Call for five new hubs
The Wellcome Trust has issued a funding call for five new sectoral hubs to complement the six emerging hubs whose funding has already been competitively awarded. Wellcome staff will be hosting a webinar on Wednesday 18 March from 8-9 am Eastern Daylight Time (and 12-1 pm UK time) to answer questions from prospective applicants. Applications are due on Thursday 7 May, and funding decisions are expected in July. In the event of any differences in wording between the Wellcome Trust call and this website, the wording on the Wellcome Trust website takes precedence.
The five sectoral hubs will be expected to provide access to ‘best evidence’ – including trustworthy, actionable insights – on the big questions (or problems) of our time, as well as the ability to commission or fund radically more timely, relevant and affordable evidence syntheses. The sectors include:
- economic growth
- food systems
- humanitarian assistance
- peace and effective institutions
- social protection.
In keeping with Wellcome’s charitable mission, which is focused on health, each hub will be expected to have a health determinants and outcomes lens complementing its respective sectoral focus. It will be particularly helpful if this lens includes, where appropriate, alignment with Wellcome’s ‘solutions’ areas: climate and health, infectious disease, and mental health. Examples include exploring the health co-benefits of transitions to sustainable food systems; reducing infectious-disease outbreaks while also alleviating other forms of suffering during humanitarian crises; and examining the effectiveness of institution-strengthening interventions on mental healthcare-seeking behaviours and mental-health outcomes as well as on trust and social inclusion.
Our hope is that existing (or new) hubs with rich expertise and networks in each of the five sectors will leverage existing (or build new) relationships with teams with rich health-specific expertise and networks. Through such partnerships, Wellcome would like to advance health impacts and health research, as well as to advance sector-specific impacts and research.
In keeping with our commitment to shifting power to the Global South and locating equity at the heart of each step in our development, the lead applicant must be based in the Global South. Moreover, an assessment criterion specifies that the sectoral hubs meaningfully engage Global South evidence leaders. The Wellcome Trust also prioritizes low- and middle-income countries. Applicants should give serious attention to considerations such as the budget shares allocated to Global South-based groups and, within the Global South, to low- and middle-income country-based groups.
The five sectoral hubs are expected to leverage the other foundational investments, and not ‘reinvent the wheel’ with capabilities and activities that are more efficiently handled by groups leading other parts of the infrastructure. For example, policy engagement beyond their sectoral focus can be undertaken by groups such as the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition and the regional hubs.