Wellcome Discovery Awards

You can apply for a Wellcome Discovery Award if you are a researcher who wants to pursue bold and creative research ideas. You must aim to make a major contribution to your research field by:

• generating significant shifts in understanding

and/or

• developing methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques that could benefit health-related research.

You will be expected to actively promote a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment within your team and across your organisation.

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 our funding remit .

The research can be in a single discipline or multidisciplinary.

An award can be held by an established researcher or a team of researchers led by an established researcher.

Whether you are applying as the sole applicant or the lead applicant for a team, you must have:

• international standing as a research leader in your field
• experience of leading innovative and creative research
• a track record of managing and training others.

If you are the lead applicant for a team, you must also be able to demonstrate you can drive and lead a substantial collaborative research programme.

You must be able to contribute at least 20% of your research time to the programme.

You must be based at an eligible host organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions . It must be in one of the following:

It must be a not-for-profit organisation. It can be a:

• higher education institution
• research institute
• non-academic healthcare organisation
• charity or social enterprise.

At the point of application, you should have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract, or the guarantee of one. The contract should not be conditional on receiving this award.

Your salary must be paid by your host organisation for the duration of the award. If you are based in a low- or middle-income country, you can ask for a contribution to your salary if you hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract and have to get your salary from external grant funding.

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.

Coapplicants can be at any career stage and based anywhere in the world apart from mainland China.

Each coapplicant must make a significant and essential contribution to the research proposal, for example designing the research, writing the application and/or managing the programme. They must be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to the programme.

Coapplicants must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions .

The organisation can be a not-for-profit:

• higher education institution
• research institute
• non-academic healthcare organisation
• charity or social enterprise.

It can also be a commercial organisation.

Coapplicants can request their salary if they have a permanent, open ended or long-term rolling contract and have to get their salary from external grant funding, or they are employed by a charity, social enterprise or commercial organisation. The amount they request must be proportionate to the time they will spend on the grant. 

Coapplicants without a permanent, open ended or long-term rolling contract can only request salary if they:

• Will spend at least 80% of their time on this grant. They can request their full salary. Their post does not need to be underwritten and can be contingent on the application being successful.
• Will spend less than 80% of their time on the grant. They can request salary proportionate to the time they will spend on the grant. The host 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 contingent on the application being successful.
• Are employed on the award as postgraduate research assistants. If they are to spend 100% of their time on the award their post does not need to be underwritten by the host organisation and can be contingent on the application being successful. 

Alternatively, coapplicants may get their salary through employment on another grant or from their employer.

Coapplicants can be based in the same or in different organisations, and come from any discipline, but the added value of the team approach must be clear.

Team size will depend on the proposed research. It will usually range from two to eight applicants, including the lead applicant.

We encourage lead applicants to put together diverse teams .

You can apply if you've been away from research (for example a career break, maternity leave, or long-term sick leave). We'll allow for this when we consider your application.

If you have retired, please contact us before applying.

If you are unsuccessful with an application to this scheme, you can submit one more full application for the same project. Significant changes are needed for the second application. You do not need to contact us first.

• An early-career researcher can hold one Early-Career Award and be a coapplicant on one other Wellcome award.
• A mid-career researcher can hold one Career Development Award and be a coapplicant on up to two other Wellcome awards. In their application for the second award the co-applicant must explain:
  • why no other applicant or co-applicant can provide the expertise that they bring to the project
  • how they will manage their research commitments across the three awards.
• An established researcher can be a lead applicant on two Discovery Awards, one as sole applicant and one as lead applicant for a team, or both as a lead applicant for a team. They can also be a coapplicant on up two other Wellcome awards. Current holders of Investigator Awards and Senior Research Fellowships cannot be a sole applicant for a Discovery Award. They may be the lead applicant for a team on a Discovery Award and a coapplicant on up to two other Discovery Awards or Collaborative Awards. 

Researchers cannot be a coapplicant on more than two Discovery Awards.

We will review your research proposal, skills and experience, and research environment.

To be competitive, your research proposal will be:

• Bold. It aims to deliver a significant shift in understanding and/or it provides a significant advance over existing methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques. It has the potential to stimulate new and innovative research.
• Creative. Your proposed approach is novel – it develops and tests new concepts, methods or technologies, or combines existing ideas and approaches in a new way.
• High quality. It is well-designed, clear, supported by evidence and the proposed outcomes/outputs are feasible.

We will review:

• your research outputs and contributions to the research community
• your previous contributions to, and plans for, developing team members and other researchers
• your leadership and management skills, and how you plan to develop these during the award
• how the programme will be managed and led
• your rationale for a team approach, team composition (including your approach to diversity, inclusion and career stage) and the contribution of each team member.

We will review:

• how you will contribute to the strategic aims of your organisation
• how your research environment(s) will help you develop your research capabilities, and leadership and management skills
• your experience of, and plans for, contributing to a positive and inclusive research culture.

You are not eligible to apply as a lead applicant on a Discovery Award if you are the lead applicant on two other Discovery Award applications and you are waiting for a decision.

You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.

You must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions .

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 your host organisation to:

• Guarantee that the space and resources you need have been agreed and will be made available to you from the start date through to the end date of your award.
• Explain how your research fits with the strategic aims of the organisation.
• Give you, and any staff employed on the grant, 10 days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuing professional development (CPD) in line with the Concordat. 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.

If your host organisation is a core-funded research organisation, a Discovery Award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.