Collaborative Awards in Science

Who can apply

Collaborative Awards are for teams of researchers bringing together the relevant expertise and experience to address the most important scientific problems.  

Each applicant must be essential to the proposed collaborative research and have:

• Proven research expertise and experience in their field.
• An academic or research post (or equivalent).
• A salary for the duration of the award period. If this is not in place, your employing organisation must provide a guarantee of salary support for the duration of the award.

Members of the team must have proven experience in collaborative research and consist of independent research groups.

Team size will depend on the proposed research, but should generally have more than two applicants, and no more than seven. Teams may be based in the same or in different organisations, and must bring different expertise or disciplines to the research question.

Applicants should usually be based at eligible organisations in the UK, Republic of Ireland, or low- or middle-income countries. However, we can make exceptions for projects that need specific expertise or resources provided by team members based in other countries.

Go to the World Bank website to see a list of low- and middle-income countries.

What we're looking for

Your proposal should describe a significant piece of work that addresses the most important questions, in an area relevant to the mission of the Wellcome Trust. 

You should be able to demonstrate why the scientific problem you are tackling can only be solved through an integrated, collaborative team effort.

We encourage interdisciplinary research collaborations, although they are not essential. We also encourage applications that propose interdisciplinary research across our Science, Humanities and Social Science and Innovations teams.

A Collaborative Award can be up to £4 million and last for up to five years, but requests must be appropriate to the proposed research. Our support includes:

• research expenses directly related to your proposal
  • staff

    We will cover the salary costs of all staff, full or part time, who will work on your Collaborative Award. Staff members typically include research assistants or technicians employed on your grant. If you’re doing fieldwork or clinical studies in a low- or middle-income country, we’ll consider requests for more research staff.

    We don’t usually provide a salary for the applicants for this scheme.

    How to cost salaries for research staff

    Staff salaries should be appropriate to skills, responsibilities and expertise. You should ask your host organisation to use their salary scales to calculate these costs, which should include:

    • basic salary
    • employer’s contributions, including any statutory obligations (eg National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs
    • any incremental progression up the salary scale
    • locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.

    You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed: if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate. For Year 1 include any known pay awards for this period or an assumed percentage equivalent to our current inflation rate of 1.6% if this hasn’t been confirmed.

    From Year 2 onwards, we’ll automatically increase the salaries, based on our current inflation allowance rates.

    Find out more about the different staff categories and employing staff.

    We may make a contribution towards the salary of departmental technicians funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and its equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. You will need to provide a full audit record of their time on your project.

    Visa and work permit costs

    If you have named researchers on your grant whose salaries will be funded by Wellcome, you can ask for visa costs to help them take up their posts at the host organisation. You can also ask for:

    • Visa costs for the researcher’s partner and dependent children.
    • Essential associated costs, such as travel to attend appointments at a visa application centre or embassy. You’ll need to justify this. 
  • materials and consumables

    We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your proposed research, including:

    • laboratory chemicals and materials (eg reagents, isotopes, peptides, enzymes, antibodies, gases, proteins, cell/tissue/bacterial culture, plasticware and glassware)
    • associated charges for shipping, delivery and freight.
  • animals

    You can ask for funds to buy animals if they are essential to your project. We will also fund the charge-out rates for animal house facilities, but only if your organisation uses full economic costing methodology. These costs include:

    • running costs (including animal maintenance,  any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
    • appropriate estates costs
    • cage and equipment depreciation costs, but not building depreciation costs.

    We may not pay the full charge-out rate for an animal house facility if we've provided significant funding towards the infrastructure and/or core support of the facility.

    If your organisation doesn’t use full economic costing methodology to establish charge-out rates for animal house facilities, you can ask for funds to cover:

    • the cost of buying animals
    • running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
    • staff costs, eg contributions towards the salaries of animal house technicians.

    We won’t provide estates or depreciation costs.

  • equipment

    Equipment purchase

    You can ask for items of equipment that are essential to your proposed research project. Costs may include purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training, where necessary.

    We will cover VAT and import duties if:

    • the usual UK exemptions on equipment used for medical research don’t apply
    • you’re applying from a non-UK organisation, and you can show these costs can’t be recovered.

    If an item of equipment costs £100,000 or more, we normally expect a contribution from the host organisation or another source. As a guide, this would be at least:

    • 10% on an item that costs £100,000 or more
    • 20% on an item that costs £500,000 or more.

    In some cases we may expect a larger contribution. We’ll discuss this with you after we’ve assessed your application.

    Contributions can include benefits in kind, such as refurbishment or the underwriting of a key support post.

    Equipment maintenance

    We will cover maintenance costs for equipment if:

    • you are requesting it in your application
    • it is equipment we have already funded and the original award used to purchase the equipment has ended
    • it is equipment we have already funded, it is over five years old, and it’s cost effective to keep maintaining it
    • it is equipment funded by another source and you are applying from an organisation in a low- or middle-income country.

    We won’t cover maintenance costs for equipment if there is a mechanism in place to recoup these costs through access charges.

  • access charges

    You can ask for the cost of access to shared equipment or facilities if they’re essential to your research project. These may include materials and consumables, plus a proportion of:

    • maintenance and service contracts
    • staff time costs for dedicated technical staff employed to operate the equipment or facility.

    We don’t cover the costs of:

    • estates and utilities
    • depreciation or insurance
    • other staff eg contributions towards departmental technical, administrative and management staff time.

    If the facilities or equipment were paid for by a Trust grant, you can only ask for access charges if:

    • the grant has ended
    • any support for running costs and maintenance contracts has ended.
  • research management and support costs

    We cover research management and support costs if:

    • your host organisation is in a low- or middle-income country.
    • your grant will be directly awarded to that organisation.

    These costs may include:

    • training costs, eg transferable skills and personal development training for you and any other people employed on your grant
    • costs for short-term professional training for administrative, technical and support staff
    • administration, eg grant management, technical and administrative services
    • other costs which are necessary for your research, eg computing and internet access costs, access to electronic resources, facility and running costs such as utilities, furniture, waste disposal and incineration, and building maintenance.

    How to apply for these costs

    You must

    • give a full breakdown of costs in your grant application form
    • explain why these costs are necessary to your research
    • include a letter from the finance director of your host organisation with your application, confirming that the costs are a true representation of the costs incurred.
  • travel and subsistence

    Travel costs

    Collaborative travel

    You can ask for travel and subsistence costs for collaborative visits for you and any staff employed on your grant. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.

    Conference attendance

    You can ask for a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees. The limits are:

    • Lead applicant – £2,000 a year
    • Applicants who are asking for a salary on the grant –  £2,000 a year
    • Staff employed on your grant – £1,000 each a year

    You’ll need to specify the amount you’re requesting for each person.

    Other travel

    We will pay for other essential visits, eg to facilities, for sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.

    Overseas research

    If you or any staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your home laboratory, you can ask for:

    • return travel costs
    • subsistence costs if you’ll be away from your host organisation for less than 12 months (see below for more information)
    • overseas allowances if you’ll be away from your host organisation for 12 months or more.

    You should use the most suitable and economical form of travel. Please include a breakdown for each part of your trip eg air fares and number of journeys.

    Subsistence costs

    If you're working overseas or away from your host organisation for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs.

    These include a daily allowance for living expenses.

    If your host organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.

    If your host organisation doesn't have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.

    You can ask for:

    • outward and return airfares

      We will pay the airfares at the beginning and end of your time abroad, for you, and if justified, your partner and dependent children. All flights should be economy class.  

    • freight allowance

      We will pay up to 80kg of additional airline baggage or unaccompanied airline freight for your outward and return journey.

    • health insurance (if you will be based outside the UK or Republic of Ireland)

      Your health insurance should be comprehensive and include emergency evacuation cover (if necessary) for you, your partner and dependent children.

    • visa/vaccination costs and any anti-malarial treatment for you, your partner and dependent children

    If you're away for more than one month but less than 12 months, you can also ask for:

    • reasonable actual rental costs (instead of subsistence)

    • housing security costs

      You can ask for these if you'll be based in a low- or middle-income country and they are necessary. Costs include guards, panic buttons and alarms. You should ask your employer for advice on the level of costs.

    If you're away for more than one month, receive a salary from an organisation in a low- or middle-income country and will be based in a high-income country, you can also ask for:

    • up to £20 a day to cover any extra costs, eg transport.

  • overseas allowances

    If you or any staff will be spending 12 months or more in another country, we’ll help you with the costs of working on the project overseas.

    Our overseas allowances are based on the assumption that you’ll be paying income tax, either in your home country, or the country you will be working in. Your personal tax is your responsibility.

    We have 4 categories of allowances for this scheme:

    1. You are employed in the UK and will be working in a low- or middle-income country, including one of our Major Overseas Programmes (MOPs)

    You need to provide the following costs, as accurately as possible.

    • outward and return airfares

      We will pay the airfares at the beginning and end of your time abroad, for you, your partner and dependent children. All flights should be economy class.  

    • freight allowance up to £8,000 (£4,000 each way)

    • BUPA Worldwide Medical Insurance with the Option of Worldwide Medical Plus, including emergency evacuation cover for you and your family

    • visa/vaccination costs and anti-malarial treatment for you, your partner and dependent children

    • a contribution towards housing costs

      Up to:

      • £3,000 a year if you are single
      • £4,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
      • £5,000 a year if your children are travelling with you

      If you will be working at one of the MOPs you can ask for a higher contribution. You should ask the MOP administrators for advice on the level of costs you can ask for.

    • housing security costs

    • education allowance

      We will give you an education allowance if you will:

      • have dependent children travelling with you 
      • be working in a location where there isn’t a free education in English of the same standard as the UK.

      The allowance covers:

      • 90% of nursery school fees for 3 to 4 year olds up to a maximum of 15 hours a week
      • 90% of local junior school fees
      • 90% of local secondary school fees
      • 90% of UK boarding school fees if both parents and/or guardians will be living outside the UK                   
      • economy class return airfares for any children at a UK boarding school, at the beginning and end of each school term.

      The allowance doesn’t cover:

      • education costs for your children over the age of 18, once they have finished secondary school, eg university fees.
    • annual leave airfares

      If you are spending two or more years in another country, we’ll pay a contribution towards annual leave airfares for you, your partner and dependent children to return to the UK.

      The number of return flights we’ll pay for depends on how long you’ll be spending overseas:

      • 24-35 months: 1 annual leave flight
      • 36-47 months: 2 annual leave flights
      • 48-59 months: 3 annual leave flights

      Flights should be economy class.

    2. You are employed in the UK and will be working in a high-income country

    You need to provide the costs for outward and return airfares, health insurance and education allowance if you need them. These should be as accurate as possible. We will work out the other costs.

    • outward and return airfares

      Your funds can cover the airfares at the beginning and end of your time abroad, for you, your partner and dependent children. All flights should be economy class.  

    • freight allowance up to £8,000 (£4,000 each way)

    • BUPA Worldwide Medical Insurance with the Option of Worldwide Medical Plus for you and your family

    • a contribution of £200 towards visa/vaccination costs for you, your partner and dependent children

    • a contribution towards housing costs

      Up to:

      • £3,000 a year if you are single
      • £4,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
      • £5,000 a year if your children are travelling with you
    • education allowance

      You can use the funds to cover an education allowance if you will:

      • have dependent children travelling with you 
      • be working in a location where there isn’t a free education in English of the same standard as the UK.

      The allowance can cover:

      • 90% of nursery school fees for 3 to 4 year olds up to a maximum of 15 hours a week
      • 90% of local junior school fees
      • 90% of local secondary school fees
      • 90% of UK boarding school fees if both parents and/or guardians will be living outside the UK                   
      • economy class return airfares for any children at a UK boarding school, at the beginning and end of each school term.

      The allowance can't cover education costs:

      • if you'll be working in an English-speaking high-income country as you will usually have access to suitable public/state schools for your children
      • education costs for your children over the age of 18, once they have finished secondary school, eg university fees.
    • annual leave airfares

      If you are spending two or more years in another country, you can use some of your funds towards annual leave airfares for you, your partner and dependent children to return to the UK.

      The rates are:

      • £500 a year if you are single
      • £1,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
      • £1,300 a year if your children are travelling with you

      The number of return flights it can cover depends on how long you’ll be spending overseas:

      • 24-35 months: 1 annual leave flight
      • 36-47 months: 2 annual leave flights
      • 48-59 months: 3 annual leave flights

      Flights should be economy class.

    3. You are not employed in the UK, but will be working in the UK

    You need to provide the costs for outward and return airfares, if you need them, as accurately as possible. We will work out the other costs.

    • outward and return airfares

      We will pay the airfares at the beginning and end of your time in the UK, for you, your partner and dependent children. All flights should be economy class.  

    • freight allowance of £1,000

    • a contribution of £200 towards visa/vaccination costs for you, your partner and dependent children

    • a contribution towards housing costs

      Up to:

      • £3,000 a year if you are single
      • £4,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
      • £5,000 a year if your children are travelling with you
    • annual leave airfares

      If you are spending two or more years in the UK, we’ll pay a contribution towards annual leave airfares for you, your partner and dependent children to return to your place of primary residence.

      The rates are:

      • £500 a year if you are single
      • £1,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
      • £1,300 a year if your children are travelling with you

      The number of return flights we’ll pay for depends on how long you’ll be spending overseas:

      • 24-35 months: 1 annual leave flight
      • 36-47 months: 2 annual leave flights
      • 48-59 months: 3 annual leave flights

      Flights should be economy class.

    4. You are not employed in the UK and will be working in another overseas country

    You need to provide the costs for outward and return airfares, health insurance and, if you need them, anti-malarial treatment, housing security and education allowance. These should be as accurate as possible. We will work out the other costs.

    • outward and return airfares

      We will pay the airfares at the beginning and end of your time abroad, for you, your partner and dependent children. All flights should be economy class.  

    • freight allowance of £1,000

    • health insurance and anti-malarial treatment (if needed) for you, your partner and dependent children 

    • a contribution of £200 towards visa/vaccination costs for you, your partner and dependent children

    • a contribution towards housing costs

      Up to:

      • £3,000 a year if you are single
      • £4,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
      • £5,000 a year if your children are travelling with you

    • housing security costs if you will be working in a low- or middle-income country

    • education allowance

      We will give you an education allowance if you will:

      • have dependent children travelling with you 
      • be working in a location where there isn’t a free education of the same standard as your home country.

      The allowance covers:

      • 90% of nursery school fees for 3 to 4 year olds up to a maximum of 15 hours a week
      • 90% of local junior school fees
      • 90% of local secondary school fees
      • 90% of home country boarding school fees if both parents and/or guardians will be living abroad
      • economy class return airfares for any children at a boarding school, at the beginning and end of each school term.

      The allowance doesn’t cover education costs:

      • if you'll be working in an English speaking high-income country as you will usually have access to suitable public/state schools for your children
      • for your children over the age of 18, once they have finished secondary school, eg university fees.
    • annual leave airfares

      If you are spending two or more years in another country, we’ll pay a contribution towards annual leave airfares for you, your partner and dependent children to return to your place of primary residence.

      The rates are:

      • £500 a year if you are single
      • £1,000 a year if your partner is travelling with you
      • £1,300 a year if your children are travelling with you

      The number of return flights we’ll pay for depends on how long you’ll be spending overseas:

      • 24-35 months: 1 annual leave flight
      • 36-47 months: 2 annual leave flights
      • 48-59 months: 3 annual leave flights

      Flights should be economy class.

  • fieldwork expenses

    We cover fieldwork costs if they’re essential and you can justify them. Costs can include:

    • survey and data collection, including communication and data collection services and any associated costs such as essential field materials, travel costs and language translation services
    • the purchase, hire and running costs of vehicles dedicated to your project
    • expenses for subjects and volunteers, including the recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel costs
    • statistical analysis.

    You can ask for other fieldwork costs that aren’t listed here, but you’ll need to justify them.

  • inflation allowance

    We will add an inflation allowance to your award.

    How we calculate your inflation allowance

    Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award. If the costs in your application are in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars, you’ll receive the following allowance:

    Award duration         Inflation allowance
      (in months)                  
           0-12                           0.0%
         13-24                           0.8%
         25-36                           1.6%  
         37-48                           2.4%
         49-60                           3.3%
         61-72                           4.1%
         73-84                           4.9%   

    These rates are calculated using compound inflation at 1.6% a year from Year 2 onwards.

    If your costs are in any other currency, we will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based.

    What to include in your application

    The costs in your application must be based on current known costs, excluding inflation.

    You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed; if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate.

    The Trust’s studentship stipend scales for non-clinical/basic science PhD studentships include an annual increase for inflation.

  • publication costs

    You can ask for costs for page charges and/or costs for colour prints for your original research papers.

    You can also ask for the costs of publishing other material which is essential to the project, such as:

    • the proceedings of a workshop or conference we’ve funded
    • questionnaires, recruitment material, newsletters etc for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
    • the results of a clinical trial or epidemiological study
    • public engagement materials where dissemination (including printing and publishing) is a key activity of the project.

    Open access charges

    If your organisation receives block funding through the UK’s Charity Open Access Fund you can ask it to cover these costs. If not, we’ll supplement your grant.

    We don’t cover open access article processing charges.

  • clinical research costs

    If you need to carry out clinical trials or research using NHS patients or facilities, we will cover some of the research costs.

    Annex A of the guidelines for attributing the costs of health and social care research and development (AcoRD) sets out the costs we cover, and which costs should be funded through the Department of Health in England, or its equivalent in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

    Further information on funding for clinical trials.

  • other costs

    Costs you may ask for (you will have to justify these costs in your application):

    • specialist publications that are relevant to the research and not available in institutional libraries
    • consultancy fees
    • expenses for subjects and volunteers – includes recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel, as well as interviewee expenses
    • reasonable research-associated costs related to the feedback of health-related findings but not any healthcare-associated costs
    • costs associated with delivering data management and sharing plans
    • recruitment, advertising and interviewee travel costs for staff to be employed on the grant
    • purchase, hire and running costs of project-dedicated vehicles
    • limited capital building or refurbishment essential to your project
    • PhD student fees for postgraduate research assistants employed on your grant
    • formal transferable skills and personal development training.

    Costs we won’t pay:

    • estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities. This also includes phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study.*
    • research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record*
    • charge-out costs for major facilities* – departmental technical and administrative services, and use of existing equipment
    • cleaning, waste and other disposal costs*

    *We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.

    • indirect costs – this includes general administration costs such as personnel, finance, library, room hire and some departmental services
    • office furniture, such as chairs, desks, filing cabinets, etc.
    • clothing such as lab coats, shoes, gloves, protective clothing
    • non-research related activities, eg catering, room and venue hire for staff parties, team-building events and social activities
    • indemnity insurance (insurance cover against claims made by subjects or patients associated with a research programme)
    • patent costs
    • ethics reviews, unless you are in a low- or middle-income country
    • radiation protection costs.

    Costs guidance [PDF 26KB] on the types of costs that can/cannot be charged on biomedical science research grants.

You can also apply for public engagement funds to involve the public in your research and inspire learning.

What we don’t offer

We don't fund on a proportion of full economic costs in UK universities.

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

Start your application

Stages of application

You should discuss the scope of your proposal and suitability for the scheme with us before you submit your full application. Please contact the relevant member of our Science division.

1. Submit your preliminary application

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

2. Shortlisting

   If eligible, our senior science staff may assess your proposal’s initial suitability and competitiveness for the scheme. 

3. Submit your full application

   If your preliminary application is successful, we'll invite you to submit a full application. 

   View the  Sample full application form for Collaborative Awards in Science [PDF 2.1MB]

4. Scientific review

   An expert review group will review your application.

   If shortlisted, we will invite you for an interview. We'll give you at least two weeks' notice. 

5. External written peer review

   We’ll seek written comments from external expert reviewers, including members of our Peer Review College. Unattributed comments will be sent to you before your interview.

   If peer reviews indicate that your application is not competitive, it will be withdrawn at this stage.

6. Interview

   You will be interviewed by our Interview Panel at the Wellcome Trust offices in London.

Dates

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

April 2016 round

• Preliminary application deadline

  26 April 2016

• Full application deadline

  20 July 2016

• Shortlisting

  September 2016

• Interviews

  30 November–2 December 2016

August 2016 round

• Preliminary application deadline

  22 August 2016

• Full application deadline

  11 November 2016

• Shortlisting

  January 2017

• Decision

  5–7 April 2017

November 2016 round

• Preliminary application deadline

  17 November 2016

• Full application deadline

  21 February 2017

• Shortlisting

  April 2017

• Decision

  July 2017