Eligibility information for grant applicants

You must be eligible to apply for a Wellcome grant. Read our eligibility criteria for grant applicants.

General criteria 

If you're applying for funding you should be:

  • from an eligible organisation (see below for more information)
  • able to sign up to our grant conditions.

Read additional eligibility criteria on our discovery research funding schemes:

We won’t fund you if:

  • you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China
  • are applying for, hold, or employed on a research grant from the tobacco industry.

Please see our statement on researchers funded by the tobacco industry.

We may not be able to fund you if you, anyone associated with your grants, or your grant activities, are:

  • the target of international sanctions
  • located in a country that is the target of international sanctions.

Please see our statement on international sanctions.

If you are concerned about international sanctions affecting your award, please contact us.

Organisations in the UK or Republic of Ireland 

Eligible administering organisations must be able to sign up to our grant conditions.

This can be a:

  • higher education institution
  • research institute
  • non-academic healthcare organisation
  • not-for-profit organisation.

We do not make awards to other charities whose sole intention is to redistribute funds.

If your organisation awards grant funding, we may need to have a reciprocal arrangement in place to allow staff at the Wellcome Sanger Institute to apply to your organisation for funding.

If your organisation is a research institute that receives core funding, your application must include a statement from the director of your unit or organisation, confirming that your proposal:

  • is not part of any core-funded programme
  • has not been refused for funding as part of that core programme
  • will not lead to a reduction in your core support.

Your organisation may be asked for additional information if they:

  • have not received Wellcome funding before
  • have not recently received Wellcome funding.

Organisations in low- and middle-income countries 

Your organisation must:

  • be a not-for-profit organisation
  • be able to sign up to our grant conditions
  • have a mission statement that’s broadly in line with Wellcome’s.

This can be a:

  • higher education institution
  • research institute
  • non-academic healthcare organisation.

We do not make awards to other charities whose sole intention is to redistribute funds.

Your organisation may be asked for additional information if they:

  • have not received Wellcome funding before
  • have not recently received Wellcome funding.

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