Introduction

Wellcome Trust in the UK offers Investigator Awards that aim to enable independent researchers with an exciting research vision to address the most critical questions in science. The application for the current round of the awards is now open.

Details

July round application deadline: 16 July 2020 (5:00 BST)

Shortlisting: September 2020

Funding decision: Due to COVID-19, there will be o interview; instead, it will contact applicants with more details.

Location of eligible host institutions: the UK, Republic of Ireland, Low- or Middle-Income countries (Except China and India)

Career level: Leading a research program

Research type & areas: Basic- Clinical, Public Health

Duration of funding: up to seven years

Award value

It provides flexible funding of up to £3 million. You can hold an award both on a full-time and part-time basis.

Benefits

This fellowship support includes and covers:

• Travel cost and subsistence
• Research costs
• Fieldwork expenses
• Equipment expenses
• Overseas allowances

More specific details about its benefits can be found in the primary link.

Eligibility criteria

You can apply for an Investigator Award if you meet these requirements:

• You are an independent researcher with a compelling research vision who plans to address the essential questions in your field.
• The awards are also open to joint applications from two researchers whose complementary know-how is essential to deliver their shared vision.
• Wellcome Trust considers applications from researchers throughout their independent careers. For instance, applicants may be a newly appointed lecturer, a mid-career researcher, or a senior researcher.
• You should hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract, or the guarantee of one. Your host organization must pay your salary.

If you’re a more proven researcher, you should have gained more in terms of the novelty and impact of your research. You should have a track record of:

• Securing continued research support from major funding bodies
• Supporting and mentoring less experienced researchers.

If you’re in the early stages of your independent research career, you have to be able to demonstrate that you can drive advances in your discipline and that you have momentous promise for the future. You should have strong accomplishments related to your career stage of:

• leading innovative and creative programs of research
• making significant contributions to research, e.g., publications, patents and impacts on policy
• earning research grant funding.

You should also afford to show that you’re building an international reputation for excellence in your field.

Your research proposal must:

• describe an innovative and aspiring program of work that could alter your field
• illustrate the approaches you will apply to deliver that program of work
• be distinctive from, and not replace, activities formerly supported by other awards
• be within the funder’s scientific remit.

Evaluation criteria

Wellcome will assess your application based on:

• your achievement as an independent researcher, with respect to your career stage
• the significance of your research question(s) to your field
• the practicability of your proposal
• the appropriateness of your research environment
• the time you’ll devote to the Investigator Award, and how it fits in with your other academic commitments.

Criteria of your host organization

While assessing your application, the organization will look at the environment in which you suggest to do your research and the support your host organization promises.

You must present a statement of commitment together with your application. The statement should come from the most senior person in the relevant faculty, school, or division at your host organization stating:

• why the host organization believes you deserve an Investigator Award
• how your research proposal supplements and addresses the host organization’s strategic goals and priorities
• how the host organization will support you to make sure that the multi-faceted ambitions of your research proposal can be achieved.
• that space and resources you need have been agreed and will be made available to you from the beginning up to the end of your award term
• the nature of your employment contract and its conformity with Wellcome eligibility criteria for an Investigator Award.

How to apply?

Interested and eligible candidates can apply online for this award through Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker.

Application link

View the sample full application form for this award, which you will need in later stages of application.

For further details about the award, please read on Wellcome Investigator Awards.