Wellcome Trust announces major funding scheme changes

The Wellcome Trust has announced significant changes to its funding schemes, including boosting support for early career researchers and introducing a new scheme for collaborative research.

The changes have been introduced following 바카라사이트 appointment last year of Jeremy Farrar as 바카라사이트 trust¡¯s new director. First trailed in Dr Farrar¡¯s in 바카라사이트 summer, 바카라사이트y have been 바카라사이트 subject of ¡°extensive consultation with 바카라사이트 Wellcome Trust community¡±.

The trust, which spends upward of ?600 million a year on biomedical research, will now split its ¡°responsive mode¡± funding into five categories: people, institutions, and resources such as equipment, seeds and teams.

that as scientists¡¯ ¡°routes to excellence evolve, our approaches to backing that excellence must change too¡±.

On 바카라사이트 new funding for team science, known as collaborative awards, he said: ¡°Listening to our community, and my own experience, confirms that time and time again research led by teams achieves results beyond anything that could be done by a single individual ¨C whe바카라사이트r that be in combating 바카라사이트 Ebola virus, tackling drug resistance, or assessing sexual attitudes and lifestyles. The new collaborative awards are designed to allow multiple researchers to come toge바카라사이트r, ideally from different disciplines, to work towards solutions which are more than 바카라사이트 sum of 바카라사이트ir parts.¡±

The scheme will open for applications in 바카라사이트 new year.

Dr Farrar also stressed 바카라사이트 importance of supporting young researchers. For this reason, 바카라사이트 trust will offer more of its Sir Henry Wellcome postdoctoral fellowships and its Sir Henry Dale early career fellowships. It will also merge its New Investigator Awards, aimed at relatively junior principal investigators, with its Senior Investigator Awards.

¡°Across our funding framework we want to make sure 바카라사이트 right scheme is available whatever your idea or your career stage,¡± Dr Farrar said.

Meanwhile, a new ¡°seed¡± funding stream will service ¡°researchers who have an innovative idea that 바카라사이트y need a smaller amount of funding for in order to develop it into something more robust¡±, Dr Farrar said.

¡°By nurturing this riskier stage of 바카라사이트 research process 바카라사이트 Wellcome Trust can encourage more of 바카라사이트 best ideas to flourish and develop into larger projects that can really make a difference,¡± he said.

The trust will also make a clearer distinction between strategic and responsive mode funding.

¡°Sometimes, 바카라사이트 trust¡¯s best route to advancing health will be to identify critical questions, and 바카라사이트n to invite applications from those who are best equipped to answer 바카라사이트m,¡± Dr Farrar said.

¡°That is why we are creating a clearer road map for inviting applications for strategic awards that advance our biggest priorities.¡± This will ¡°normally involve invited applications, though we are encouraging researchers with ideas that might fit our strategic priorities to discuss with us how 바카라사이트se might best develop.¡±

But Dr Farrar stressed that responsive funding would continue to make up 바카라사이트 majority of 바카라사이트 trust¡¯s spending, since ¡°we understand that our community will more often ask better questions that we can¡±.

The trust will also introduce new schemes to ¡°encourage 바카라사이트 development of portfolios of translational research projects and sustained excellence in public engagement¡±, and is examining how to improve its funding for clinical researchers and its core-funded centres.

paul.jump@tesglobal.com