Wellcome Trust Research Development Awards in Humanities, Social Science and Bioethics, 2020/2021
Deadline for preliminary applications: 3 March 2020
Deadline for full applications: Jan 2021
Career stage: Leading a research programme
Where your host organisation is based: Anywhere in the world
Level of funding: Up to £1 million
Duration of funding: 3 to 5 years
Who can apply
You can apply for a Research Development Award if you're part of an emerging or established research group working in health-related humanities, social sciences or bioethics.
Your research group (for example a cluster, centre or department) can be in one discipline, interdisciplinary, or focused on a theme or issue.
The research development programme you propose must:
- lead to a significant and sustainable research agenda that takes risks and pushes academic boundaries
- develop the careers of the people in your research group
- build a diverse and collaborative research community.
Programme leaders
As lead applicant, you must have experience of running a research programme or network, or of delivering complex projects.
You must have at least one coapplicant and no more than six. The number of coapplicants should be appropriate to your proposed activities. These researchers can be at any career stage.
Each applicant 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.
If you, or any coapplicants, 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. If this applies to you, or any coapplicants on your grant, you must commit at least 10% of your working hours to the programme. In this case, your host organisation must confirm details about your employment contract(s) or their policy on salary recovery costs.
You and your coapplicants can be based at the same organisation or at different organisations (for example a research collaboration between two universities).
Organisations can be of any size, based anywhere in the world.
As a group, you should have a good track record of attracting research funding, though not necessarily from Wellcome.
Your proposal
In your application, you must give a clear outline of how you'll develop a research agenda and support the careers of people in your research group.
This should include (but is not limited to):
- the significance of your proposed research agenda and how you are taking a risk and pushing academic boundaries
- how you'll shape the future direction of research in your field
- evidence that the researchers in your group have substantial shared research interests, relevant expertise and will work together well, for example you've collaborated with each other before, or been involved in similar teams
- the amount of time your group will spend on this award (ie through asking us for teaching replacement costs) and how the award fits in with your other academic commitments
- career development opportunities for non-permanent research staff, including the freedom they will have to pursue their own research as part of your wider research group
- your group's commitment to equality and inclusion, both in developing your research agenda and in managing the people it will bring together
- the activities you propose, for example networking, travelling, attending events, and awarding and running your own small research grants.
For full details or to apply visit the call webpage.
