Wellcome launches ethnic minority-only research funding stream

UK-based scientists from black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage have been invited to apply for a share of £20 million under a Wellcome Trust scheme to help underrepresented groups progress in science.

The new awards will provide grants of up to £200,000 over two years to researchers engaged in the fields of mental health, infectious diseases and climate-related health, as well as broader research into life, health and wellbeing, and are open to those working or resident in the UK who identify as coming from a black, Bangladeshi or Pakistani background.

The funding will be open to researchers at any stage of their career from postdoctoral level onwards, up to but not including professorships, said the biomedical research charity as it announced the bespoke funding stream on 25 January.

The initiative, which is thought to be the UK’s first significant competitive funding stream to which only ethnic minority candidates can apply, is part of the charity’s efforts to become a more inclusive funder, explained Shomari Lewis-Wilson, senior manager (research culture and communities) at Wellcome.

“If we are to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone, we need the creativity and expertise of people from all backgrounds. Diversity of people will open the doors to new scientific questions and insights, bringing about discoveries which will benefit everyone. Researchers of black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage are not adequately represented in research in the UK,” he said, adding that he hoped these awards “will help talented underrepresented researchers fulfil their potential and transform science”.

The new scheme follows concerns over the low numbers of senior ethnic minority researchers, with UKRI reporting last year that only 1 per cent of the principal investigators awarded funding in 2019-20 and 2020-21 were black, while only 2 per cent were of mixed ethnicity. The award rates of 13 per cent and 12 per cent for these groups were also well below the 29 per cent for white applicants, it added.

According to Wellcome’s analysis of UK-sector data, only 2.9 per cent of UK academic researchers are black British compared with 4.4 per cent of the general population, while researchers of Pakistani heritage made up 1.1 per cent of academic researchers compared with 2.7 per cent of the population with the respective figures for the Bangladeshi community at 0.5 per cent and 1.1 per cent.

Awards won from the scheme for what Wellcomes calls 'discovery research', or 'curiosity-driven research', which will launch in the spring, can be used for research or research-adjacent activities and will be accompanied by a package of support activities, including networking and cohort-building opportunities, said the charity which hopes to put researchers in a better position to advance their career to the next stage, for example by developing their professional profile or gaining a promotion. 

The £4.5 million-a-year initiative, which will run for four years, was designed following consultations with black researchers, the charity said, adding that the scope of the funding was later expanded to be more ambitious and to include researchers of Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage as there are similar patterns of underrepresentation within these groups. 

In the initial consultations with Wellcome, some of these researchers spoke about a lack of access to connections and support in academia. They said this made it difficult to build up the track record in research that is needed to gain positions and funding, said the charity.

Dan O’Connor, head of research environment at Wellcome, said: “We hope these awards will help researchers break through barriers in the system and realise their ambitions. We need the best ideas from everyone to make scientific breakthroughs and change lives.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com