Wellcome Discovery Awards

Wellcome Discovery Awards

Funds established United Kingdom investigators in bold health research with long-term flexible scientific support.

Eligibility · United Kingdom, Ireland

Wellcome Discovery Awards are the flagship large-grant mechanism of Wellcome, one of the world's largest health-research foundations. The scheme funds bold, creative research programmes led by established researchers or teams of up to eight applicants, with the aim of generating significant shifts in understanding or developing methodologies, tools, and frameworks that benefit health-related research. Research can span any discipline within Wellcome's Discovery Research remit, including STEM, experimental medicine, humanities and social sciences, clinical and allied health sciences, and public health. The September 2026 deadline is 22 September 2026 at 15:00 BST; this cycle runs twice yearly.

The average Discovery Award is £3.5 million over seven years, though awards range from three to eight years in duration and applications above £5 million are subject to additional scrutiny. Lead applicants must be based at a not-for-profit administering organisation — a higher education institution, research institute, healthcare organisation, or charity — in the UK, Republic of Ireland, or eligible low- and middle-income countries (excluding India and mainland China). The lead applicant must hold a permanent, open-ended, or long-term rolling contract not conditional on the award; UK and Irish-based leads cannot request their own salary, though LMIC-based leads reliant on external funding may do so. Coapplicants may be based at commercial organisations anywhere except mainland China.

Applications are assessed at interview stage against three weighted criteria: research proposal (50%), skills and experience (25%), and research environment (25%). A competitive proposal must be bold, creative, and high quality, with a realistic plan for the proposed duration and budget. Unsuccessful applicants may submit one resubmission with significant changes. Wellcome owns any intellectual property generated under the award. Applicants are strongly encouraged to review the sample application form PDF linked from the scheme page before submitting, as it contains word limits and question-by-question guidance not replicated in the scheme overview.