Collaborative Awards in Medical Humanities

Wellcome is committed to supporting a thriving environment for the most innovative and challenging research on health in the humanities and social sciences (HSS). We’re pleased to announce two new, one-off funding calls that will help us to do this – the International Exchange Programmes and Research Development Awards.

To focus on these new initiatives, we're going to pause the HSS Investigator and Collaborative Awards schemes for one year from mid-2020. This will not affect current holders of awards under these schemes.

Collaborative Awards promote the development of new ideas and bring disciplines together to speed the pace of discovery. This scheme funds teams who are tackling major health-related questions in the humanities and social sciences that require a collaborative approach.

Eligibility and suitability

Who can apply

You can apply for a Collaborative Award if you have a team of two to six researchers. Everyone in the team should have a good track record in their area of research, relative to their career stage.

As the lead applicant, you must have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract, or the guarantee of one. Your salary must be paid by your host organisation in the UK, Republic of Ireland or a low-or middle-income country.

The other applicants in the team don't need permanent contracts. Those without permanent contracts can ask for salaries. 

You, and any other applicants with permanent contracts, can ask for replacement costs.

If you hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract but have to get your salary from external grant funding, you can ask us for this in your application. You must be based in the UK or a low- or middle-income country. Your host organisation must confirm details about your employment contract.

What we're looking for

We’re looking for teams to tackle research questions that can only be approached collaboratively. Teams can come from the same discipline or from a combination of disciplines. They can be from the same university department or a number of organisations (anywhere in the world).

Important factors when we evaluate your application are:

• the environment in which you do your research
• the support your host organisation provides
• the time you'll spend on the Collaborative Award, and how it fits in with your other academic commitments
• evidence that the team has the relevant expertise for the proposed research and will work together well, eg you’ve collaborated with each other before, or been involved in similar teams.

What we offer

A Collaborative Award is normally in the range of £1 million to £1.5 million, for up to five years. You should ask for a level and duration of funding that's justifiable for your career stage, research experience and the proposed research programme. Support includes:

• research expenses, including research assistance or PhDs
• research/teaching replacement
• conference and meeting costs

You can also apply for Research Enrichment funding to increase the impact of your work through activities in public engagement, open research, and diversity and inclusion.

What we don’t offer

We don't fund overheads unless they're included on this page (eg research management and support costs).

How to apply

You must submit your application through the Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker (WTGT).

If your project involves the digitisation of analogue material – including text, audio and video – for use over the web, please read our Technical guidelines for digitisation projects before you apply.

Stages of application

1. Submit your preliminary application

You must submit your application through the Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker.

View the Sample preliminary application form for Collaborative Awards in Humanities and Social Science.

We’ll assess your eligibility and suitability, and give you a decision within six weeks of the preliminary application deadline. If suitable, we will invite you to submit a full application.

2. Submit your full application

We only accept invited full applications.

View the  Sample full application form for Collaborative Awards in Humanities and Social Science [PDF 255KB]

3. Shortlisting

Full applications are shortlisted by either the Medical Humanities Investigator and Collaborative Award Expert Review Group or the Social Science and Bioethics Investigator and Collaborative Award Expert Review Group, depending on the area of your proposed research. If successful, we’ll invite you to an interview.

4. External written peer review

We'll seek written comments from external expert reviewers. We will send you some of their unattributed comments before your interview.

If peer reviews indicate that your application isn’t competitive, we may withdraw it.

5. Interviews

At the interview, you’ll be asked to make a 15-minute presentation and answer questions from the Humanities and Social Science Selection Panel. Interviews take place at the Wellcome offices in London. We can pay your travel and accommodation costs.

Disabled applicants

If you are disabled or have a chronic health condition, we can support you with the application process.

Dates

We consider applications twice a year. You must submit your application by 17:00 (GMT/BST) on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.

Occasionally, we may encourage particular areas of research and/or training. In these instances, we may change the application deadlines so that we can consider bids from different organisations alongside each other.