier 1 Global Talent visa application.
If you have a team member who will spend at least 50% of their working time contributing to the award, they may be eligible to apply for a Tier 1 visa through the endorsed funder route.
We don't fund overheads.
You must submit your application through the Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker (WTGT).
Start your applicationYou must submit your preliminary application through Grant Tracker.
Your host organisation does not need to review or submit your preliminary application form.
View the Sample preliminary application form for Sir Henry Dale Fellowships [PDF 129KB].
Get some tips to help you write a Wellcome grant application and guidance on using Grant Tracker.
We’ll assess your eligibility and give advice about your competitiveness and the resources you’ve requested. We'll give you a decision within four weeks of the preliminary application deadline. If suitable, we’ll invite you to submit a full application.
Complete the full application form on Grant Tracker. 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.
View the Sample full application form for Sir Henry Dale Fellowships [PDF 309KB].
If your proposal involves clinical research using NHS resources, check if you need to upload a SoECAT form with your full application.
Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (GMT/BST) on the deadline day.
One of the following expert review groups will review your application, depending on your area of research:
If you are recommended for interview, we'll contact you with the interview dates.
We'll seek written comments from other expert reviewers. Unattributed comments will be sent to you before your interview.
Due to Covid-19, we are not holding interviews at the moment. Candidates will be contacted with further details about the decision-making process.
If you're already a Sir Henry Dale Fellow, and you want to apply for an extension of up to three years, please contact the relevant person in our Science team.
View the Sample application form for an extension to a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship [PDF 303KB].
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.
We don't accept late applications.
3 September 2020, 17:00 BST (was 10 September)
19 November 2020, 17:00 GMT
Due to Covid-19, we may not be able to hold interviews. Candidates will be contacted with further details.
3 December 2020, 17:00 GMT
23 February 2021, 17:00 GMT
Due to Covid-19, we may not be able to hold interviews. Candidates will be contacted with further details.
This is the final round.
29 March 2021, 17:00 BST
24 June 2021, 17:00 BST
Due to Covid-19, we may not be able to hold interviews. Candidates will be contacted with further details.
Grant Conditions Henry Dale Fellowship [PDF 110KB]
These grant conditions, together with the award letter and policy and positions statements, set out the terms and conditions on which the grant is made by the funders to the host organisation.
Policy and position statements [PDF 184KB]
Sir Henry Dale fellows are expected to conduct research in line with the agreed policies and position statements of the funders.
Find out about some of the people and projects we've funded for this scheme.
Log in to our online grants system (Grant Tracker). You can save your application and return to it any time.
If you have a general question about this scheme, contact our information officers:
If you have a question about the scope and content of your proposal, contact the relevant person in one of our science teams:
Find a contact in our science teams
Read about the career journeys of some of our researchers.
For Stephen, setting up a lab meant dealing with some predictable challenges, like building a team, but also some unpredictable ones.
See our other schemes for researchers who are interested in leading a research programme.