Wellcome Trust announces a 'rebalancing' of its grant programmes.
The Wellcome Trust, the United Kingdom's largest biomedical-research charity, is rebalancing its funding priorities to focus on early-career scientists, collaborations and high-risk, high-reward projects. The London-based trust, which spends more than £700 million (US$1.1 billion) a year on biomedical research and outreach, plans to boost funds for postdoctoral fellowships and to introduce small 'seed' grants to support research on innovative ideas for which few preliminary data are available. Separate programmes for new and senior investigators will merge, with candidates' career stages considered in grant-application evaluations — a move designed to favour early-career researchers. The shift comes after lengthy consultations with grant applicants, according to Jeremy Farrar, who took the reins at the foundation in April 2013. In a statement, he said that the new framework would help to channel more resources to the most promising questions. “We want to make sure that as we increase our funding, the right opportunities are available,” he said. For an interview with Farrar, see Nature http://doi.org/xdk (2014).
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Wellcome change. Nature 516, 135 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7529-135b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7529-135b