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Published: 02 May 2023 739 views
As part of our new strategic focus, Wellcome aims to drive a transformative change in the ability to intervene as early as possible in the course of anxiety and depression, broadly defined, in ways prioritised by the people who experience them. This work involves advancing scientific understanding of how brain, body and environment interact in the course and resolution of these conditions; finding new and improved ways to predict, identify, and stratify groups of people so that we can provide more timely and personalised interventions; and finding new and improved ways of intervening.
We recognise that to make progress we need to bring together an equitable, ethical, diverse and global research community to focus on the value of stratification for mental health. Through this call, we aim to foster the field of stratification in mental health research by encouraging applications from multi-disciplinary teams from diverse settings, both geographical and in terms of level of resource. We are also looking to encourage equitable collaborations between low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs) so that findings may be applicable globally.
Current mental health diagnostic categories are imperfect, and rely on subjective measures, resulting in significant heterogeneity of people within each diagnostic category, which in turn impacts development and provision of effective interventions. Stratified medicine aims to identify sub-groups of individuals within a heterogenous disease population based upon unique characteristics of each sub-group (strata) such as underlying mechanisms, risk factors, course of disease or treatment responses.
A number of different methods can be utilised to measure the unique characteristics of the sub-groups including, but not limited to:
Use of stratification approaches have the potential to identify the sub-groups of individuals that will benefit most from a targeted pharmacological or non-pharmacological treatment. Furthermore, stratification of people with mental health conditions will enable early intervention with the potential to alter trajectories of these conditions and have maximum impact on people’s lives.
Leading a research programme, Postdoctoral research, Postgraduate training, Returning to research
Where your host organisation is based:
Wellcome exists to improve health by helping great ideas to thrive. They support researchers, we take on big health challenges, we campaign for better science, and we help everyone get involved with science and health research. Wellcome is a politically and financially independent foundation. Their founder, Sir Henry Wellcome, was a medical entrepreneur, collector and philanthropist. How they work today reflects the breadth of his interests, and his conviction that health can be improved when research generates, tests and investigates new ideas. Their governance is based on an updated version ... continue reading
| Application Deadline | 07 Jun 2023 |
| Country to study | United Kingdom |
| School to study | Wellcom |
| Type | Contest |
| Sponsor | Wellcome |
| Gender | Men and Women |
In this call, we aim to advance stratification in anxiety and/or depression, through funding further validation of promising biological, psychological, social and digital markers, whether alone or in combination with observable or behavioural characteristics, with a goal to enable early identification of sub-groups and targeted treatment.
Throughout the duration of the funding, Wellcome will encourage collaboration between funded groups through engagement activities (for example webinars and workshops), to support external validation efforts, in order to foster the field of stratification in mental health research and support the building of a community of stakeholders from various settings.
This award includes
Duration of award: projects of any duration up to 5 years
Level of funding: projects of any budget up to £5 million
You should ask for a level and duration of funding that is justifiable for your proposed research. You must justify all costs within the costs section of your application.
What are we looking for?
We are seeking applications that focus on the validation of markers that can be used for stratification in anxiety and/or depression.
Markers may be biological, psychological, social or digital and may be used in combination with observable or behavioural characteristics to enable stratification according to risk/susceptibility, diagnosis, prognosis, prediction, underlying mechanisms or monitoring of anxiety and/or depression.
Markers should have the potential to be applied on a large scale or have broad acceptability in different settings and must seek to enable early identification and/or early intervention.
Applications should focus on marker(s) with a clear underlying hypothesis and there should be robust pilot data to support the marker selection. We will accept applications at any stage along the development pipeline, but the proposal must enable progression to the next stage of development.
Applications must also consider ethical implications in both design and uptake, reflect on risks and potential mitigation strategies/considerations, and involve people with lived experience in their proposed research project.
We want to support validation of markers in diverse settings, including external validation of markers in low resource settings, if not developed there initially, and encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration between researchers, including between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries (where applicable).
External guidance is provided through the MRC Stratification Framework and UKCDR guidance on equitable partnerships.
What are we not looking for?
The following are out of scope for this Mental Health Award:
You can apply to this call if you are a team:
from a relevant discipline from eligible organisations (see below)
We encourage applications from multi-disciplinary teams, including those outside the life sciences. We consider a broad range of disciplines to be relevant to mental health science, including but not limited to those listed in our mental health funding remit. We want to encourage applications from a range of career stages.
Each application should include the necessary expertise to answer the proposed research question(s) and the contribution of each co-applicant (and collaborator) to the project should be justified. When research occurs in more than one location, applications must include co-applicants based in each country where the research will take place.
All applications must include the involvement of people with lived experience expertise in the planning, design and delivery of the research.
Team size should be appropriate for the proposed research.
You must:
Have the experience, or the necessary support structures in place, needed to drive and lead a research programme to address your proposed research questions in anxiety and/or depression.
Have experience of people and research management and training, as appropriate for your career stage.
Have experience of or demonstrate commitment to effectively leading a team that embeds lived experience as relevant to the project and approach.
Be able to contribute at least 20% of your research time to this project.
Have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract for the duration of the award, or guarantee of a salaried post, which is not conditional on receiving this award.
Be based at an eligible host organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.
Only request salary recovery if this is a condition of your employment contract.
You can only be listed as ‘Lead applicant’ on one application for this call. You can, however, be included as co-applicant on one other application or hold other Wellcome awards but must demonstrate that you have sufficient capacity for both projects if funded. See ‘Who can’t apply’ below for more detail.
Each co-applicant:
Must be essential for the delivery of the proposed research and make a significant contribution, for example designing the research, writing the application, leading and/or delivering a specific work-package or research aim or managing the programme.
Must demonstrate the team’s commitment to effectively embed lived experience as relevant to the project and approach.
Must be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this project.
Does not need to have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract at their host institution. However, must have a guarantee of space from their host institution for the duration of their commitment to the award.
Must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.
Can be based in the same or in different organisations, can be at any career stage, and come from any discipline, but the added value of the team approach must be clear.
You may want to consider involving people with lived experience of anxiety and depression (as appropriate) to be included in the project team, as co-applicants or collaborators.
Collaborators are distinct from co-applicants in that they will support the delivery of the project (for example, providing technical or knowledge area expertise, access to tools or resources) but are not leading on a specific work package or research aim of the project.
You can apply if you've spent time away from research (for example a career break, parental leave or long-term sick leave). We'll take this into consideration when we review your application.
If you have retired, please contact us before applying.
Lead and co-applicants can be part-time. There is no formal minimum, but part-time working needs to be compatible with delivering the proposal successfully.
The organisation can be a:
Higher education institution
Research institute
Non-academic healthcare organisation
Not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation based anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China). These organisations must be able to sign up to Wellcome’s grant conditions.
Company: any commercial organisation based anywhere in the world can apply (apart from mainland China), as long as they can sign up to our grant conditions. You are not eligible for this call if your company is not established and/or doesn't have working capital. Funding to a company may need to occur through a convertible loan, or revenue sharing agreement to ensure public benefit. Please contact us to discuss further.
If an application involves a collaboration or partnership across multiple organisations, the partners must enter into a suitable collaboration agreement including provisions that covers:
confidentiality
publication rights
access to background intellectual property
ownership of foreground intellectual property
arrangements for the protection, management and exploitation of foreground intellectual property
Note that the lead applicant’s host organisation is required under our grant conditions to own all the foreground intellectual property arising from the project and to take the lead in any commercialisation activity. For guidance, applicants are advised to read the university and business collaboration agreements (model heads of terms agreements on GOV.UK).
We expect organisations based in the UK to meet the responsibilities required by the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers for institutions, companies, managers and researchers.
Any organisation with Wellcome funding that is based outside the UK is expected, at a minimum, to follow the principles of the Concordat.
We also expect your host organisation to:
Give you, and any staff employed on the grant, at least ten days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuing professional development (CPD) in line with the Concordat. This can include the responsible conduct of research, research leadership, people management, diversity and inclusion, and the promotion of a healthy research culture.
Provide a system of onboarding, embedding and planning for you when you start the award.
Provide you with the status and benefits of other staff of similar seniority.
If your host organisation is a core-funded research organisation, this award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.
You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.
You can only be an applicant on a maximum of two applications to this funding call:
you can be lead applicant on one application (but can be co-applicant on another)
you can be a co-applicant on a maximum of two applications to this funding call
you must be able to demonstrate that you can dedicate enough time and resources to both projects if funded
Other Wellcome awards
The awards should be for different research projects, with no overlap in work packages. Information on other open calls from the Mental Health team can be found on the team’s webpage.
Please note, if you have previously been unsuccessful for a Wellcome Award at the full application stage, you will need to wait for 12 months before applying again with the same application or the application will require significant modifications.
We have been running webinars to discuss the call and allow participants to ask the Wellcome Mental Health team questions. Our latest webinar took place on 6 April in partnership with the World Health Organization. A recording is available, where you can watch:
Our next Stratification webinar on 2 May at 10:00am ET/ 3:00pm BST will be hosted by the National Institute of Mental Health. Register to attend, hear from our Mental Health team, and have the opportunity to ask questions live.
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You must submit your application by 17:00 (BST) on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.
2 May 2023, 15:00 BST: Register here Informational webinar
7 June 2023: Preliminary application deadline
July 2023: Shortlisting
7 September 2023: Full application deadline
November 2023: Interviews
1. Before you apply
Make sure you read everything on this page, including the material linked in the ‘Useful documents’ section.
You can register for our upcoming webinar, taking place on 2 May at 15:00 BST, where you'll have the opportunity to ask our teams questions. Alternatively, watch the recording of our previous webinar.
Consider submitting questions relating to this call using the 'Contact us' section below and include the title of the call in the subject line.
You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.
2. Submit your preliminary application
Complete your application on Grant Tracker.
Get some guidance on using Grant Tracker.
Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (BST) on the deadline day.
3. Shortlisting
At the shortlisting stage, Wellcome staff and Wellcome’s lived experience advisors will review your preliminary application. If shortlisted, we will invite you to submit a full application within two months.
All shortlisted applications will receive feedback on the application. No feedback will be offered if your application is not shortlisted due to the quantity of applications that we expect to receive.
4. Invitation to full application
Complete your full application through our new application portal. More information and guidance will be available after preliminary applications have closed.
Submit your application to your host organisation for approval.
5. Host organisation reviews your application and submits it to Wellcome
Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (BST) on the deadline day in September 2023.
6. Interviews
A committee will interview shortlisted candidates online and make funding recommendations to Wellcome. Committee membership will be shared with applicants prior to the interview but will be made up of an international panel of experts.
Accessibility requirements will be accommodated.
You will be required to give a presentation to the Committee. Details of the requirements for this presentation will be shared in advance.
The focus of the interview will be on questions and answers. The committee will assess across the full set of criteria rather than one specific aspect of the proposal. They will consider your proposal and interview responses and will make funding recommendations to Wellcome.
7. Funding decision
Final funding decisions will be made by Wellcome’s Mental Health Team.
You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made.
8. Feedback
For more details visit: Wellcome website.
