Applications open for Mental Health Award for Researchers

 Deadline Date: July 09, 2024

 Donor Name: Wellcome

 Grant Size: More than $1 million

Applications are now open for the Mental Health Award that will fund innovative projects that combine computational and experimental neuroscience approaches to improve understanding of symptoms of anxiety, depression and psychosis.

Research Priorities

• You must address the following research priority:
  • A focus on understanding the development, maintenance or resolution of one or more symptoms associated with anxiety, depression and/or psychosis. 
• Researchers must take a symptom-based approach rather than looking solely at diagnostic categories and are required to provide:
  • Evidence that the one or more symptoms chosen are a core feature of anxiety, depression and/or psychosis (broadly defined; the one or more symptoms chosen may be transdiagnostic or specific to one mental health problem). 
  • A brief explanation of why the one or more symptoms chosen are important for people with lived experience of anxiety, depression and/or psychosis. This could be evidenced through existing qualitative literature and/or focus groups as part of project development.

Funding Information

• Funding amount: £2-5 million per project team
• Funding duration: 3 to 5 years

Who can apply?

• You can apply to this call if you are a team of researchers:
  • from any relevant discipline (they consider a broad range of disciplines to be relevant to mental health science, including but not limited to those listed in their mental health funding remit)
  • from an eligible organisation
  • based anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China).
• They encourage applications from:
  • diverse and interdisciplinary teams, with collaborations covering multiple areas of expertise (for example, biological, psychological and social)
  • researchers at any stage of their career, including those who are new to the field of mental health science. 
• The Team
  • The team must:
    • Include the necessary expertise, technical skills and organisational support to deliver the proposed research.
    • Ensure the contribution of each coapplicant (and collaborator, if applicable) to the project is evident and justified.
    • Consider involving people with lived experience of mental health problems as part of the project team. This can be as lead applicants, coapplicants and/or collaborators, and the team needs to justify their inclusion/exclusion. If included, the overall team should include the skills needed to effectively involve and collaborate with lived experience experts.
    • Demonstrate how they will approach ethical and equitable partnerships, including how this will be approached in partnerships between low- or middle-income country and high-income country researchers. 
    • Include coapplicants based in each country where the research will take place if research is occurring in more than one location. 
    • Be of an appropriate size for the proposed research. Teams must consist of at least two applicants (including the lead applicant) and must not exceed eight applicants (excluding collaborators).
    • Actively foster a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment within the team and across represented organisations. 
• Lead Applicant
  • The lead applicant must:
    • Have the experience needed to drive and lead a collaborative, large-scale research project and/or the necessary support structures in place to enable this. 
    • Have experience of people and research management, as appropriate for their career stage. 
    • Have experience of, or demonstrate commitment to, effectively leading a team that embeds lived experience expertise, as relevant to the research project. 
    • Have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract (or the guarantee of one) for the duration of the award. The contract should not be conditional on receiving this award. 
    • Be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this project.
• Coapplicants
  • Coapplicants can be based at the same or different organisations as other applicants, including in different countries. They can also be at any career stage and come from any relevant discipline.
    • Each coapplicant must:
    • Be essential for the delivery of the project and make a significant contribution, for example, in designing the proposed research and leading a specific component of the project. Their involvement should be justified in the application, demonstrating the value of their contribution to the team.
    • Demonstrate the team’s commitment to effectively embed lived experience expertise, as relevant to the research project. 
    • Have a guarantee of space from their administering organisation for the duration of their commitment to the project, but do not need to have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract. 
    • Be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this project. 
    • Be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to their grant conditions.
• Collaborators
  • Collaborators are distinct from coapplicants as they will support the delivery of the project but will not lead on a specific component of the research. For example, collaborators could provide technical, clinical or subject-matter expertise on statistical analysis or measurement of specific variables. They could also provide access to tools or resources, such as longitudinal datasets, clinical records, or organisations led by or working in collaboration with lived experience experts. Collaborators are not assessed for eligibility and they are not required to give a minimum research time commitment to the award. 

Who can’t apply?

• You can’t apply for this call if:
  • You intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China. 
  • The introduction of the Chinese NGO Law on 1 January 2017 requires foreign NGOs (like Wellcome) to have a representative office in China, or file documentation to carry out temporary activities in order to fund activities in China. Wellcome does not have a representative office in China and a temporary activity licence would not cover the nature of the activities they fund. Consequently they are unable to fund activities in China.
  • You cannot demonstrate that you can dedicate enough time and resources to the project, if funded. 
  • You are already an applicant on two applications to this funding call. 
  • You can only be a lead applicant on one application and a coapplicant on another one 
  • You can be a coapplicant on two applications 
  • You must demonstrate that you have sufficient capacity for both projects if funded. 
  • You already have applied for, or hold, the maximum number of Wellcome awards for your career stage. 

For more information, visit Wellcome.