Intermediate Clinical Fellowships (Closed)

Eligibility and suitability

Who can apply

You can apply for an Intermediate Clinical Fellowship if you've completed, or are about to complete, a higher degree (preferably a PhD). In addition:

• Medical and dental candidates should either have a national training number (NTN) or a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), or the equivalent. GPs should contact the office to clarify their eligibility.
• Veterinary candidates should have a degree in veterinary medicine (eg BVSc, BVM&S, BVMS, BVetMed or VetMB) and some experience in clinical practice.
• Clinical psychology candidates must have obtained a professional doctorate-level qualification in clinical psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society.

To apply for up to four years' support, you must be close to completing your higher clinical training, or have finished your higher clinical training, but not yet taken up a permanent post. Clinical work during the fellowship is normally restricted to eight hours or two programmed activities a week.

To apply for up to five years’ support, you must have between one and two years remaining of your specialist training. You may be able to spend up to 40 per cent of your time on clinical duties or other non-research activity.

All candidates for this fellowship should have:

• a strong track record in their area of research
• sponsorship from an eligible host organisation in the UK or Republic of Ireland
• a research project that is within our scientific remit.

If you've been away from research (eg for a career break, maternity leave, or long-term sick leave), we'll allow for this when we consider your application. If you've taken formal maternity, paternity or adoption leave as the primary carer, or long-term sick leave, we'll allow an extra six months for each period of leave when we consider your postdoctoral experience.

Who can't apply

You usually can't apply if you:

• hold an established academic post – we're willing to consider a preliminary application if you have a strong justification for moving to a different organisation
• hold a fellowship at an equivalent level, supported by another UK funding body
• are currently applying for another Wellcome Trust fellowship.

If you've already been unsuccessful with a full application for this scheme, please contact us before you apply again.

What we're looking for

Our reviewers will assess:

• your track record and aptitude for a career as a clinical academic
• the scientific merit and feasibility of your proposed project
• the suitability of your sponsor and research environment.

What's expected of your host organisation

You must have an eligible sponsoring organisation in the UK or Republic of Ireland that will administer your fellowship.

You should give careful thought to your choice of sponsor. Your sponsor should:

• hold an established post (or an honorary academic appointment) for the duration of the fellowship
• possess a strong track record in research and mentoring, and be committed to supporting your development as an independent researcher
• provide guidance during the application process as well as mentorship throughout the fellowship.

If you propose to work mainly in a low- or middle-income country, you must identify an eligible training organisation and sponsor in that location.

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

Other schemes

Clinical Research Career Development Fellowships

Enabling clinically active healthcare professionals to continue their research at postdoctoral level and develop scientific independence. 

Full details of Clinical Research Career Development Fellowships

Starter Grants for Clinical Lecturers

Providing small grants to enable clinical lecturers to pursue their research work, gather preliminary data and strengthen their applications for longer-term fellowships and funding.

Full details of Starter Grants for Clinical Lecturers

Scheme finder

What we offer

An Intermediate Clinical Fellowship is usually for four or five years and may be held on a part-time basis. The award includes:

• a basic salary, determined by your host organisation

  We will fund the total cost of your salary for the entire period of the grant.

  You should ask your host organisation to calculate this. It should reflect the skills, responsibilities and expertise needed to carry out the role, and include:

  • your 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 will automatically increase your salary, based on our current inflation allowance rates.

  We will also provide:

  • a fellowship supplement of £7,500 a year if you are a veterinary graduate who will be paid on a non-clinical salary scale
  • the extra employer's contributions needed to cover the supplement.

  The supplement is fixed. It won’t be increased each year.

  Find out more about employing staff.

• personal removal expenses

  If you have to move to take up the post at your host organisation, you can ask for £1,000. You'll need to justify this.

• research expenses

  • staff

    You can ask for funding for a research assistant or technician. This will usually be one post, but if you’re doing fieldwork or clinical studies in a low- or middle-income country, we’ll consider requests for more research staff.

    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.

  • 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
    • project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting.

  • 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 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.

    You can ask for larger items of equipment if they're not available at your host organisation.

    If a complete piece of equipment costs £100,000 or more, we expect a contribution of at least 25 per cent from the host organisation or another source.

    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 existing equipment that is:
      • funded by us or another source
      • essential to the proposed research project
      • more than five years old
      • cost effective to keep maintaining it.

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

    Computer equipment

    We will cover the cost of one personal computer or laptop per person up to £1,500.

    We won't pay for:

    • more expensive items, unless you can justify them
    • installation or training costs.

  • 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 Wellcome grant, you can only ask for access charges if:

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

  • travel and subsistence

    Travel costs

    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.

    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:

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

    You can also claim costs to cover caring responsibilities if you or any staff employed on your grant attend a conference. This includes childcare and any other caring responsibility you have, provided:

    You can claim up to £1,000 per person for each conference.

    Collaborative travel

    We provide travel and subsistence costs for you and any research staff employed on your grant for UK and overseas visits to collaborators, and for collaborators to visit your laboratory. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.

    Other travel

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

    Subsistence costs

    If you’re away for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (eg refreshments or newspapers).

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

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

    If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.

    If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £20 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.

    If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.

    The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. Please contact us if you need help calculating the costs.

    We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.

    Overseas research

    If you or any research staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your home laboratory, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.

    • • Fellow – £1,500 a year
      • Research staff employed on your grant – £1,000 each a year
      • Wellcome is paying your salary
      • the conference is directly related to your research
      • the caring costs are over and above what you'd normally pay for care
      • the conference organiser and your employing organisation are unable to cover the costs.

  • overseas allowances

    If you or any staff will be spending more than 12 months 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 2 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 Africa and Asia Programmes

      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 Africa and Asia Programmes you can ask for a higher contribution. You should ask the programme 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.

      • • 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

          • 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.  

          • 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.

  • 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.

  • Flexible Funding Allowance

    Your grant includes a Flexible Funding Allowance (FFA), which you can use to pay for unanticipated costs. These can include directly incurred costs of your research, such as:

    • consumables, animals or equipment
    • the actual salary costs of people supported on your award
    • extending the award by a short period
    • page charges and/or costs for colour prints in journals (charges not related to the cost of making a paper compliant with our open access policy).

    You don’t have to apply for an FFA. We calculate it and add it to your award.

    The FFA is 2.5% of your total eligible costs and does not include an inflation allowance. It is capped at £50,000.

  • 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. You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars.

    Award duration (in months)	Inflation allowance
    0-12	0.0%
    13-24	1.0%
    25-36	2.0%
    37-48	3.0%
    49-60	4.1%
    61-72	5.1%
    73-84	6.2%

    These rates are calculated using compound inflation at 2.0% 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.

    Wellcome's studentship stipend scales for non-clinical/basic science PhD studentships include an annual increase for inflation.

  • open access charges

    If your organisation receives block funding through the UK’s Charity Open Access Fund (COAF) you can ask them to cover your open access article processing charges.

    If you're based at an organisation that doesn't receive COAF funding, we’ll supplement your grant when your paper has been accepted for publication.

    You can't ask for these charges in your grant application.

  • 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 and Wales. If you're based in the Republic of Ireland, we would expect you to adhere to the spirit of these principles.

    Further information on our clinical trials policy.

  • 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 developing an outputs management plan
    • questionnaires, recruitment material, newsletters etc for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
    • public engagement materials where dissemination (including printing and publishing) is a key activity of the project
    • recruitment, advertising and interviewee travel costs for staff to be employed on the grant
    • formal transferable skills and personal development training, including the International Funders Award
    • purchase, hire and running costs of project-dedicated vehicles.

    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.*
    • page charges and the cost of colour prints
    • research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record*
    • PhD stipends
    • 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, 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)
    • ethics reviews, unless you are in a low- or middle-income country
    • radiation protection costs.

    Costs grantholders can claim on biomedical science research grants.

If you're based in a low- or middle-income country, we'll provide appropriate allowances.

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

If you’re awarded this fellowship

If you’re from outside the UK, and your host organisation is in the UK, you're guaranteed an endorsement of a Tier 1 Global Talent visa application.

If you have team member(s) who will spend at least 50% of their working time contributing to the award, they may be eligible to apply for a Tier 1 visa through the endorsed funder route.

Each year we award Wellcome-Beit Prizes to our most promising fellows who are starting to lead their own independent research programmes. We provide £25,000 to each fellow, to use in their research.

Successful candidates with proposals that involve internationally competitive postdoctoral research in stroke prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, may be awarded in partnership with the Stroke Association.

What we don’t offer

We don't provide funding for examination or course fees.

We don't fund overheads.

How to apply

This scheme is now closed.

See our Clinical Research Career Development Fellowships instead.

Scheme finder