Final Round of Wellcome Trust Open Research Fund
The Wellcome Trust Open Research Fund supports researchers to develop and test incentives for making health research more open, accessible and reusable. Applicants must trial new tools, resources or ways of working to do this, and evaluate the impact, benefits and risks of the work.
Funding is not prescriptive, but project ideas could include:
Developing and testing new metrics to track the impact of making a full range of research outputs open and accessible. Assign credit to researchers and their teams (which may include data scientists, software developers and others).
Piloting new approaches to recognise and reward open research contributions in research assessment processes, including recruitment, promotion, tenure and funding.
Testing novel approaches to stimulate or nudge behaviour change within or across research fields, for example, developing rewards to recognise good practice.
Developing and evaluating approaches to embed open research behaviours within organisations or research fields, for example, trialling novel approaches for training researchers or supporting networks of open research ‘champions’.
Proposals will be assessed according to the vision for the proposed activities, including aims, target audiences and how outcomes will be shared to improve the open practices of the target audience. Proposed methods to evaluate the outcome and impact of the proposed activities, including success and risk indicators, will also be considered.
The scheme is open to individuals or teams of up to six members. Applicants can apply if they are based at academic research, not-for-profit or private sector organisations. Applicants can be based anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China).
Proposals that encourage collaboration across international borders, and between different organisations, sectors and disciplines are welcomed. The Trust encourages the inclusion of a team member or collaborator with behavioural or social science expertise.
Applicants can request funding of up to £100,000 for up to two years.
Applications (concept notes) must be submitted by the deadline of 12 March 2021 (23:59 GMT). Invited full applications must be submitted by 21 May 2021 (17:00 BST).
The way the Trust funds research is changing as a result of the publication of a new strategy. A simplified set of funding schemes will open for applications in summer 2021. This is therefore the final round of the Open Research Fund scheme.
More information about this research funding opportunity and the application process is available on the RESEARCHconnect funding information platform. RESEARCHconnect provides up-to-the minute content, insight and analysis on research funding news and policy. To find out more about how RESEARCHconnect can keep you in the know, and subscription fees, contact us today.