Transcript Development of the Trust’s next five

Wellcome Trust:
how do we fund ?
John Williams
Head of Clinical Activities
The talk
• Research
environment:
a time for optimism
• Who we are
• Funding philosophy
• Funding tools
• basics
Research environment:
a time for optimism?
OSCHR: what?
HM Treasury
DH
OSCHR
DIUS
DAs
NIHR
Single Health
Research Strategy
MRC
Indicative funding for health research in the UK 2007-08
Public
Commercial/Private
Investment/Innovation
Donation
Industry
£5,000 million
Research Charities
£750 million
Science Budget
DIUS/DAs
HE Funding Councils
£550 million
(mainly for medical schools)
Research Councils
£720 million
(mainly MRC)
Taxation
Government Funding
£2,388 million
Departmental
R&D Programmes
Department of
Health
£908 million
Other Government
Departments
£210 million
"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
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Clinical Research Facilities
Clinical Research Networks
biomedical research centres
flexible academic career pathways
Science
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genetics
medical imaging – physiology
Medical engineering
genomic and proteomic analysis
e-health and informatics
Who we are
The Wellcome Trust
• an independent research-funding
charity
• established 1936
• funded from private endowment
• managed for long-term stability
and growth
• interests range from science to
history of medicine
Wellcome Trust mission
‘To foster and promote
research with the aim of
improving human and
animal health.’
Financial Expenditure 2007/08
Support Costs,
£44m
Direct Activities,
£43m
Grants to Sanger
Institute, £90m
Medicine Society &
History Grants,
£38m
Technology Transfer
Grants, £30m
Biomedical Science
Grants, £457m
An update on our funding plans for 2009 – 1
http://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
We work to further our mission
through six strategic aims:
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advancing knowledge
using knowledge
engaging society
developing people
facilitating research
developing our organisation
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
Grant Making
Divisions
Grants Management
Department
Science Funding
Responsible for:
Medicine, Society & History
Grants Management including
grant application processing
Technology Transfer
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
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 Structure
Immunology and
Infectious Disease
Pathogens, Immunology &
Population Health
Populations and Public
Health
International
Clinical
Physiological Sciences
Basic Careers
Neuroscience and
Mental Health
(HoD - Pat Goodwin)
Molecules, Genes
and Cells
Neurosciences & Mental Health
(HoD - Richard Morris)
Molecular and Physiological
Sciences
(HoD - Alan Schafer)
Candy
John
Jimmy
Hassall Williams Whitworth
Funding
Committee
Strategy
Committee
Interview
Committee
Department
Response - Mode Funding
Response Mode Funding: Flexible Tools
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
biggest
Equipment 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
Programme Grants
(5 years) up to ~£1.3-5 million
bigger
Project grants
big
(up to 3 years) approx. £350k
Salary support ,Named research
assistant (& technician), Co-applicant,
Principal applicant
Technology Development
Awards
•To develop new technologies or
refine existing techniques.
Outputs should facilitate
research &/or benefit wider
scientific community
Equipment Grants
Support for People
The Application Process –
Background & Tips
Good idea
Choose a funding agency & scheme
Preliminary application stage?
Write application
The
Process
University admin office
Submit application
External review
Funding Committee
Interview
Committee
Fund
Reject
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
General points
“...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!”
Concluding Remarks
Issues to consider
Building a competitive CV
•Finding the right sponsor/supervisor
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• Mentorship
Mentorship
Origins
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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 ?
Finally…
Check scheme details well in advance
Refer to our website or contact Trust staff
www.wellcome.ac.uk
[email protected]
Good luck!