Published: 04 May 2023 433 views
As part of our new strategic focus, Wellcome aims to drive a transformative change in the ability to intervene as early as possible in the course of anxiety and depression, broadly defined, in ways prioritised by the people who experience them. This work involves advancing scientific understanding of how brain, body and environment interact in the course and resolution of these conditions; finding new and improved ways to predict, identify, and stratify groups of people so that we can provide more timely and personalised interventions; and finding new and improved ways of intervening.
We recognise that to make progress we need to bring together an equitable, ethical, diverse and global research community to focus on the value of stratification for mental health. Through this call, we aim to foster the field of stratification in mental health research by encouraging applications from multi-disciplinary teams from diverse settings, both geographical and in terms of level of resource. We are also looking to encourage equitable collaborations between low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs) so that findings may be applicable globally.
Current mental health diagnostic categories are imperfect, and rely on subjective measures, resulting in significant heterogeneity of people within each diagnostic category, which in turn impacts development and provision of effective interventions. Stratified medicine aims to identify sub-groups
of individuals within a heterogenous disease population based upon unique characteristics of each sub-group (strata) such as underlying mechanisms, risk factors, course of disease or treatment responses.
A number of different methods can be utilised to measure the unique characteristics of the sub-groups including, but not limited to:
Use of stratification approaches have the potential to identify the sub-groups of individuals that will benefit most from a targeted pharmacological or non-pharmacological treatment. Furthermore, stratification of people with mental health conditions will enable early intervention with the potential to alter trajectories of these conditions and have maximum impact on people’s lives.
Leading a research programme, Postdoctoral research, Postgraduate training, Returning to research
Where your host organisation is based:
Wellcome exists to improve health by helping great ideas to thrive. They support researchers, we take on big health challenges, we campaign for better science, and we help everyone get involved with science and health research. Wellcome is a politically and financially independent foundation. Their founder, Sir Henry Wellcome, was a medical entrepreneur, collector and philanthropist. How they work today reflects the breadth of his interests, and his conviction that health can be improved when research generates, tests and investigates new ideas. Their governance is based on an updated version ... continue reading
In this call, we aim to advance stratification in anxiety and/or depression, through funding further validation of promising biological, psychological, social and digital markers, whether alone or in combination with observable or behavioural characteristics, with a goal to enable early identification of sub-groups and targeted treatment.
Throughout the duration of the funding, Wellcome will encourage collaboration between funded groups through engagement activities (for example webinars and workshops), to support external validation efforts, in order to foster the field of stratification in mental health research and support the building of a community of stakeholders from various settings.
This award includes
Duration of award: projects of any duration up to 5 years
Level of funding: projects of any budget up to £5 million
You should ask for a level and duration of funding that is justifiable for your proposed research. You must justify all costs within the costs section of your application.
What are we looking for?
We are seeking applications that focus on the validation of markers that can be used for stratification in anxiety and/or depression.
Markers may be biological, psychological, social or digital and may be used in combination with observable or behavioural characteristics to enable stratification according to risk/susceptibility, diagnosis, prognosis, prediction, underlying mechanisms or monitoring of anxiety and/or depression.
Markers should have the potential to be applied on a large scale or have broad acceptability in different settings and must seek to enable early identification and/or early intervention.
Applications should focus on marker(s) with a clear underlying hypothesis and there should be robust pilot data to support the marker selection. We will accept applications at any stage along the development pipeline, but the proposal must enable progression to the next stage of development.
Applications must also consider ethical implications in both design and uptake, reflect on risks and potential mitigation strategies/considerations, and involve people with lived experience in their proposed research project.
We want to support validation of markers in diverse settings, including external validation of markers in low resource settings, if not developed there initially, and encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration between researchers, including between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries (where applicable).
Before you apply
Make sure you read everything on this page, including the material linked in the ‘Useful documents’ section.
You can register for our upcoming webinar, taking place on 2 May at 15:00 BST, where you'll have the opportunity to ask our teams questions. Alternatively, watch the recording of our previous webinar.
Consider submitting questions relating to this call using the 'Contact us' section below and include the title of the call in the subject line.
You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.
2. Submit your preliminary application
Complete your application on Grant Tracker.
Get some guidance on using Grant Tracker.
Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (BST) on the deadline day.
3. Shortlisting
At the shortlisting stage, Wellcome staff and Wellcome’s lived experience advisors will review your preliminary application. If shortlisted, we will invite you to submit a full application within two months.
All shortlisted applications will receive feedback on the application. No feedback will be offered if your application is not shortlisted due to the quantity of applications that we expect to receive.
4. Invitation to full application
Complete your full application through our new application portal. More information and guidance will be available after preliminary applications have closed.
Submit your application to your host organisation for approval.
5. Host organisation reviews your application and submits it to Wellcome
Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (BST) on the deadline day in September 2023.
6. Interviews
A committee will interview shortlisted candidates online and make funding recommendations to Wellcome. Committee membership will be shared with applicants prior to the interview but will be made up of an international panel of experts.
Accessibility requirements will be accommodated.
You will be required to give a presentation to the Committee. Details of the requirements for this presentation will be shared in advance.
The focus of the interview will be on questions and answers. The committee will assess across the full set of criteria rather than one specific aspect of the proposal. They will consider your proposal and interview responses and will make funding recommendations to Wellcome.
7. Funding decision
Final funding decisions will be made by Wellcome’s Mental Health Team.
You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made.
8. Feedback
