Wellcome Accelerator Awards

We will provide your salary if:

• You do not have a post, or
• You have a temporary or fixed-term post with less than two years remaining on your contract.

You can only receive one salary. 

We will fund the total cost of your salary for the entire period of the grant. 

Your salary should be based on the pay scales of the host organisation that will be employing you. It should include: 

• your 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 
• any incremental progression up the salary scale
• locally recognised allowances such as London allowance. 

You should not include: 

• any potential promotion costs 
• any Wellcome fellowship supplement that was part of a previous grant. 

You should only 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 of 2.04%.

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

If you are a clinical academic, your salary should be appropriate to your clinical status and within the salary scale for academic and senior clinical lecturers. 

If you're paid on a non-clinical salary scale, your basic salary should be in line with academics of a similar seniority. 

Read about the responsibilities of grantholders and host organisations for people working on a Wellcome 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 
• specialist service staff, for example data analysis, fieldwork and clinical studies 
• support if you or a member of staff employed on your grant is disabled or has a long-term health condition – see 'Disability-related adjustment support'.

 Research/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 your Accelerator 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.

If you have to move to take up the post at your administering organisation, you can ask for up to £1,000. This is to cover personal removal costs only.

You will have to explain in your application why you need this.

You can ask for costs to cover the following types of training.

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. 

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.

Research skills training 

You can ask for costs to cover training for technical and research skills you wish to develop, relative to the area of research you are in.

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 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.

Equipment purchase 

Your chosen research environment should have the necessary equipment for you to complete your work. You can ask for additional 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 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. 

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 
• 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.

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.

You can ask for overheads if your grant will be based at a:

• research organisation that does not receive core funding for overheads
• charitable or not-for-profit organisation

You can also ask for overheads on any part of your grant that is sub-contracted to any of the organisations listed above. This also includes universities outside of the UK or Republic of Ireland.

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 for organisations based in a low- or middle-income country
• 15% of the direct research costs for organisations based anywhere else.

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 a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees. The limits are: 

Grantholder – £2,000 a year 

We provide costs to cover caring responsibilities if you attend a conference. This includes childcare and any other caring responsibility you have. 

Collaborative travel 

You can ask for travel and subsistence costs for collaborative visits 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. 

Carbon offset costs 

This applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides. 

You can ask for: 

• essential travel costs, even if the low carbon option 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, 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 (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 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 will be spending time in another country, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.

If you 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, 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. 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 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.

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.

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.

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 of 2.04%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

• contract research organisations
• other fee-for-service providers.

Allowed costs 

You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them 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,
• project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting,
• costs to host/a contribution towards the cost of 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. 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 or fees,
• 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 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.