Wellcome Early-Career Awards

Scheme at a glance Lead applicant career stage: Early-career researcher Administering organisation location: UK, Republic of Ireland, Low- or middle-income countries (apart from India and mainland China) Frequency: Three times a year Funding amount:

Your salary and up to £400,000 for research expenses. Certain costs do not count towards the £400,000 research expenses limit. Check 'Research costs we'll cover' for more information.

Funding duration:

Usually 5 years, but may be less for some disciplines, and may only be longer if held on a part-time basis.

Coapplicants: Not accepted Deadline for new applications Application deadline: 21 July 2026, 15:00 BST View all key dates Who can apply

You can apply to this scheme if you are an early-career researcher and you are ready to design, plan and deliver your own innovative research project that aims to:

advance understanding in your field

and/or

develop methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques that could benefit health-related research.

During the award, we expect you to:

expand your technical skills and/or your experience of different research methodologies or frameworks build a collaborative network with other researchers in your field develop your people management skills advance your understanding of how to complete research responsibly and promote a positive and inclusive culture.

By the end of the award, you should have the research maturity to develop, manage and lead your own creative, independent research programme.

If you decide not to pursue a career in research, you’ll have transferable skills that you can use in roles related to research or outside of research, for example in industry or teaching.

Lead applicant career stage and experience

At the point you submit your application, you must have completed a substantive period of research training relevant to your discipline.

You must have:

completed a PhD (for example, in the life sciences) or an equivalent higher research degree. You must have passed your viva examination by the application deadline.

or

if you have not started a PhD or equivalent degree, at least four years' equivalent research experience (for example, in the humanities and social sciences).

You may also have some postdoctoral experience in your proposed field of study, but no more than three years at the point of the application deadline unless you can demonstrate how other factors have impacted on your research career. When we review how much postdoctoral experience you have, we will allow for part-time work, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, career breaks (for example, parental leave or long-term sick leave) and other significant amounts of time spent outside research (for example, clinical training).

We will also consider whether you have changed research discipline. For example, moving from astrophysics to computational neuroscience. There may be some crossover, such as in research sites or techniques, but the shift should still be a significant change.

In previous years, we ran a funding round in May. We recognise that some applicants were planning to apply for a May deadline and may no longer be eligible in July. We will, therefore, allow applicants whose three years of postdoctoral research experience fall between 1 May 2026 and the 21 July 2026 deadline to apply for the July round.

We consider postdoctoral experience as any periods spent in research after you passed your PhD/higher research degree viva.

You should be able to demonstrate:

a good understanding of research methodology evidence of project delivery and analysis.

You should not need close supervision to complete your proposed research, although you may need training in new techniques and experimental approaches.

How much time you must contribute

You must be able to contribute at least 80% of your research time in support of the project proposed in the award. You should not spend more than 20% of your time on non-research related activities, for example clinical duties, teaching or administration. If you're in a clinical craft speciality, you may spend up to 40% of your time on clinical duties.

If you are a health professional

If you are a health professional and you want to continue with clinical activities, you must be registered with, and be licensed by, the relevant professional regulator in the country you intend to work in. Read our Q&As for health professionals.

If you are based in a low- or middle-income country

Applicants who are based in a low- or middle-income country may hold a permanent, open-ended or long term rolling contract, although it is not a requirement. All other eligibility criteria apply.

If you’ve spent time away from research

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 allow for this when we consider your application.

Depending on your previous career stage and the level of supervision and retraining you need now, you may also want to consider a Career Development Award.

Other people you must involve in the application and award Sponsor Show Mentor Show Other people you can involve in the application and award Collaborators Show Other Wellcome awards

During an Early-Career Award, you cannot be the sole applicant on any other Wellcome awards. However, you can be a coapplicant on one other Wellcome award, provided you can justify how you will manage your commitments across the awards.

Read about the different applicant roles at Wellcome and how many awards you can apply for or hold at one time.

Resubmissions

If you are unsuccessful with an application to this scheme, you can submit one more application for the same project. Significant changes are needed for the second application. You do not need to contact us first.

Who can't apply

You are not eligible to apply if:

You have an existing tenured (salaried) post for the duration of the award (unless based in a low- or middle-income country). You can only relinquish an existing tenured (salaried) post to take up an Early-Career Award if your current post is not research-based. You have made an application to this scheme and you are waiting for a decision. You hold, have held, or have accepted an offer for an equivalent award at this career stage. An equivalent award does not include short-term funding. What short-term funding we allow Show

You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.

Is your research right for this scheme?

You must check whether Wellcome Discovery Research can fund your type of research project before you apply.

Check what we fund in Discovery Research

Your research must:

fit within what we support in Discovery Research have the potential to improve human life, health, and wellbeing.

Your research can:

be in any discipline - including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), experimental medicine, humanities and social science, clinical/allied health sciences, and public health.

Your research must not:

fall outside of what we support in Discovery Research. Check what we don't fund. start earlier than seven months after the application deadline.

Review previous projects that have been successful for this scheme

Search awarded grants Is your organisation right for this scheme?

The administering organisation is the organisation responsible for submitting your final application to Wellcome and managing the finances of the grant if it is awarded.

Your grant must be administered by an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.

If your administering organisation is a core-funded research organisation, an Early-Career Award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.

Where your administering organisation is based

The administering organisation must be in one of the following:

UK Republic of Ireland a low- or middle-income country (apart from India and mainland China).

The organisation must be not-for-profit and can be a:

higher education institution research institute healthcare organisation Your research environment

You should choose a research environment that provides you with the appropriate training, resources and experience to deliver your project and develop your research skills and identity. We encourage you to move away from your current research environment. This may mean moving from your group or department, but it is not essential to move organisations.

How applications are assessed

We will review your research proposal, skills and experience, and research environment. The assessment weightings are used at interview stage.

Your research proposal (50%)

To be competitive, your research proposal will be:

Bold. It aims to deliver a significant shift in understanding and/or it provides a significant advance over existing methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques. It has