Wellcome Trust
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News (March 2012): The Wellcome Trust has set up an 'International Recruiting Supplement' for a person outside the UK (regardless of citizenship) at the time of application for a Senior Research Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Science, Senior Research Fellowship in Clinical Science, Principal Research Fellowship, New Investigator Award or Senior Investigator Award. The Trust will provide up to £1m in the first year of the award for 'allowable costs' (lab equipment, research space renovation, salary, increased relocation allowance both for the candidate and their lab members) to 'facilitate the recruitment of exceptional researchers into the UK.' An institutional matching fund of 1:1 'will normally be required'. There are no specific deadlines for the applications for this supplement, but if the Trust approves the supplement (on the basis of the candidate's CV, brief statement of research interests and plans and an outline budget for the supplement) it must be written into an application for a Fellowship or Investigator Award and submitted to the Trust as part of the next available deadline for that award. Please see the Wellcome Trust's deadlines for biomedical science applications and its deadlines for medical history and humanities applications, as well as the Wellcome Trust memo: new 'International Recruiting Supplement' |
- Background information on the Wellcome Trust
- Preparing your application
- Investigator Awards and Senior Investigator Awards
- Using the e-Grants system
- Preparing a Case for Support
- Ethics
- Costing and Budgeting
- Justification of Resources
- I'm ready to submit my application - what should I do now?
- The application has been submitted - what next?
- Managing your award
Background information on the Wellcome Trust
| Areas supported | Biomedical science (Immunology and Infectious Disease; Neuroscience and Mental Health; Physiological Sciences; Molecules, Genes and Cells; and Populations and Public Health), Technology transfer, Medical humanities, Public engagement, Capital funding and Strategic awards |
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| Types of funding |
Research Grants (Programme & Projects Grants - to be replaced by Investigator Awards from October 2010), Fellowships (Biomedical & Clinical), Capital funding and Strategic awards, Technology Transfer, International, Museums & Galleries, Postgraduate Training |
| Funding Guide | See Wellcome Trust website |
| Wellcome Trust funding opportunities | On the Wellcome website On ResearchProfessional.com. You will need to log in or click on Campus Access to view these. |
| Wellcome Trust Research Income at Oxford | 2010/11: Oxford received £57.8M (the largest single research funder of the university) |
| Applications and Award Activity at Oxford | 2010/11: 160 applications submitted to the value of £128.2M. 132 new awards accepted worth £114.9M, including financial amendments to existing awards (University financial year Aug-Jul) |
Preparing your application
It is essential that you refer to the Wellcome Trust's general funding guidance and conditions and any specific guidance issued by the Wellcome Trust with the funding call or opportunity. Contact the Wellcome Trust directly for further guidance.
If you are thinking of putting together a grant application, please get in touch with your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator as soon as possible (and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline), so that they can provide advice and assistance with the preparation of your proposal. The sooner you get in touch, the more they will be able to help.
Guidance is provided on the Trust's website on eligibility to apply for all schemes.
Further Information
Step by Step Guide to Applying for Funding- a general guide for researchers to applying for funding, including the internal processes at Oxford.
Investigator Awards and Senior Investigator Awards
Please see our Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards and Senior Investigator Awards page for further information.
Using the e-Grants system
Most applications to the Wellcome Trust (with the exception of preliminary applications, Public Engagement grants and Technology Transfer grants where paper applications are still used) must be prepared and submitted via the Trust's e-Grants system.
You will need to register for an e-Grants account in order to create and submit an application (we advise that you do this as soon as possible). Your Co-Investigators will also need an e-Grants account.
e-Grants is a web-based system which allows applicants to create and edit grant applications using a series of web forms. You can also grant access to Co-Investigators or other colleagues so that they can view and edit the application directly in the system.
e-Grants routes the applications for review and approval on behalf of Heads of Department and Research Services and then submission to the Trust.
Approval must be obtained from all named collaborators on the project. The collaborators themselves can do this, by creating their own profiles on the e-Grants system.
Research Services does have editing rights for applications on the e-Grants system. However there are certain sections of the form that can only be edited by the applicant, as information is downloaded from their personal profile. Any amendments to the profile will automatically update the application form.
Where the application involves research leave, a statement of support from the Head of Department must accompany the application. For a Principal Research Fellow, where the University is committing to paying 50% of their salary (for the duration of the renewal period), the Wellcome Trust require approval from the Vice-Chancellor or equivalent i.e. Divisional approval.
Further Information
Preparing a Case for Support
This is the part of the application where you will describe your proposed project and why you should be funded to carry it out.
Ensure that your case is well-structured and addresses the issues or questions raised by the Wellcome Trust in the call.
Familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria that will be used - and the weighting given to each.
When writing your proposal be aware of who will ultimately be reading and assessing it. This will not just be subject experts but also generalists sitting on review panels, as well as (in some cases) research users.
Use the advice and expertise of colleagues, especially those who have had successful proposals with the Wellcome Trust - it can be helpful to ask colleagues who are both expert and non-expert in your field to read and comment on your application.
As with all aspects of your application, don't overlook 'minor details'. The wrong font size or exceeding page limits will result in your application being returned by the funder - and sometimes not considered at all.
Ethics
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The e-Grants forms ask whether there are any ethical implications arising from the proposed research. This might include research involving human participants.
Further Information
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The University's policy on good conduct in research
Costing and Budgeting
Your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator will assist you to identify the costs of your project and also prepare a Resolve costing. Please contact them as soon as you are thinking about applying and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline. The Resolve costing will provide the financial information that you must include in the Je-S forms and, since this is the form that indicates Departmental approval of the costs of a project, it has to be provided to Research Services before the application can be approved and submitted by the University to the funder.
Funding from the Wellcome Trust constitutes eligible income for the purpose of HEFCE's Charity Support Funding.
Applications to the Wellcome Trust should be costed on a full economic cost (FEC) basis and these costs need to be included in the application as there is a specific FEC monitoring page. However, the Wellcome Trust will pay direct costs only, where an auditable record supports these costs.
The Trust will fund on a cost recovery basis, the access charges of equipment that was originally funded either by the Trust, or other sources, after the initial funding period has ended. Access charges for Wellcome Trust-funded equipment will only be considered where any maintenance contracts funded by the Wellcome Trust have expired. These charges may cover the costs of service contracts, running costs, staff time, materials, and consumables. The Trust will not pay any element of access charges that relate to depreciation cost.
For all Directly Incurred staff, the Wellcome Trust wants to see the NI and superannuation figure for the duration of the grant.
Further Information for researchers
Departmental administrators see guidance on Resolve costings
Justification of Resources
All applications must include a completed section setting out the justification for the resources requested. This is an opportunity to explain in words why you require the resources detailed in your budget.
Note that this is not justifying the costs (money) sought, rather the resources required to undertake the project, such as equipment or number of staff but also the level (seniority) of proposed staff and the proportion of their time they will dedicate to the project.
I'm ready to submit my application - what should I do now?
Firstly check that your application is complete and includes all the information required by the Wellcome Trust.
For electronic applications, you should then submit the application on e-Grants to your Head of Department. You should check that they are expecting this and have received it.
Once your Departmental approval has been obtained it is submitted by your Department via the e-Grants system to Research Services.
Research Services reviews applications on behalf of the University and will liaise with you and/or your Departmental Administrator over any queries or changes that might be needed to the application.
Research Services submits the approved application to the Wellcome Trust.
For schemes using paper applications, the application approved and signed by you and your Head of Department should be sent to your Research Services Divisional Team. Once approved and signed on behalf of the University it should be collected by the Department to be sent to the Wellcome Trust.
Further Information
Preparation and submission of Research Grant Applications
(36kb) - Roles and Responsibilites of Departments and Research Services including information on what Research Services reviews prior to submission of application to the funder
The application has been submitted - what next?
Assessment of grant applications is based on peer review. Comments on each application are sought from expert external referees. The applicant may then be invited to respond to an anonymised version of selected comments before the application is considered by a funding committee, which will decide whether or not to fund the application.
An interview forms part of the assessment process for many of the Wellcome Trust's career awards.
The Wellcome Trust advises that a decision is made within about four to six months of receipt of the completed full application, but certain awards are made once, twice or three times a year.
Applicants are generally notified of the outcome, in writing, shortly after a funding committee meeting has taken place.
Once a decision has been taken, the Trust normally provides feedback to applicants.
Do let your Departmental Administrator know the outcome of your application. Where it is to be funded they will liaise with you and Research Services regarding the acceptance of the award.
Managing your award
See Managing awards for the process at Oxford for accepting and managing awards.
All claims, invoices and financial statements to funders must go out from Research Accounts, never directly from Departments.
Research Services' information on the Trust's grant conditions relating to open access of Trust-funded outputs should also be noted.
The Wellcome Trust must approve any arrangements for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from Trust-funded research. Further advice can be obtained from Research Services' IP Rights Management Team.
Further Information
Wellcome Trust's position statement in support of open and unrestricted access to published research
Wellcome Trust's guidance on Managing a Grant - includes advice on starting a grant, finance and personnel, acknowledging support in publications and end of grant reporting