Nominations open for Wellcome’s Early-Career Awards

Deadline Date: February 15, 2024

 Donor Name: Wellcome

 Grant Size: $100,000 to $500,000

Nominations are now open for the Wellcome Early-Career Awards to provide funding for early-career researchers from any discipline who are ready to develop their research identity.

Through innovative projects, they will deliver shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and wellbeing.

What they offer?

• A Wellcome Early-Career Award provides a salary for the grantholder and up to £400,000 for research expenses. If you are eligible to request overheads or overseas allowances, they won’t count these against the £400,000 limit for research expenses.
• The award usually lasts for 5 years, but may be less for some disciplines, such as humanities and social science.

Expectations

• During the award, they expect you to:
  • expand your technical skills and/or your experience of different research methodologies or frameworks;
  • build a collaborative network with other researchers in your field;
  • develop your people management skills;
  • advance your understanding of how to complete research responsibly and promote a positive and inclusive culture.

Eligibility Criteria

• You can apply to this scheme if you are an early-career researcher and you are ready to design, plan and deliver your own innovative research project that aims to:
  • advance understanding in your field; and/or
  • develop methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques that could benefit health-related research.
  • Your research can be in any discipline – including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), experimental medicine, humanities and social science, clinical/allied health sciences, and public health – as long as it has the potential to improve human life, health and wellbeing, and aligns with their funding remit.
• Career stage and experience
  • You must have:
    • Completed a PhD (for example, in the life sciences) or an equivalent higher research degree. At the point of application you must have passed your viva examination; or
    • if you have not started a PhD or equivalent degree, at least four years’ equivalent research experience (for example, in the humanities and social sciences).
  • You can apply if you hold a permanent, open-ended or long term rolling contract and are based in a low- or middle-income country.
  • You may also have some postdoctoral experience in your proposed field of study, but no more than three years unless you can demonstrate how other factors have impacted on your research career.
• Host organisation
  • You must have sponsorship from an eligible host organisation in one of the following:
    • UK
    • Republic of Ireland
    • a low- or middle-income country (apart from India and mainland China).
  • It can be a:
    • higher education institution
    • research institute
    • non-academic healthcare organisation
    • not-for-profit organisation

Ineligible

• You are not eligible to apply if:
  • You have an existing tenured (salaried) post for the duration of the award (unless based in a low- or middle-income country). You can only relinquish an existing tenured (salaried) post to take up an Early-Career Award if your current post is not research-based.
  • You have made an application to this scheme and you are waiting for a decision.
  • You hold, or have held, an equivalent award at this career stage. An equivalent award does not include short-term funding.
• You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.

For more information, visit Wellcome.