Wellcome launches £20 million in funding for Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani researchers in the UK 

Wellcome’s £20 million support will provide flexible funding for underrepresented groups in UK research, with individuals able to apply for grants of up to £200k for a period of up to two years. The awards are aimed at helping researchers stay in research and progress their careers.    

 This initiative is part of the charitable foundation’s commitment to becoming a more inclusive funder, recognising that diversity of people leads to richer understanding and more impactful discoveries.   

Shomari Lewis-Wilson, Senior Manager, Research Culture and Communities at Wellcome said:  “If we are to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone, we need the creativity and expertise of people from all backgrounds. Diversity of people will open the doors to new scientific questions and insights, bringing about discoveries which will benefit everyone. Researchers of Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage are not adequately represented in research in the UK. We hope that these awards will help talented underrepresented researchers fulfil their potential and transform science.”  

 These awards can be used for research or research-adjacent activities and will be accompanied by a package of support activities, including networking and cohort-building opportunities.  

 At the end of their awards, researchers should be in a better position to advance their career to the next stage, for example by developing their professional profile or gaining a promotion.  

 Designing the funding   

Wellcome designed this funding initiative as part of its ambition to become a more inclusive funder. This included an analysis of data from the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the 2021 Census of England and Wales, and insight work with researchers.    

 This is part of its commitment to supporting the broadest range of people to contribute to, and benefit from, science’s potential to change the world.   

 The data shows:   

• Black or Black British researchers in the UK made up 2.9% of the UK academic research population in 2021/22. By comparison, Black and Black British people made up 4.4% of the working age population of England and Wales in 2021.  
• Researchers of Bangladeshi heritage in the UK made up 0.5% of the UK academic research population in 2021/22. By comparison, people of Bangladeshi heritage made up 1.1% of the working age population of England and Wales in 2021.  
• Researchers of Pakistani heritage in the UK made up 1.1% of the UK academic  research population in 2021/22. By comparison, people of Pakistani heritage made up 2.7% of the working age population of England and Wales in 2021.  
• White researchers made up 79.5% of the UK academic research population in 2021/22. By comparison, White people made up 80.7% of the working age population of England and Wales in 2021.   

Source: Wellcome analysis of HESA data (Academic year 2021/2022) and reported ethnicity of the working age population (16 to 64 years old) of England and Wales (2021 Census of England and Wales).  

Wellcome held consultations with Black researchers when designing this funding initiative. The scope of the funding was later expanded to be more ambitious and include researchers of Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage as there are similar patterns of underrepresentation within these groups.  

 In the initial consultations with Wellcome, some of these researchers spoke about a lack of access to connections and support in academia. They said this made it difficult to build up the track record in research which is needed to gain positions and funding.   

 Dan O’Connor, Head of Research Environment at Wellcome said: “We hope these awards will help researchers break through barriers in the system and realise their ambitions. We need the best ideas from everyone to make scientific breakthroughs and change lives.”  

Applying for the awards  

The awards will be open to researchers currently working or ordinarily resident in the UK, who identify as being from a Black, Bangladeshi or Pakistani heritage background. Grants must be held at a UK institution and the funding can be used for research or research-adjacent activities. This might include, for example, writing books or articles, or taking up research skills opportunities.  

 Researchers from any discipline can apply for the awards if their research area aligns with Wellcome’s Discovery Research remit - encompassing research into life, health and well-being – or in Climate and Health, Mental Health, or Infectious Disease.  

 The funding will be open to researchers at any stage of their career from postdoctorate onwards, up to but not including professorship.  

 There will be one funding round for the awards per year, for an initial four years, with an allocation of approximately £4.5m per year.   

 Wellcome’s diversity, equity and inclusion work  

 This targeted funding is one of a variety of actions Wellcome will take as part of its commitment to becoming a more inclusive funder and ensuring that the broadest range of people contribute to, and benefit from, science's potential to change the world and improve health.  

 From Spring 2024 Wellcome is introducing positive action in its competitive open funding calls and schemes.   

 For those calls and schemes which include a shortlisting stage of full applications, additional places may be provided for applications from groups which are underrepresented in UK academic research - researchers in the UK who are disabled or/and identify as being from a Black, Bangladeshi or Pakistani heritage background. This will be alongside other strategic considerations, such as research area and geographic location.  

 Applications will then be further evaluated through a decision interview or final panel consideration. There will be no change to this part of the process.  

In addition, the charitable foundation is exploring how to help institutions and networks to improve their support to researchers from underrepresented communities.  

 Wellcome appointed Dr Jimmy Volmink as its first Chief Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer to its Executive Leadership Team in 2023, to embed and accelerate inclusive practices within the organisation.  

About Wellcome   

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health.  

 In 2021 Wellcome published its diversity and inclusion strategy which outlined its commitment to being an inclusive funder.  

About the data  

Wellcome compared data from the HESA 2021/22 staff statistics to working age population data from the 2021 Census of England and Wales, to see if any ethnicities were underrepresented in research.    

• We used population level data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2021 England and Wales Census data for the working age population (16-64 years old), which includes 37.5 million people, though please note this covers only England and Wales.   
• We were not able to include data from Scotland as the latest 2022 Census data is not yet available   
• We did not include the Northern Ireland 2021 Census, as it did not include the same ethnicity categories.    
• The data from the England and Wales census is broadly representative of ethnic diversity in the UK, because England & Wales comprises 89% of the UK population.   
• The data on the UK academic research population is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) 2021/22 staff statistics, which includes over 200,000 staff over 213 institutions across the UK. This data can be found in Table 4 here.  
• For this analysis, the groups we included as part of the academic research population were ‘research only’, ‘teaching only’ and ‘teaching and research’ staff per the HESA groupings.   
• We excluded staff with ‘Neither teaching nor research’ roles, as well as staff where their ethnicity is ‘Not known’ (9% of respondents).   

The analysis found that the numbers of researchers from a Black, Bangladeshi or Pakistani heritage background were underrepresented compared to what they would be if they were to be representative of the UK population.   

For example, Black or Black British researchers in the UK made up 2.9% of the UK academic research population in 2021/2022. We would expect this to be closer to 4.4% if the numbers were representative of the working age population of people from this background in England and Wales.  

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