1. The Wellcome Trust
ARMA
Manchester 2010

2. An Introduction
I now want to move on to the Trust’s personal support schemes. These are schemes where the Trust provides salary support and resources

3. The Wellcome Trust an independent research- funding charity.
established 1936.
funded from private endowment.
interests range from science to history of medicine to public engagement.
Grant spend 2008/09: c£550m
We intend to be here for perpetuity – key point that affects how we manage our endowment,

4. Our Strategy
I now want to move on to the Trust’s personal support schemes. These are schemes where the Trust provides salary support and resources

6. Strategic Plan 2010-20 One vision Three focus areas Five challenges
Partnerships can provide greater operational flexibility, reduce duplication of effort

7. Our new vision and mission
Our vision is to achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health
Our mission is to support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities
Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health

8. Three focus areas… Supporting outstanding researchers
supporting the best researchers at all stages of their careers; creating the best research environments; influencing the policy landscape
Accelerating the application of research
stimulating Technology Transfer, clinical research and uptake to policy & practice
Exploring medicine in historical and cultural contexts
fostering medical humanities, education & public engagement

9. Five major challenges…
Maximising the health benefits of genetics and genomics
Understanding the brain
Combating infectious diseases
Investigating development, ageing & chronic disease
Connecting environment, nutrition and health

10. How we work: The best people
“….simply put, the best way to administer a creative research environment is to find people of great talent and reasonable ambition – whatever their specific disciplines – and leave them to their own devices” Joshua Lederberg, The Scientist, 1991

11. Grant Funding
Investigator Awards (from October 2010, replacing project, programme and equipment grants)
Fellowships:
Clinical, Basic & ‘Tropical’
Training, Intermediate & Senior
Strategic Awards:
Strategic Awards
Themed Initiatives
Translational Awards
Medical Humanities & Public Engagement

12. Investigator Awards
I now want to move on to the Trust’s personal support schemes. These are schemes where the Trust provides salary support and resources

13. Investigator Awards:
Long-term support for world-class researchers with the vision to innovate, take risks and explore the most challenging questions in their field of study.
Long term funding:
greater impact
Well resourced:
enable researchers to realise their vision.
Flexible spend:
follow research where it leads: innovate and take risks
People focus
Interview stage; developing a community of researchers
Update on IA implementation
A lot of activity to date, all divisions involved, progressing well
New way of thinking for researchers
Joshua Lederberg won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and exchange genes.

14. Issues The length of the Application Form.
The time taken to undertake the application review process.
The burden of the Peer Review system.
The influence of ‘grantsmanship’.
The role of detailed experimental design.
Funding the best young researchers.
The short-term funding treadmill.
Interaction between grant-holders and their funders.
ERGs read all applications

15. Investigator Awards New Investigator Awards:
To support world-class researchers who are no more than five years from appointment to their first established academic position and are currently forging an international reputation for excellence in their field
Senior Investigator Awards:
To support world-class researchers in an established academic position who are working at the forefront of their field and already possess an outstanding track record.
Complementary to Fellowships
To ensure earlier career researchers not disadvantaged
Researchers tell us what they need
Awards will establish an identifiable Wellcome Trust community.

16. Internationally competitive research programmes
What can you ask for on Investigator Awards?
£100k - £425k per year for up to 7 years
direct costs of research
not own salary costs
no proportion of FECs ie: no change to policy
Costs awarded to be finalised after the decision is made and will depend on scientific needs of proposed research
Internationally competitive research programmes
Broader aims - flexibility
Principal Applicant needs proven
track record of research and funding
Salaries for 3-4 posts, plus
equipment, travel and materials, for five years.
Awards typically in the region of
£750k-£1.5m

17. Features & Innovations
A shorter Application Form with administrative details / detailed costs only sought at the award stage.
A more rapid decision-making process.
Review conducted by experts who understand the specific requirements.
Assessment by interview.
Generous, flexible and long-term support.
Funding for the best young researchers.
Development of an Investigator Award community.
ERGs read all applications

18. Application Process CV details check Main application submission
Expert Review Group
Scientific review & short-listing
External peer review
Selection Panel
Interviews
Application Form
- Candidate track record
Research vision, approach & importance.
Total funding sought
Letter Institutional commitment
Assessment Criteria
Candidate track record and standing
Research question and approach.
- Suitability of research environment
- Relevance to Strategic Challenges

19. Investigator Awards - Timetable
30 July 2010: Final closing date for full project and programme grant applications.  
1 October 2010: Applications for Investigator Awards can be submitted. 
22 November 2010: Closing date for the first round of Investigator Award applications.
March 2011: Final Funding Round for project and programme grant applications.
May 2011: First Investigator Awards made.
Can respond to referees – brief comment on issue of pre-committee feedback.

20. Other Funding
I now want to move on to the Trust’s personal support schemes. These are schemes where the Trust provides salary support and resources

21. Biomedical Fellowships

22. Strategic Awards & Themed Initiatives
Flexible support to fund ambitious initiatives in biomedical sciences, translational research, public engagement and the medical humanities.
Normally provide support for 5 years.
Preliminary applications for Strategic Awards may be submitted at any time and are assessed on a rolling basis.
Contact the Trust to discuss.

23. Other Funding International Funding Technology Transfer
Medical Humanities
Public Engagement

24. And finally, some useful sources of further information about the Trust….
2010 – 2020 Strategic Plan
Annual Review 2009
Wellcome Trust Website
Wellcome News
Grantholders eNewsletter
Make a comment of the need to scientifically justify all the resources being requested. Applicants often fail to give this section of the form the importance it deserves.

25. The End
I now want to move on to the Trust’s personal support schemes. These are schemes where the Trust provides salary support and resources

26. discovery: a collaborative enterprise
Professor Shah Ebrahim: understanding the epidemiology of chronic diseases
Established the British Women’s Heart & Health Study - monitoring 4000 women overtime, findings include: risk of CHD increase with number of pregnancies
Established population-based study in India - exploring the influence of rural-urban migration on the risk of diabetes & obesity, early findings include: increased risk among urban migrants
Shah Ebrahim – multitude of funding to explore the epidemiology of chronic disease – most recently in lower income countries.
In addition to salary:
via fellowships first Wellcome Fellowship in 1981 following by Wellcome funded lecturership at St George’s hospital
and University (Prof of Clinical Epidemiology at Royal Free through the 1990s.
since 2006, Chair of Public Health at the LSHTM
Non-communicable diseases such as mental illness, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases are the major health burden across the world today, and they are on the rise. Leading epidemiologist Shah Ebrahim, Professor of Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has recently received a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award to apply his expertise in chronic diseases to capacity building for the management of these diseases in India