A Wellcome Change...

15 November 2009

By Nick Dickens

I am not sure how to react to the announcement by the Wellcome Trust about their new Investigator Awards (see here).  As someone who has always worked in biomedical/human health research their focus on "the most challenging questions about health and disease, push the boundaries of research, and make discoveries with the potential to lead to improvements in health." sounds great.  There are two types of award, a self-explanatory senior award that is aimed at well-established researchers and a more confusing regular version. The regular version is aimed at "recently appointed researchers who are forging an international reputation for excellence in their field and have already been successful in obtaining grant funding in their own name", which is where my confusion comes from.  In my experience recently appointed researchers (post-docs) do not have funding in their own name, I guess it depends where you are and how picky they are going to be about what constitutes your own money.  For example, at my last research institute post-docs were not allowed to be PI on a grant because they were not permanent staff, although you could go on as a named investigator (which might make you still eligible) so I don't know how easy it would be for post-docs to get an Investigator Award.  On a positive note, the funding is flexible in both size of funding and the length of time, which would be a good for post-docs with fellowships or something like the MRC career development awards and give them a chance to expand and/or extend their research.  The remit seems quite open, which could mean that what you can get funding for is limited only by your ideas. 

This announcement seems to be indicative of a change in focus by many of the funding bodies, away from large project/programme grants to funding individuals to go good research.  This is good news for established researchers, but I think that it is less good news for post-docs trying to establish themselves in a field.  If you are funded as part of a project or programme grant, you will get funding along with the rest of your lab and this will give you 3-5 years to get some great results, papers and build enough of a reputation to get a fellowship or grant yourself when you've finished.  If these project/programme grants are reduced then you'll have to jump to the 'finding funding' part of your career sooner rather than later.  Maybe even before you have enough under your belt to compete with your peers.  I must confess that I have never understood the protectionist attitude of only funding proven researchers.  My argument against this is that those who are doing outstanding research with their current money are doing well and don't need the extra sources of funding or opportunities to try (they are probably quite likely to get renewed by the same funders) and that we should fund new people with new ideas to give them a chance to prove themselves. 

In conclusion, the new awards seem like a good idea for those who have already established themselves as successful grant/fellowship holders but I am worried that it is an indication of a change in the attitude of funding bodies and this will just make it harder for those trying to get their first grant/fellowship.  If anyone else has thoughts about this and can help put my mind at ease, please comment.