Wellcome Trust

Funds Wellcome Trust, an independent United Kingdom foundation financing global health and biomedical discovery.

Wellcome Trust is an independent charitable foundation based in the UK and founded in 1936 after the death of Sir Henry Wellcome. It manages an investment portfolio currently valued at £39.9 billion and plans to spend £16 billion over the decade to 2032, making it one of the largest biomedical research funders in the world.

Its current strategy is built around four programmes: Discovery Research, Mental Health, Climate and Health, and Infectious Disease. Wellcome funds individual researchers and teams at universities, research institutes, healthcare organisations, charities, social enterprises, and some commercial organisations in the UK, Republic of Ireland, and low- and middle-income countries, excluding India and mainland China. The active portfolio includes Discovery Awards, Early-Career Awards, Career Development Awards, Infectious Disease Clinical Trial Awards, Mental Health Awards, and Accelerator Awards, with typical award values ranging from £200,000 to £8 million depending on the scheme.

Discovery Awards show the funder's approach clearly: bold and creative proposals, established researchers or team leaders, strong leadership, and a credible research environment. Average Discovery Awards are about £3.5 million, early-career awards cover about £400,000 in research expenses, and some awards run for up to eight years. Wellcome also sits behind major scientific infrastructure and programmes such as the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Francis Crick Institute, and Wellcome Leap, which gives it a reach that extends beyond a single grant line.