Wellcome Trust: how do we fund ?

John WilliamsHead of Clinical Activities

• Research environment:a time for optimism

• Who we are• Funding philosophy• Funding tools• basics

The talk

Research environment: a time for optimism?

OSCHR: what?HM Treasury

DH

NIHR

OSCHR

DAs

DIUS

MRCSingle Health

Research Strategy

Indicative funding for health research in the UK 2007-08

Commercial/Private

Investment/Innovation Donation Taxation

Industry£5,000 million

Research Charities£750 million

Government Funding£2,388 million

Science BudgetDIUS/DAs

DepartmentalR&D Programmes

HE Funding Councils£550 million

(mainly for medical schools)

Research Councils£720 million

(mainly MRC)

Department of Health

£908 million

Other GovernmentDepartments£210 million

Public

"Some say that now is not the time to invest, but the bottom line is that the downturn is no time to slow down our investment in science. We will not allow science to become a

victim of the recession,"

Gordon Brown

A new environment…Collaboration & organisation

• UK Clinical Research Collaboration• Office for Strategic Co-ordination of Health

Research• NIHR• a ring-fenced fund for R&D• Tooke Report• Darzi – Next Stage Review

Infrastructure• Clinical Research Facilities• Clinical Research Networks• biomedical research centres• flexible academic career pathways

Science• genetics• medical imaging – physiology• Medical engineering• genomic and proteomic analysis• e-health and informatics

Who we are

• an independent research-funding charity

• established 1936

• funded from private endowment

• managed for long-term stability and growth

• interests range from science to interests range from science to history of medicinehistory of medicine

The Wellcome Trust

Wellcome Trust mission

‘To foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health.’

Financial Expenditure 2007/08

Medicine Society & History Grants,

£38m

Technology Transfer Grants, £30m

Support Costs, £44m

Direct Activities, £43m

Grants to Sanger Institute, £90m

Biomedical Science Grants, £457m

An update on our funding plans for 2009 – 1http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2009/News/WTX053144.htm

Over the past year the financial markets and prevailing economic conditions have presented an extremely challenging operating environment for research funding charities.

The diversity of our asset base and the decisive actions of our investment team have protected us from the worst falls in the markets.

However, our asset base at the close of our last financial year was £13.1 billion as compared with £15.1 billion for the previous year.

We spend only a small proportion of our endowment each year and therefore, despite the change in value of our investment portfolio, we are not planning major changes to our spending commitments.

An update on our funding plans for 2009 - 2

We will commit around £590 million to support biomedical research in the UK and internationally, as compared to £620 million in 2007/08.

Our response-mode funding will remain the single largest element of our annual expenditure.

The unprecedented economic conditions affect all funders, we do expect increased pressure on our budgets and we are already seeing increasing numbers of applications, which will inevitably raise the level of competition for grants.

We will therefore continue to prioritise funding the brightest people and the best ideas.

Science funding

Strategic Plan: 2005-2010

‘Making a Difference’

Strategic aims

• advancing knowledge• using knowledge• engaging society• developing people• facilitating research• developing our organisation

We work to further our mission through six strategic aims:

How we fund

People:

• focus on the individual

Places:

• fund where Trust funding will make a difference

Programmes:

• make big and brave grants to the best people

Partnership:

• leveraging support from others in strategic areas

Science Funding

Vision: the research we support will lead to discoveries that will have major health impacts

Grant Making and Giving – Roles & Activities

Grants Management Department

Responsible for:

Grants Management including grant application processing

Customer Services:Helpdesk, training liaison with research

offices, communications updates, governance reviews

Data & Systems Management: Systems development and interfaces, provision of management information

Science Funding

Medicine, Society & History

Technology Transfer

Grant Making Divisions

Responsible for:

Grant making: identifying funding opportunities,

developing strategic initiatives

Committee Management: Funding & Strategy Committee Secretariat

Portfolio Management:Ongoing oversight of major projects and

initiatives

Evaluation:Project, scheme & initiative review

Science Funding Structure

Funding Committee

Strategy Committee

Immunology and Infectious Disease

Populations and Public Health

Neuroscience and Mental Health

Physiological Sciences

Molecules, Genes and Cells

Pathogens, Immunology & Population Health

(HoD - Pat Goodwin)

Neurosciences & Mental Health

(HoD - Richard Morris)

Molecular and Physiological Sciences

(HoD - Alan Schafer)International

Basic C

areers

Clinical

Candy John JimmyHassall Williams Whitworth

DepartmentInterview Committee

Response - Mode Funding

Programme Grants(5 years) up to ~£1.3-5 million

Project grants(up to 3 years) approx. £350kSalary support ,Named research assistant (& technician), Co-applicant, Principal applicant

Response Mode Funding: Flexible ToolsEquipment and

Resource Grants

Biomedical Resources•To set up or maintain a resource (data or samples) for the scientific community. Data Management and Sharing issues important & must be addressed

Technology DevelopmentAwards

•To develop new technologies or refine existing techniques. Outputs should facilitate research &/or benefit wider scientific community

Equipment Grants

Strategic Awards Flexible forms of support to facilitate research and/or training that has not been possible under pre-existing schemes. ‘adding value’ to excellent research groups,

interdisciplinary and/or thematic research collaborations

big

bigger

biggest

Support for People

The Application Process – Background & Tips

TheProcess

Good idea

Choose a funding agency & schemePreliminary application stage?

Write application

Submit application

Interview Committee

RejectFund

Funding Committee

External review

University admin office

A ‘Good’ Application

•A strong and original central hypothesis.

•Evident knowledge of the area. Consider what’s already known, address conflicting opinions,

use appropriate citations and references.

•Clear research plan.Is the technical approach feasible? Is the timescale realistic?

What are the potential pitfalls and your fall-back plans? Are the requested resources appropriate?

•Convincing preliminary data.

•Not over- or under- ambitious.

•Appropriate expertise. Sponsors, co-applicants, collaborators and research team.

A ‘Good’ Application

•Easy to understand and read. Consider all readers, avoid jargon /

abbreviations, check grammar and spelling.

•All staff, equipment and materials & consumables should be fully justified

•Animal use should be carefully justified and power calculations provided, where appropriate

•Should offer the very best value for money

“...it involves techniques with

which the applicant appears

to have no prior experience

and for which no preliminary data

are proposed.”

General points

“...this does not appear to

be hypothesis driven…there

are no specific aims or objectives....”

General points

“...one weakness in the proposal

is that there is no alternative plan

should the proposed approach not

yield information relevant to the

hypothesis proposed.”

General points

“...an intriguing hypothesis,

however the experiments

proposed for testing will not

provide unequivocal evidence

for or against it.”

?

General points

“...the work described in this

application is over-ambitious,

it could not be achieved in the life time

of the Principal Investigator.”

General points

“...is a persuasive writer and has done

a commendable job of marshalling evidence

to support their hypothesis, however,

the applicant has put aside facts that do not

support their point of view.”

General points

“The poor writing, referencing

and proofreading of this application

significantly detract from

its overall quality.”

General points

“...I had only one problem with this application,

I had no idea what they were trying to do!”

General points

Concluding Remarks

Issues to consider

• Building a competitive CV

•Finding the right sponsor/supervisor

• Mentorship

MentorshipOrigins

• The roots of the practice are lost in antiquity. The word itself was inspired by the character of Mentor in Homer's Odyssey. Though the actual Mentor in the story is a somewhat ineffective old man, the goddess Athena takes on his appearance in order to guide young Telemachus in his time of difficulty.

Definitions

• Mentoring, particularly in its traditional sense, enables an individual to follow in the path of an older and wiser colleague who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities.

• Mentoring is an established way of helping academic and clinical researchers to establish their careers. The purpose is to provide informed advice and counsel to enable individual researchers to realise their full potential and thus to make a valuable contribution to quality research in the UK. A mentor is not a supervisor/sponsor, but a “wise and trusted professional friend” - typically a senior figure from outside the host department with whom to discuss career aims, problems and development. http://www.academicmedicine.ac.uk/resources/mentoring.aspx

Bliss lab – PhD/Postdoc NIMR

Further Issues to consider

• What is the the ‘right’ project for me

•When is the best time to do research ?

•Am I being realistic ?

•Can I have fun ?

Check scheme details well in advance

Finally…

Refer to our website or contact Trust staff

Good luck!

www.wellcome.ac.uk

j.williams@wellcome.ac.uk