Wellcome Data Science Ideathon

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). 

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. 

See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do. 

Partners and dependents 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. 

See a list of low- and middle-income countries , as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 

You can ask for the following allowances. You need to provide estimated costs as accurately as possible. 

Outward and return travel: 

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. 

All fares should be: 

Baggage and freight shipping allowance: 

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. 

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. 

Medical and travel insurance: 

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. 

Visas and vaccinations: 

We will pay the costs of visas, vaccinations and anti-malaria treatment. 

Housing security: 

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. 

Accommodation and subsistence: 

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. 

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.