Deadline: 11-Nov-2025
The Wellcome Trust is inviting applications for its Mental Health Award, which aims to fund projects that rigorously test real-world effectiveness and implementation strategies of scalable, transformative early interventions for anxiety, depression, and psychosis in young people.
In the Foundation Phase, selected teams will receive £200,000 for a 12-month period to develop a detailed proposal. This phase supports the formation of teams and the design of a robust research study focused on both the effectiveness and the implementation of psychological or social interventions. Research must be conducted in the UK or a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) and should address multiple outcomes, including mental health and functional outcomes, as well as a full economic evaluation. These outcomes must be relevant to people with lived experience and implementation partners.
All successful Foundation Phase teams will be invited to apply for the Impact Phase, where the award is expected to be between £5 million and £8 million for a duration of up to five years. Exact limits will be confirmed during the Foundation Phase.
Teams can apply from any discipline relevant to mental health science and must be from eligible organisations based anywhere in the world, excluding mainland China. The actual research must take place in the UK or LMICs.
Applicants should not apply if they plan to transfer funds to mainland China, lack sufficient resources or time, or already hold or have applied for the maximum number of Wellcome awards allowed for their career stage. Additionally, applicants can only be involved in two applications for this call – either once as a lead and once as a co-applicant, or twice as a co-applicant – with no overlapping project activities.
Applications to the Foundation Phase will be assessed based on five weighted criteria:
Intervention strength, scalability, and sustainability (30%), methodology suitability (20%), team expertise (20%), involvement of lived experience (20%), and review by a youth panel (10%).
