What Types of Research Are Funded?
Wellcome Trust places no narrow restrictions on the nature of supported research. The Discovery Research Fellowships are intended to back novel ideas that can make transformative contributions to our understanding of human life, health, and well-being.
Research topics may vary in discipline and methodology but must focus on basic/discovery research.
Examples of eligible research areas:
- Fundamental biological processes that explain how life works.
- Human health and disease complexity, including clinical and population-based studies.
- Disease burden and risk factors that open new avenues of knowledge.
- Development of methods, tools, or techniques that enhance health research.
- Understanding the values and priorities of communities affected by disease or health disparities.
- Social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions of health and illness.
What Types of Research Are Not Funded?
While the fellowship supports a wide range of topics, some areas are excluded, including:
- Large-scale clinical trials or public health interventions intended solely to develop a treatment/product or implement it at scale.
- Development of tools or technologies used directly in diagnosis or treatment unless primarily serving a health research purpose.
- Research on non-human diseases that cannot be transmitted to humans or don’t serve as human disease models.
- Projects focused only on resource or database creation without being part of a broader research question.