Genomics in Context Awards: collaborative research at the intersection of genomics, humanities, social sciences and bioethics
These awards will support transdisciplinary teams to catalyse research discoveries at the intersection of genomics, humanities, social sciences and bioethics. Funded projects will be given the time and resources to create new research agendas and explore innovative ways of working.
Scheme at a glance
- Lead applicant career stage:
- Administering organisation location:
- Anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China)
- Frequency:
- One-off
- Funding amount:
Up to £500,000 for each award
- Funding duration:
12-24 months
- Coapplicants:
- Required
Who can apply
This award will bring together teams to shape interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary discovery research agendas across genomics and its wider contexts (see what we mean by Discovery Research). Successful teams will facilitate novel collaborations that drive new research agendas with the potential for discovery.
Teams are comprised of a lead applicant, coapplicants, and collaborators or consultants. Each application must include one lead applicant and 1-4 coapplicants. There are no requirements for the number of collaborators or consultants.
Teams are required to have at least:
- one researcher from any genomics-related area of the life sciences (as lead applicant or coapplicant)
- one researcher from the humanities, social sciences or bioethics (as lead applicant or coapplicant)
- one wider key stakeholder involved in shaping and developing the research (as coapplicant, collaborator, consultant or through other roles proposed by the team)
- agrigenomics
- bioinformatics
- biotechnology
- epigenetics
- evolutionary biology
- genetics
- genomics
- molecular biology
- pharmacogenomics
- synthetic biology
- systems biology
- anthropology
- bioethics
- cultural studies
- economics
- film studies
- geography
- history
- international relations
- law
- literature
- philosophy
- policy studies
- politics
- psychology
- sociology
- science and technology studies
Stakeholders could include (but are not limited to):
- community or patient groups
- non-governmental organisations
- policy
- industry
See our guidance on equity, diversity and inclusion and on using an engaged approach to research for more information on what to consider when involving wider stakeholders in your research.
The lead applicant (whose organisation will be administering the award) must be a researcher in any genomics-related area of the life sciences, the humanities, social sciences or bioethics. They can be based anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China) and can be at any career stage.
Lead applicants must:
- Have a PhD or four years of equivalent research experience.
- Have the experience needed to drive and lead a collaborative research project and the necessary support structures in place to enable this.
- Have experience in people and research management, as appropriate for their career stage.
- Have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract, or the guarantee of one, for the duration of the award. The contract should not be conditional on receiving this award. Lead applicants with less than three years remaining on their contract at the point of application must have secured their next position at an eligible organisation and provide a letter of support from them.
- Be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.
While there can be only one lead applicant, given the aims of the call, we expect teams to bring creative approaches to co-leadership. We expect the model and rationale for the approach to co-leadership in the project to be included in the proposal.
Teams are encouraged to test and implement equitable and engaged models of co-leadership during the award. This could include learning from recent innovations in research leadership, such as the ‘Thrive’ project. The leadership structure of your team will depend on what is the most effective structure for the specific programme and collaboration.
Coapplicants can be from any genomics-related area of the life sciences, the humanities, social sciences or bioethics, or a wider key stakeholder. They can be based anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China) and can be at any career stage.
You can include 1-4 coapplicants in your team.
Each coapplicant must:
- Be essential for the delivery of the proposed project and make a significant contribution, for example, in designing the proposed research or leading a specific component of the project.
- Have a guarantee of space from their organisation for the duration of their commitment to the project, but do not need to have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract.
- Be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.
See the ‘Research costs we will cover’ section for more details about when coapplicants can request salary and what other costs can be covered.
As a key goal of this award is to facilitate the formation of transdisciplinary teams, wider stakeholders can apply as coapplicants, collaborators, consultants or through other roles proposed by the team. This will depend on whether the conditions have been met and what is most appropriate for the team.
Collaborators are distinct from coapplicants. Collaborators will support the delivery of a project but will not lead on a specific component of the research.
There is no limit to the number of collaborators you may include in your team.
For example, collaborators could support by:
- sharing facilities
- providing access to resources
- providing expertise on working in different countries
- providing technical, clinical or subject-specific expertise on statistical analysis
- measurement of specific variables
Collaborators are not assessed for eligibility and are not required to give a minimum research time commitment to the project.
Collaborators are not paid for their input, but you can request costs for their expenses.
If it is more appropriate for wider stakeholders to apply as consultants rather than coapplicants or collaborators, they can do so. The budget requested during the application process should include appropriate remuneration for their expertise and costs for involvement.
When thinking about appropriate compensation or payment, we would encourage you to think about the experience, knowledge and skills that someone will be bringing to the project, as well as their responsibility within the process. Make sure that you have appropriately budgeted for the costs needed to support meaningful involvement, as set out in your proposal. For example, this could include but is not limited to:
- consultant fees for their expertise on the project
- travel costs
- salary costs for wider stakeholders embedded in a team
- expenses to support meetings or workshops
Who cannot apply
You cannot apply for this award if:
- You intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of funds into mainland China.
- You are already an applicant on another application for this funding call – applicants are limited to one application overall (as lead applicant or coapplicant).
- You already have applied for, or hold, the maximum number of Wellcome awards for your career stage. See our guidance on how many grants you can apply for, or hold, at the same time.
Is your organisation right for this call?
The administering organisation is where the lead applicant is based. It is responsible for submitting your final application to Wellcome and managing the finances of the grant if it is awarded.
The administering organisation can be based anywhere in the world apart from mainland China. It must be able to sign up to Wellcome’s grant conditions.
The administering organisation can be a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- non-academic healthcare organisation
- not-for-profit or non-governmental organisation
Commercial organisations are not eligible to apply as administering organisations for this call. However, coapplicants and collaborators can be based at commercial organisations.
One organisation can submit multiple different applications.
What’s expected of lead applicant and coapplicant organisations
We expect organisations based in the UK to meet the responsibilities required by the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers for institutions, managers and researchers.
Any organisation with Wellcome funding that is based outside the UK is expected, at a minimum, to follow the principles of the Concordat.
We also expect organisations to:
- Guarantee that the space and resources applicants need have been agreed and will be made available to them from start date through to the end date of the award.
- Give applicants and any staff employed on the grant at least 10 days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuing professional development (CPD) in line with the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. This should include the responsible conduct of research, research leadership, people management, diversity and inclusion, and the promotion of a healthy research culture.
- Provide a system of onboarding, embedding and planning for you when you join the organisation and/or start the award.
Is your proposal right for this award?
These awards will support transdisciplinary teams to catalyse research discoveries at the intersection of genomics, humanities, social sciences and bioethics. Funded projects will be given the time and resources to create new research agendas and explore innovative ways of working.
There is a long history of exploring the social, legal and ethical contexts of genomics. This has made significant inroads into fostering more ethical and equitable practice. However, this has often been too limited and too late. Wider humanities and social science fields are underrepresented; communities or other social partners are often not centred; and these perspectives are often only included after key research decisions have already been made. This not only poses ethical challenges. It means that the discovery research potential of wider and earlier collaboration remains unrealised.
This call is aimed at addressing this issue and supporting novel, transdisciplinary teams to explore this area by enabling:
- An increased breadth of collaborative partners – building inter- and transdisciplinary teams across genomics-related life sciences, humanities, social science and wider societal partners to purposefully engage in research at their unique intersections.
- The earlier integration of partners – bringing new partners together at the conceptual stage of a research agenda (research ideation, design and partnership building), so that research ideas and avenues can be explored and co-developed in new and innovative ways.
- A focus on Discovery Research – shifting the focus away from specific ethical questions, often applied at the end of a research lifecycle, to an emphasis on co-developing novel discovery research from the outset.
- A plan for integrated collaboration across the research lifecycle that harmonises and leverages the skills and perspectives of diverse contributors.
What your proposal must include
Following the assessment criteria, proposals must include descriptions of:
This call is aimed at supporting novel and transdisciplinary teams to explore collaboration at the earliest stages of research ideation, design and partnership building. By ‘novel’ and ‘transdisciplinary’, we mean new approaches that combine knowledge and practices from across academic disciplines and from across wider stakeholders. The aim is that this will lead not only to generating more ethical, engaged and inclusive genomics research, but to opening new co-developed research questions, methods, approaches and even new fields.
Teams are encouraged to think creatively and critically about how the knowledge of different disciplines and key stakeholders will be embedded within the team; and how the team plans to manage power and resource differences between them.
Teams are also encouraged to test and implement equitable and engaged models of co-leadership during the award, depending on what is the most effective structure for the specific programme and collaboration.
See the 'Equity, Diversity and Inclusion’ and ‘Engaged research’ sections for more details.
The research agenda should outline the potential of the research to generate new knowledge, concepts, methods or techniques, and/or to create field opening opportunities. Teams should explain how the proposed approach is ambitious, novel and feasible.
Research agendas could potentially fall across three broad areas:
1. Exploring new or emerging areas in genomics and its contexts or the application of novel technologies
This might include but is not limited to:
- responsibly harnessing and developing large datasets and technologies such as AI in genomics
- expanding synthetic genomics through wider disciplinary and stakeholder engagement
- exploring new dimensions of genomics-based precision medicine
- broadening nascent interdisciplinary fields like the biomolecular humanities
2. Opening up existing areas of genomics and its contexts or taking them in new directions through the integration of novel approaches and perspectives
This might include but is not limited to:
- expanding the intersection of particular disciplines, for example between anthropology and genomics, paleogenomics and history, philosophy and genomics, or between genomics and sociology
- broadening health-related food systems research through wider engagement with genomics research
- expanding pathogen genome surveillance through wider social science engagement
- exploring longitudinal datasets that combine genomic and social data in innovative ways
- expanding research to explore the relationship between health inequalities and genomics
- exploring how the integration of genomics may transform health systems and population health strategies, drawing on new disciplinary perspectives
3. Exploring how research is done in genomics, which could be applicable across different fields, practices, sectors and geographies
This might include but is not limited to:
- Indigenous-led genomics projects that drive and benefit from current knowledge generation in genomics
- community-driven research agendas in genomics more broadly
- new partnerships between bioethicists, genomics researchers and wider stakeholders
- next generation clinicians that integrate perspectives across disciplines and stakeholders
- economic dimensions of genomics research, for example how genomics could reshape models of health decision-making for government and citizens
- exploring how historical contexts, cultural perceptions and power dynamics act as drivers of genomic data diversity
Please note that these topics are only indicative. The call is open to other areas where transdisciplinary collaborations of this kind could open up new research questions and approaches in genomics and its contexts.
This award welcomes applications that use a variety of activities and produce a range of outputs to meet the two core ambitions of the award:
- fostering collaborative work at the intersection of genomics and humanities, social sciences, bioethics and wider stakeholders, and generating insights on how such collaboration works in practice
- supporting the development of new discovery-led research agendas, methods and questions shaped by transdisciplinary insight and stakeholder engagement to guide the future direction of genomics and its wider contexts
We recognise that the activities you undertake will vary depending on your area of focus. When considering what activities might be included as part of this award, some examples are provided, but these are indicative only, and you should not feel limited by them. We’re keen to see innovative and creative approaches to each set of activities.
Examples might include but are not limited to:
- Building a diverse, collaborative and engaged team that includes perspectives from the life sciences, the humanities, social sciences or bioethics and wider key stakeholders (for example, communities, civil societies, governments or industry).
- Developing and testing innovative ways of working within the team, particularly related to the knowledge, power and logistical challenges that have previously made engagement and collaboration between researchers across these fields and other stakeholders difficult. This should result in new insights into how transdisciplinary collaborations such as these work in practice and could involve open collaborative platforms, novel co-leadership models or transdisciplinary training sessions, secondments, exchanges or placements.
- Developing approaches to fostering greater collaboration and understanding beyond the team, for example, through organising workshops with wider networks, public lectures or stakeholder engagement beyond the team.
- Co-developing a research agenda to outline the future direction of a specific area of transdisciplinary discovery research, for example, testing and refining new research questions, approaches and methodologies through small-scale collaborative pilots or provocations.
As part of your proposal, we ask you to provide a clear justification for how your approach will meet the two core ambitions.
Outputs
All successful teams will be required to produce the following:
- A final report detailing:
- The nature of the research area, questions, methods and approaches explored, and the team or network established.
- Findings from any pilot or proof-of-concept work conducted during the award.
- A forward-looking discovery research agenda, including how it could be further developed or implemented.
- Reflections and learnings on the collaborative process, including participation in cross-scheme workshops and other mechanisms to capture insights on both the research agendas and the collaboration itself.
- Completion of standard reporting requirements under Wellcome’s grant conditions, including (but not limited to) annual reporting and any additional documentation requested as part of the award monitoring process.
In addition to the core final report, a range of other direct outputs may emerge from the work supported through this scheme. These will vary depending on the nature of your collaboration and area of focus. Some examples include (but are not limited to):
- establishing new networks that foster ongoing transdisciplinary collaboration
- producing written outputs such as workshop summaries, case studies, peer-reviewed articles or conference presentations
- developing draft grant applications to take forward newly co-developed research agendas
- creating toolkits, frameworks or guidance to support future decision-making and promote best practice in collaborative, transdisciplinary research
- building capacity across the team or wider community through training, mentoring or shared learning resources
- generating proof-of-concept work or preliminary data to inform future large-scale research proposals
What activities and outputs are not in scope?
While this scheme is designed to be flexible, there are certain activities and outputs it will not support. These include:
- Conducting a large-scale research programme. This scheme is intended to support the co-development of new research agendas, questions, methodologies and approaches. While proof-of-concept work and preliminary data generation are in scope, it is not designed to fund the delivery of a full research programme.
- Collaborations or partnerships that are not focused on discovery research. Proposals must clearly demonstrate how the collaboration will enable discovery-led research in genomics and its contexts (see what we mean by Discovery Research). Partnerships without this focus will not be eligible.
- Proposals that are not sufficiently linked to human life, health or wellbeing.
How applications are assessed
In line with the ‘What your proposal must include’ section, we will review:
1. Your team (35%)
- The novelty of your team composition, how well it integrates the perspectives of different disciplines and stakeholders, and how well it aligns with the wider ambitions of the proposal, including the focus of the proposed research agenda.
- The quality and feasibility of your plan to build and manage the team to work effectively and equitably, particularly across knowledge, power and logistical barriers.
- The quality and feasibility of your plan to test and implement equitable and engaged models of co-leadership during the award and to learn from the process of collaboration.
See the ‘Who can apply?’, ‘What your proposal must include’, ‘Equity, diversity and inclusion’ and ‘Engaged research’ sections for more details.
2. Your research agenda (35%)
- An outline of what specific area(s) of discovery research will be explored.
- The creativity or innovation of your plan for what new knowledge, concepts, methods or techniques, and/or field opening opportunities could potentially be generated.
- A clear explanation of why the proposed approach is ambitious, novel and feasible.
See the ‘Is your proposal right for this award?’ section for more details.
3. Your activities and outputs (30%)
- The creativity or innovation of your planned activities and outputs and how well they align with the aims of the award.
- The feasibility of your plan for who will benefit from these activities and outputs and how.
See the ‘Activities and outputs’ and ‘Equity, diversity and inclusion’ sections for more details.
Portfolio and cohort approach
A key goal of the scheme is to evidence the benefits of broader and earlier collaboration across different areas of research in genomics and its contexts, and to showcase the diverse contribution of different disciplines and key stakeholders. We therefore intend on taking a portfolio approach to funding decisions. This means that we reserve the right to fund a range of projects that demonstrate the value and potential of this kind of engaged collaborative research across different disciplines, sectors, stakeholders and areas of research.
Because of the value we place on collaboration and learning across awards, we also plan to bring the successful applicants together using a cohort-based approach. To do this, we will:
- Offer matchmaking opportunities for prospective applicants to network and build new teams. Prospective applicants can sign up to take part in this matchmaking process.
- Support and gather information from across the cohort through shared activities, for example through workshops bringing the cohort together, contributing to cross-cohort evaluation work and to the development of shared toolkits or resources. The aim is to draw out key insights and learnings on research agendas and on the process of collaboration within the funded teams.
- Explore potential post-award opportunities to take forward outputs and ideas from across the cohort.
Equity, diversity and inclusion
Taking into account the context in which the research is conducted, applicants should be able to show that they have made substantive efforts to ensure that project research teams are appropriately diverse and inclusive.
For research conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), researchers based in the relevant region(s) should have a substantive role in agenda setting; leadership; day-to-day management and participation. Resources should be allocated equitably.
Applicants should be able to demonstrate that their research agenda and the conduct of their research is of relevance to and engages with the needs, values and knowledge systems of those participating in, or most affected by, their research. This should operate across the research lifecycle, rather than being a one-off process.
Everyone involved in, or impacted by, the research should benefit. This might include equitable access to career development opportunities, training and support for researchers and partners; and attribution and the accessible and open sharing of outputs, data or insights for everyone involved in, or impacted by, the research.
Engaged research
We believe using an engaged research approach improves research and makes it more impactful.
Engaged Research is an umbrella term that captures different approaches to embedding engagement into research. This can include community engagement, patient involvement, policy engagement, working with lived experience experts or any other approach that brings a diversity of perspectives into your research process.
An engaged research approach embeds stakeholder perspectives across the research lifecycle – from agenda setting, funding and research design through to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. It typically involves building relationships, sharing power, and using inclusive and equitable methods. Engagement should not be a stand-alone activity but an integrated part of your research. An engaged research approach can involve a variety of methodologies, frameworks and skills to appropriately engage relevant stakeholders at key points.
As part of their application, we encourage researchers to outline who their stakeholders are, how they have been involved in the design of the research agenda, notable points of collaboration and how key stakeholders will be involved in the decision-making process for aspects linked to the support they provide.
See Wellcome’s using an engaged research approach guidance for more details.
Research costs we will cover
Lead applicant
You must contribute at least 10% of your research time to the award in order to claim a contribution to your salary.
Lead applicants based in the UK or Republic of Ireland
You cannot ask for your salary if you work for a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- healthcare organisation
You can ask for a contribution to your salary if you work for a:
- charity
- non-governmental organisation (NGO)
- social enterprise
- or a commercial organisation
The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time you contribute to the award, for example if you contribute 30% of your time to the award we will fund 30% of your salary.
Lead applicants based outside of the UK or Republic of Ireland
You can ask for a contribution to your salary if you work for a:
- higher education institute
- research institute
- healthcare organisation
- charity
- non-governmental organisation
- social enterprise
- commercial organisation
If you work for a higher education institute, research institute, or healthcare organisation, we will only pay your salary if you hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that states that you must get your salary from external grant funding. Your administering organisation must confirm:
- that you must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- they will guarantee to provide salary support, including any salary not covered by Wellcome, if you cannot get it from other sources for the period of time that you will be working on the grant
In all cases, the amount we pay will be proportionate to the time you contribute to the award. For example, if you contribute 30% of your time to the award we will fund 30% of your salary.
Coapplicants
Coapplicants must contribute at least 10% of their research time to the award in order to claim a contribution to salary.
Coapplicants employed by higher education institutes, research institutes or healthcare organisations
1. Coapplicants with permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contracts
Coapplicants with these contract types can ask for a contribution to their salary if their employment contract states that they must get their salary from external grant funding.
The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time they contribute to the award, for example if they contribute 30% of their time to the award we will fund 30% of their salary. The coapplicant’s employing organisation must confirm:
- that they must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- they will guarantee to provide salary support, including any salary costs not covered by Wellcome, for the period of time that the person will be working on the grant
2. Coapplicants who don’t have permanent, open ended or long-term rolling contracts
Coapplicants without a permanent, open ended or long-term rolling contract can request salary depending on the amount of their time they will spend on the grant:
- Less than 80% of coapplicant’s time on the grant: they can request salary proportionate to the time they will spend on the grant. Their organisation must guarantee space and salary support if they cannot get it from other sources for the period of time they are working on the grant. Their post cannot be dependent on the application being successful.
- 80% or more of coapplicant’s time on the grant: they can ask for their full salary. Their organisation does not have to guarantee salary support if salary cannot be obtained from other sources for the period of time they are working on the grant. The post can be dependent on the application being successful.
- If the coapplicants are employed on the award as research assistants and they are to spend 100% of their time on the award, their post does not need to be underwritten by the administering organisation and can be dependent on the application being successful.
Alternatively, coapplicants may get their salary through employment on another grant.
Coapplicants employed by charities, social enterprises, non-governmental organisations or commercial organisations
Coapplicants can ask for salary if they are employed by these organisations. The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time they will contribute to the award. Their employment contract does not need to state that they must get their salary from external grant funding.
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 and technical experts, for example environmental sustainability, data analysis, fieldwork and clinical studies
- project manager, if you have multiple applicants on your programme
- 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'.
Teaching buyout
If you’re a humanities and social sciences researcher, you can ask for funds for 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 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.
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 (for example, National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs
- Apprentice Levy charges for UK-based salaries
- any incremental progression up the salary scale
- locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.
You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. If the pay award is not yet known, applicants should use the International Monetary Fund inflation rate, selecting the ‘inflation, average consumer price’ option as an indicator.
From Year 2 onwards, you should use your organisation’s current pay rates. We’ll provide a separate inflation allowance for salary inflation costs.
Read about the responsibilities of grantholders and host organisations for people working on a Wellcome grant.
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:
- visa costs for the person's partner and dependent children
- essential associated costs, such as travel to attend appointments at a visa application centre or embassy, and essential English language tests
- Immigration Health Surcharge costs for the person, their partner and dependent children if they will be in the UK for six months or more.
If you or a member of staff working on your grant is disabled or has a long-term health condition, you can ask for adjustment support to help you carry out your project.
Costs can include, but are not limited to:
- additional costs for staff to help with day-to-day activities related to your project
- assistive technology to help use computers, research equipment or materials – for example, text to audio software
- care costs for assistance animals if you need to travel.
We will not pay for capital or building costs, such as access ramps.
You can ask for these costs if your government and/or employer:
- does not cover any of the costs
- only covers some of the costs (if they do, we will only meet the shortfall).
The costs we provide must not replace the support you may get from the government or your organisation, who are responsible for providing these costs.
If you don't know what these costs are now, you can ask for them after we've awarded your grant.
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
We will provide funds if you need to outsource specialised elements of the project to organisations that are not already involved as applicants or collaborators, on a fee-for-service basis. This work can include:
- synthesising compounds or reagents
- building medical devices
- preclinical studies, such as toxicology or pharmacology studies
- undertaking large scale data analysis
Where multiple Contract Research Organisations are involved in a project, use a separate line item to request costs relating to each one.
Contract research organisations must be able to sign up to our grant conditions.
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
Equipment purchase
You can ask for the research equipment you need to carry out your project where:
- it is not available at your administering organisation or through collaborations, and
- you will be the main user, with priority access to it.
- Costs may include purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training, where necessary
You can purchase second-hand equipment if it is more environmentally sustainable to do so.
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
You can ask for maintenance costs for equipment if it is for new equipment or it is for existing equipment that is:
- funded by us or another source
- essential to the proposed research project
- five years old, or will become five years old during the lifetime of the grant
- five years old (or will become five years old during the lifetime of the grant)
- cost effective and environmentally sustainable 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
If your organisation uses full economic costing methodology:
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. 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
If the research will be carried out in the UK and use macaques, they must be sourced from the MRC Centre for Macaques.
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:
You can ask for funds to cover:
- the cost of buying and transporting 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
- equipment maintenance
- housing equipment specific to the project
- microbiological monitoring
- waste disposal
- personal and project licences
- specific and relevant training and environmental enrichment costs
In these cases we will not provide:
- estates costs
- cage or building depreciation costs
If you need to carry out clinical research in the UK using NHS patients or facilities, we will cover some of the 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 in the UK, 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. If you're based in the Republic of Ireland, we expect you to adhere to the spirit of these principles.
If your proposal involves clinical research using NHS resources, check if you need to upload a SoECAT form with your application.
Fieldwork expenses 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. You’ll need to justify them.
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- healthcare organisation
- charity, social enterprise or non-governmental research organisation
- small company
Environmentally conscious travel
Travel on grants should be done in an environmentally conscious way, in line with our environmental sustainability funding policy. You should consider if you could meet your trip’s objectives using video conferencing, hybrid meetings or virtual attendance.
Where travel is necessary, you can ask for:
- the cost of low carbon travel where practical, even if it's more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying)
- economy flights when train journeys are over 10 hours, or not possible due to availability, safety, or visa permit reasons, or in exceptional circumstances such as a disability, long-term health condition or caring requirements necessitating faster travel. We will not pay for business class flights.
- project-related resources or activities that provide an alternative to travel, such as video conferencing, communication and file-sharing software
- costs to mitigate the carbon emissions of the essential travel by purchasing accredited carbon credits. If carbon mitigation 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 contact us for approval before submitting your application.
We won't pay for the core infrastructure that your administering organisation should provide, unless you're eligible to ask for these costs under our overheads policy. Examples of these costs include:
- organisation-wide video conferencing packages
- high-speed broadband
- HD screens
Conference attendance
You can ask for a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including travel, accommodation, and registration fees. The limits are:
- Lead applicant – £2,000 a year
- Coapplicants – £2,000 each a year
- Research and technical staff employed on your grant – £1,000 each a year
You can ask for the cost of accredited carbon credits to mitigate the emissions from conference travel in addition to these limits.
We provide costs to cover caring responsibilities for any staff employed on your grant to attend a conference. This includes childcare and any other caring responsibility they have. We will pay these if:
- Wellcome is providing the salary
- the conference is directly related to the research
- the caring costs are over and above what they would normally pay for care
- the conference organiser and their employing organisation are unable to cover the costs
You can ask for up to £1,000 per person for each conference.
Other essential travel
You can ask for travel and subsistence costs for collaborative visits for you, any coapplicants and any staff employed on your grant to visit collaborators (or for them to visit you), and for other essential visits, for example to facilities, for sample collection and for field work. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.
Subsistence costs
Up to one month
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.
1 to 12 months
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 the administering and employing organisations, or Wellcome, as needed. 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.
More than 12 months
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 or any research staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your home organisation, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Read the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- healthcare organisation
- charity, social enterprise or non-governmental research organisation
- small company
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:
- 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). We will not pay for business class flights.
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.
Read our environmental sustainability funding policy for what you and your organisation can do.
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:
- you’re married to
- you’re not married to but with whom you’ve been in a relationship for at least a year
and
- you live with at the same permanent address and share some form of joint financial commitment with, such as a mortgage.
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. We will not pay for business class flights.
All fares should be:
- in line with our environmental sustainability funding policy
- booked in advance where possible
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:
- half a standard shipping container if you’re travelling alone
- a whole standard shipping container (20ft) if you’re travelling with a partner and/or dependants
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 (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 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 us.
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 nursery school fees up to a maximum of 30 hours a week for 3 to 4 year olds
- local junior or secondary school fees, up to the end of secondary school education
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:
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment
Boarding school fees
We will consider paying the cost of boarding school fees in your home country if:
- a local international school is not available
- both parents, guardians or the sole care giver live outside the home country
The allowance covers:
- up to a maximum of £30,000 a year for each child for the published termly fees only
- the cost of return airfares at the start and end of each school term, in line with our environmental sustainability funding policy
We will not cover the costs of:
- additional annual leave airfares
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment
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:
- 12-24 months – 1 annual leave trip
- 25-36 months – 2 annual leave trips
- 37-48 months – 3 annual leave trips
- 49-60 months – 4 annual leave trips
- 61-72 months – 5 annual leave trips
- 73-84 months – 6 annual leave trips
- 85-96 months – 7 annual leave trips
All fares should be:
- in line with our environmental sustainability funding policy
- booked in advance where possible
We will not pay for business class flights.
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 apps, DVDs and books.
You should ask for the necessary costs to integrate key stakeholders’ perspectives across the life cycle of your project, from agenda setting, funding, and research design to implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. You cannot ask for costs for any activities that take place before the grant start date.
Costs can include, but are not limited to:
- compensation for stakeholders’ time and expertise
- recruitment of participants, participatory fees, travel and other reasonable expenses
- incentives and recognition for involvement for example, gift cards, one-off awards. These must be aligned with our Research involving human participants policy and avoid undue inducement to take part.
- engagement professionals, for example community outreach coordinators, patient advocates, engaged research advisory board, lived experience experts
- room hire, catering and other associated costs of running interviews, workshops, focus groups, partnership building and other activities to integrate stakeholder voices into your research
- translation services, accessibility costs, survey tools to facilitate inclusive knowledge sharing
- monitoring and evaluation activities
For more information, read our guidance on using an engaged research approach.
You can ask for costs associated with disseminating research results and findings from Wellcome-funded research, including podcasts, media outreach, websites and talks.
For costs associated with written publications, consult our open access policy.
You can ask for overheads if your administering organisation is a:
- university outside the UK
- research organisation that does not receive core funding for overheads
- charity, social enterprise or non-governmental research organisation
- small or medium-sized commercial organisation
You can also ask for overheads on any part of your grant that is sub-contracted to any of the organisations listed above.
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 costs requested in your application.
These costs must directly support the activity funded by the grant.
How to apply for these costs
In your grant application, you must include a letter from your Finance Director stating how the overhead costs have been calculated.
If your organisation has an externally audited or otherwise verified methodology for calculating overhead rates, then the letter must include:
- confirmation of the validated rate
- how the rate was arrived at/who provided the rate
- when the rate was last reviewed
- where details of the rate can be found
If your organisation does not have an externally audited or otherwise verified methodology for calculating overhead rates, then the letter must include:
- a breakdown of the costs requested
- confirmation that the request is a true representation of the costs incurred
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
- understanding and reducing the environmental impact of research
We expect your administering 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
- working on Wellcome funded awards for at least 50% full time equivalent
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
Research skills training
You can ask for costs to cover training for the technical and research skills you need to deliver your proposed research.
You can ask for whatever research skills training you need for you, and each member of staff employed on your grant, who will be:
- in a post of 12 months duration or more only
- working on Wellcome funded awards for at least 50% full time equivalent
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
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.
How we calculate your inflation allowance
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.
We will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based using data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling.
| Award duration (in months) | Inflation allowance |
|---|---|
| 0-12 | 0.00% |
| 13-24 | 1.00% |
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 the IMF rate for the currency your award will be made in.
Allowed costs
You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them in your application):
- specialist publications that are relevant to the research and not available in institutional libraries
- consultancy fees, including for lived experience experts and to receive advice on a specific aspect of your proposed work which cannot be provided by anyone involved in the application.
- 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
- questionnaires, recruitment material, and newsletters 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
- purchase, hire and running costs of project-dedicated vehicles
- project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
- costs to host/a contribution towards 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:
- phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study
- page charges and the cost of colour prints
- PhD stipends
- 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
- engagement activities that do not support an engaged approach to research or for one-off events/exhibitions
We will only fund these costs in the case of animal-related research and/ or where we are providing overheads:
- estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities (if your organisation uses full economic costing methodology)
- research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record
- cleaning, waste and other disposal costs
How to apply
Where to apply
You need to apply for this scheme on the Wellcome Funding platform. You will need to log in or create an account. You can save your application and return to it at any time.
Information you need to provide
As well as answering the application questions, you must provide:
- A letter of support from each organisation (of the lead applicant and any coapplicants). Upload these in the 'additional information' section of the application form.
- A letter of support from the director of finance at the administering organisation or any indirectly funded organisation requesting overheads, confirming the breakdown is a true representation of the costs incurred.
If you have less than three years remaining on your contract at the point of application, you must have secured your next position at an eligible organisation and provide a letter of support from them.
How long it takes to apply
You must leave enough time for:
- you and any coapplicants to complete the application
- your organisation to review and submit the application
Getting support with your application
We offer disability-related support for applicants. Read the disability-related support guidance if you:
- are disabled or have a long-term health condition and you need help applying for funding
- need to defer your application
- need help completing your project, for example costs for assistive technology
If you need help with anything else, please contact us.
Application process
Stage 1: Before you apply
- Make sure to read everything on this page.
- View the sample application form.
- You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.
- If you are unsure if your proposal is within the scope of this call, you can request a scope check before submitting your full application. See 'Contact Us' for details on submitting a scope check.
Stage 2: Submit your application to your administering organisation for approval
- Complete your application form on Wellcome Funding.
- Submit your application to your administering organisation for approval.
- Make sure you leave enough time for your administering organisation to review and submit your application before the deadline. The approver may ask you to make changes to your application.
If this is your organisation’s first time applying for Wellcome funding
If this is your administering organisation’s first time applying for Wellcome funding, they will need to contact us to request an organisation account.
Email fundingsupport@wellcome.org with your organisation’s:
- name
- address
- country
- team email address for the people who will approve and submit your application (this is usually a research management team)
We will create the administering organisation account and provide access to the approvers. Review our guidance for research offices.
Stage 3: Administering organisation approves and submits application to Wellcome
Your application must be submitted by 15:00 GMT on the deadline day, 16 March. We do not accept late submissions.
Stage 4: Eligibility and project scope review
Applicants and team
- Eligibility based on team size. There must be one lead applicant and 1-4 coapplicants.
- Eligibility based on disciplinary team composition (requirement of at least one researcher from any related area of genomics-related life sciences; one researcher from any area of the humanities, social sciences or bioethics).
- Eligibility based on at least one key wider stakeholder, including but not limited to those from community or patient groups, non-governmental organisations, policy or industry, involved in shaping and developing the research agenda. This can take several forms that should be explained and justified in the application. For example, wider stakeholders may be involved as one of the co-applicants, as collaborators, consultants or via other models proposed by the team. See the ‘Equity, diversity and inclusion’ and ‘Engaged research’ sections for more details on questions to consider in such involvement.
Project scope and suitability
- The team is an existing, expanded or new collaboration that brings together perspectives from the life sciences; the humanities, social sciences or bioethics; and wider key stakeholders, such as community or patient groups, non-governmental organisations, policy or industry.
- The type of activities and outputs included align with the scope and aims of the schemes as outlined in ‘Is your research right for this scheme?’.
- The proposed future research agenda is focused on discovery research and aligns with what Wellcome funds in Discovery Research.
These awards require a full application. There will be no preliminary stage. A specially commissioned external advisory committee will meet to shortlist applications. This external advisory committee will then make final recommendations, which will be followed by an internal decision and ratification process. There will be no interview stage.
Stage 5: Shortlisting meeting
At the shortlisting stage, the committee will consider how your proposed work aligns with the scope of the funding call, as well as the overall quality and feasibility of your project.
Stage 6: Decision meeting
If shortlisted, your application will proceed to be assessed at a final decision meeting. The committee will evaluate your proposal based on the criteria and weightings set out in the 'How applications are assessed' section.
Stage 7: Funding decision
Final funding decisions will be made by Wellcome. The reasons for a decision will be provided to unsuccessful applicants in writing.
What you can do to prepare
This funding call is part of a wider set of initiatives in this space. The format and aims of the call have been developed in response to a series of collaborative workshops that Wellcome undertook with the research community.
Learn more about the workshops and the background to this award:
Our team also recently published a comment piece that sets out Wellcome’s ambition for a culture change in collaboration and provides further background to this call.
Join our funding webinar
Learn more about this award and how to apply on 18 November 2025, 13:00 GMT. The webinar will be recorded and will last approximately 1 hour.
Send questions for our team on Slido using #GenomicsinContext.
We will add the recording to this page when available.
Find coapplicants and collaborators: Matchmaking opportunity in November 2025
Register to be matched with potential coapplicants through an online event on 26 November 2025, 13:00 GMT.
We have partnered with Neuromatch to support potential collaborators for this funding call. Using artificial intelligence and a bespoke algorithm, Neuromatch will connect researchers working in genomics-related life sciences; researchers in any related area of the humanities, social sciences or bioethics; and wider partners (such as community groups, patient groups, non-governmental organisations, policymakers and industry partners) around the world who are looking for collaborations.
Once matched, you will be able to meet virtually at the event on 26 November or contact the matched expert(s) directly to explore whether a collaboration would be possible.
The use of Neuromatch is not mandatory for applicants but provides another route to identifying new collaboration opportunities.
Deadline to register is 21 November 2025.
Application process timeline
You must submit your application by 15:00 (GMT/BST) on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.
Opening soon
- 11 November 2025
Full details of the call are published and the award opens to applications
- 18 November 2025, 13:00 GMTRegister for the webinar
Funding information webinar
- 21 November 2025Register for Neuromatch matchmaking
Neuromatch matchmaking registration deadline
Neuromatch matchmaking is optional
- 26 November 2025, 13:00 GMT
Neuromatch matchmaking event
You must register for Neuromatch matchmaking to attend this event
- 16 March 2026
Application deadline
- May 2026
Shortlisting
- June 2026
Committee review
- July 2026
Decision
Contact us
Eligibility, what we offer and application questions
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer or completing the application form, contact our funding information advisers:
Scope questions
If you are unclear about whether your proposal aligns with the aims and scope of the funding call, you can send a brief summary of your idea (no more than 200 words) by 16 February 2026.
Please include the title of the call – Genomics in Context Awards – in the subject line.
Please note that submitting a scope check is not a requirement and will not impact your likelihood of being funded. The confirmation that a proposed idea is in scope does not constitute an active invitation to apply for the call.
We do not answer questions on the competitiveness of proposals.