Contract opportunities
At Wellcome, we invite organisations to apply for contract opportunities that support our mission to fund discovery research and find solutions to three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate.
Find research contract funding opportunities and requests for proposals (RFP) below.
Latest tender opportunities
Climate and Health
We are looking for expertise in the area of climate and air pollution to conduct a rapid scoping activity and triangulate our understanding of where fundamental research could improve the breadth, depth and robustness of assessments of the health impacts of climate mitigation actions.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of expression of interest and supplier Q&A: 14 May 2024
Submission of RFP response: 11 June 2024
Across submissions to climate and health funding calls we have observed an evidence gap in economic evaluation of the health impacts of climate action and inaction (HICA).
Researchers have also expressed a capacity gap in producing such evidence, while policymakers see this as critical evidence to substantiate the investment case of implementing climate actions (mitigation and adaptation) with positive health impacts. There is a need to strengthen the research capacity and build the evidence base of the economic impacts of HICA.
Eligibility: Open to all – please refer to the 'Composition of delivery team' section in the RFP document for more information on eligibility.
Submission of expression of interest and supplier Q&A: 16 May 2024
Submission of RFP response: 20 June 2024
Wellcome has funded ten research teams through its funding call 'Advancing climate mitigation policy solutions with health co-benefits in G7 countries'. We are looking for a supplier to deliver a programme that provides targeted support for these researchers by convening them as a cohort and providing tailored ongoing cohort support throughout the three-year duration of the funding awards. This will include organising at least one major convening a year.
Eligibility: Open to all. Please refer to the 'Composition of delivery team' section in the RFP document for more information on eligibility.
Submission of expression of interest and supplier Q&A: 16 April 2024
Submission of RFP response: 9 May 2024
Discovery Research
There are currently no contract opportunities for Discovery Research
Infectious Disease
The landscape review will identify key knowledge gaps in the available data and analytical tools to better understand the transmission dynamics and risks of mosquito-borne arboviruses. The review will help us understand the implications of cross-reactive and/or co-circulating arboviruses on host immune responses and clinical outcomes, transmission dynamics and impact on the development of effective intervention and control strategies.
The landscape review will be delivered through a phased approach with three objectives:
- To identify the availability of open and publicly accessible public health research datasets for mosquito-borne diseases relevant to the Infectious Disease Strategic Programme. These include dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, Yellow Fever and Rift Valley Fever in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
- To identify where there may be key data gaps for the five diseases and understand what the barriers are to data sharing and accessibility, and tools to overcome these challenges and drive collaboration across the key geographies.
- To convene and facilitate a two-day hybrid workshop for up to 70 delegates to share the findings from the landscape review.
Submission of interest and questions: May 24 2024
Submission of proposal: June 21 2024
Wellcome is organising a microbiome workshop from 11 to 13 September, bringing together various experts from the field, including researchers, industry representatives and funders. The total number of those invited will be 50 to 60 people. At the workshop, Wellcome will seek to identify and describe knowledge gaps and research needs within microbiome research and understand where we, as a funder, are best placed to act.
The workshop will be structured as a series of longer talks, short talks, panel discussions and breakout discussions. The emphasis will be on discussions and we would like everyone in the audience to contribute.
What we would like to achieve during the meeting is an increased awareness of the understudied aspects of the microbiome field and define immediate challenges relating to the development of microbiome-based interventions associated with mental health and infectious disease.
Submission of interest and questions: 10 May 2024
Submission of quote: 24 May 2024
Antibiotic surveillance in humans, animals and the environment is critical to inform action on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Global systems for surveillance of antibiotic consumption (for example, from import and sales data) exist for humans and animals but capture only partial information. Point prevalence survey methods and reporting systems were developed to capture antibiotic use in hospitals where most antibiotics are used in many countries. Therefore, community antibiotic use (ABU) data are reliant on research studies which are ad hoc and use a variety of methods and metrics.
At a country level, AMR coordinating committees require ABU surveillance data in humans and animals to inform baselines and intervention strategies. However, there is no harmonised guidance or protocol to support community-level antibiotic surveillance in humans, animals or the environment.
To fill this gap, SEDRIC will be conducting a study on ABU in the community and is seeking individuals with relevant technical expertise to work as consultants on an ABU project. Our aim is to develop best practice guidance for antibiotic surveillance beyond consumption and facility-level data in different settings.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of RFQ: 22 April 2024
Mental Health
We are looking for a supplier to scope and make recommendations for a new major global prize in mental health science.
This prize would highlight cutting-edge mental health science that has made, or has the potential to make, a significant difference to the lives of people experiencing mental health problems. We would envisage a project consisting of activities such as desk research, surveys, and focus groups (for example, of other funders and prize-awarding organisations).
Eligibility: Open to all. We expect the supplier’s team to be diverse in membership and inclusive in practice. We also expect the supplier to meaningfully and ethically involve and collaborate with people with lived experience in the design and delivery of the project.
Submission of expression of interest and questions: 13 May 2024
Submission of full proposals: 5 June 2024
Download the full RFP [PDF 192KB]
Effectively recruiting and retaining participants in clinical trials is a persistent problem in many fields of health research. Wellcome is commissioning research to understand:
- Whether there are any challenges to recruiting and retaining participants that are specific to mental health clinical trials.
- What the participant’s point of view is – why do participants join trials, why do they leave, what motivates them to stay engaged and are there any specific groups of people left behind by current approaches to solving recruitment and retention?
- How challenges with recruitment and retention are currently solved – what is the current state of the art? We’re particularly interested here in how digital tools are being used.
- What Wellcome can do to support innovation in the space.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of expression of interest and questions: 25 March 2024
Submission of full proposals: 22 April 2024
Wellcome's Mental Health team wants to commission several supplier teams to develop innovative lived experience collaborations in mental health research. We want these collaborations to create innovative, substantial and sustainable projects to advance lived experience involvement in mental health science, influence the field and help us achieve our mission.
We are interested in supporting projects that address one or more of the following aims:
- Developing new and sustainable methods and models of embedding lived experience in areas where such practice is less well established.
- Expanding, strengthening and developing culturally and contextually appropriate methods and models for innovative lived experience partnerships across low- and middle-income countries.
- Developing new approaches to advance lived experience leadership in mental health research.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of questions: 30 April 2024 (deadline has been extended)
Submission of expressions of interest online form: 9 July 2024
Invited suppliers will be asked to submit full proposals in line with the RFP timetable. Please do not submit a full proposal unless you have been invited to do so by Wellcome after the expressions of interest stage.
Download the full RFP [PDF 225KB]
Other contract opportunities
Data for Science and Health:
Effectively recruiting and retaining participants in clinical trials is a persistent problem in many fields of health research. Wellcome is commissioning research to understand whether and how recruitment and retention are difficult specifically within mental health, and what we can do to support innovation in the space. We want to know:
- Whether there are any challenges recruiting and retaining participants that are specific to mental health clinical trials.
- What the participant’s point of view is – why do participants join trials, why do they leave, what motivates them to stay engaged; and are there any specific groups of people left behind by current approaches to solving recruitment and retention.
- How challenges with recruitment and retention are currently solved – what is the current state of the art. We’re particularly interested here in how digital tools are being used.
- What Wellcome can do to support innovation in the space.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of expression of interest and questions: 25 March 2024
Submission of RFP response: 22 April 2024
Longitudinal datasets that include mental health-relevant data are a vital resource in deepening our understanding of how anxiety, depression and psychosis develop, persist and resolve. Participant data spans the biological, psychological and social domains and is often collected at multiple time points over many years.
Research commissioned by Wellcome (Landscaping International Longitudinal Datasets report, 2023) has identified 3,000 longitudinal datasets that show promise for anxiety, depression and psychosis research. However, there are challenges to unlocking this value.
Wellcome wants to pilot a global, interdisciplinary learning network to make significant headway on these challenges.
Should the pilot be successful, we will look to support the scale up and roll out of such a community.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of expression of interest and questions: 20 May 2024
Submission of RFP response: 17 June 2024
Research Environment:
There are currently no contract opportunities for Research Environment
Translation and Portfolio Integration:
We are seeking to engage an external expert to provide thought leadership and advisory support for a project focused on investigating regulatory pathways and systems for developing snakebite treatments. This time-limited project will contribute towards advancing Wellcome’s Snakebite programme.
The position requires up to two days per week which can be remote, in-person or hybrid, for a total of no more than 104 full working days (based on a seven hour workday), with an estimated duration of up to 12 months. The position offers a fixed fee of £700 per day.
Eligibility: External experts with experience in regulatory affairs related to medical products.
Deadline for submission of proposals: 21 June 2024
Strategy:
There are currently no contract opportunities for Strategy
Corporate Affairs:
Wellcome’s Brand team are looking to commission and collaborate with an organisation or consortium to carry out a large-scale methodologically robust quantitative survey in more than 100 countries around the world looking into people’s attitudes to science and health.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of expression of interest and supplier Q&A: 8 May 2024
Submission of full RFP response: 21 May 2024
Culture, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI):
There are currently no RFPs for CEDI
Who can apply?
We aim to make our contract opportunities open to all organisations, however there will be instances where we provide eligibility criteria based on the specific nature of what we are looking to procure. Please see each opportunity for specific eligibility criteria.
We do not contract with suppliers connected to the tobacco industry. For clarity, we define the tobacco industry as any company, entity or organisation (or groups or combinations of the same) whose business other than for an insignificant part (less than 10% of its revenue), is the development, production, promotion, marketing, or sale of tobacco in any country of the world. The term also includes any companies that are a subsidiary or a holding company or affiliate of the above. This also includes E-cigarette companies and non-tobacco related companies which are fully or partially owned by the tobacco industry.
Diversity and inclusion are central to our strategy. We want to make sure everything we do – and everyone who works with us – upholds these principles. Our intention is to work with kindness and consideration and to value the wellbeing of everyone involved in the collaboration. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the application process, please let us know.
How to apply
Please send in your proposals electronically and refer to the individual RFP documents above for specific timelines and response requirements.
Grants: When funding someone to do something where Wellcome expects to receive nothing in return (except acknowledgement and progress reports), this will normally be through a grant.
Contracts: When funding someone to do something where Wellcome expects to receive something in return (such as goods, services, rights or other benefits), this will normally be through a contract.
| Grant | Contract | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rights | When we award a grant, we have no right to receive anything back – except acknowledgment of our funding and reports as detailed in the grant conditions. We can require that the grant is spent on the agreed activities, but we can’t direct how those activities are carried out. We can demand repayment if grant money is spent on something else, but not if we simply don’t like the outputs. We can terminate a grant, cancelling any future payments, at any time and for any reason in line with the grant conditions. |
When we award a contract, we have the right to receive what we are paying for as specified in the legally binding agreement. Depending on the exact terms, we will be able to require a certain level of quality and punctuality. If the supplier falls short, we may be able to make them do the work again or refund the money; we might also be able to sue for compensation. A contract can be terminated only in accordance with its provisions, which may require us to give a specific notice period or make payments even after termination. |
| Tax |
We generally won’t need to pay VAT on a grant. |
VAT is added to all UK invoices. Overseas taxes are charged as applicable. |
| Process |
Grants are usually awarded as a result of an application process, with appropriate types of review and approval. Most of our grants are awarded under our funding schemes. |
Contracts are usually awarded as a result of a procurement exercise. |
We don’t want your proposal to be limited in scope and ambition. However, there may be cases where a set budget is necessary and if so, we do expect you to submit a proposal that is within that.
This is a contract and not a grant. It should be costed as part of the supplier's budget in order to complete the activity on time and in full.
We can pay in various currencies please ensure this is clear on your proposal.
The main VAT requirement is to account for reverse charge VAT at 20% on any B2B (business to business) services received from overseas. This is to provide a level playing field for all businesses, that is UK VAT is payable on services regardless of where the supplier is based. In the case of a UK supplier, the supplier will charge UK VAT at 20% on its services. Where the supplier is based abroad, no VAT is charged by the supplier but the responsibility to account for VAT is shifted to the recipient, who then accounts for the VAT as if the supply was made in the UK.
We always endeavour to provide feedback to suppliers who make it through to the interview stage. Some panels may also provide feedback at earlier stages, but this is at their discretion.
Unless specified on the RFP all contract opportunities are open to all organisations including individuals.
If the lead organisation is working with a sub-processor (collaborator), that sub-processor does not have to complete the Third-Party Risk Assessment form.
The lead organisation must however tell Wellcome who is their sub-processor and send us their independent security certificate and/or security audit report for review as required in the Third-Party Risk Assessment form.
We cannot contract to any countries on the UK government financial sanctions list.
Useful documents
How to stay connected with us
Sign up to receive email updates about new contract opportunities.
Expert Advisors:
Complete this form if you have a specialised area in which you can contractually assist our teams in their activities.
Facilitators:
Complete this form if you have expertise in facilitating workshops, producing write-ups of events and other facilitation activities.
By completing these forms you consent to be added to our contact database and be contacted via email when new requests for proposals are uploaded to Wellcome's website. There may also be occasions when we contact you about contract opportunities that are not listed on the website.
Contact us
The Procurement team supports Wellcome on all matters relating to procurement. We operate as business partners who provide guidance and run procurement exercises with our stakeholders.
Please do not use this address to submit expressions of interest or proposals. Please refer to the email address provided in the relevant contract opportunity document as to where these should be sent.
Previous opportunities
Here, you can find some of our previous RFPs that have now expired, including an overview of each project, to enable suppliers to understand the format and structure.
The Strategic Partnerships team is seeking an individual consultant to provide dedicated expertise on Climate and Health partnerships work as well as support Wellcome’s wider Strategic Partnerships function.
Eligibility: Individual consultant with partnerships expertise and strong understanding of the climate and health research ecosystem
Initial response deadline: 7 July 2022
Wellcome would like to partner with BIOVAC to commission a report, based on a literature review/landscape analysis, on how to build an enabling environment for the African continent to increase its end-to-end manufacture of vaccines. We are interested in understanding what the barriers to vaccine development and manufacturing on the African continent are and what strategies and actions can be taken to increase the manufacture of vaccines.
Eligibility: Open to all countries
Initial Response Deadline: 27 June 2022
Wellcome’s Discovery Research team aims to design new funding activities to reduce barriers that are slowing down and/or blocking progress in the field of Bioimaging. Wellcome has a history of supporting innovation in bioimaging and our current portfolio of investments has supported work that ranges from new tools and technologies to infrastructure and data repositories. We want to progress our work even further and identify new key areas where Wellcome investments in bioimaging methodologies, equipment, tools and technology development (across the scales of life, from atoms to humans) will afford field-opening, filed-shaping and field-advancing opportunities.
The purpose of the RFP is to commission a delivery partner to provide critical insights on the following fundamental questions:
- What are the nascent technologies/methodologies in the field of bioimaging that will enable researchers to formulate new hypotheses and address new fundamental questions for life, health, and wellbeing?
- What are specific barriers (in terms of technology, methodology, hardware, software, and access) that are limiting progress in the field of bioimaging in both High-Income Countries (HICs) and Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)?
- Who are the key leaders on an international level that are driving development in the field of bioimaging?
Wellcome is intending for this piece of work to equally cover both, the UK/HIC and LMIC landscape, addressing the different needs in both settings.
Eligibility: Open to all countries
Response deadlines:
Expressions of Interest – 20 May 2022
Full proposals – 6 June 2022
We’re looking to appoint a bold and creative agency/consultant to determine how we can best use photography to advance our brand and strategy. As well as reviewing the effectiveness of Wellcome Photography Prize as a vehicle for our brand, we need to better understand how our audiences respond to photography and how to ensure the imagery we use reflects our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Eligibility: Open to all countries
Initial response deadline: Closed
We’re looking to commission a team to identify and evaluate the properties, strengths, and weaknesses of selected measures for depression, anxiety and psychosis and to produce a toolkit for their use by researchers, funders and journals. The team will also produce an implementation plan to encourage the uptake of common metrics by key stakeholder groups.
Eligibility: Open to all countries
Initial response deadline: 5 May 2022
Download the full RFP [PDF 573KB]
Watch a recording of our webinar from 11 April 2022 to find out more.
