I know many groups in the UK have projects funded under Wellcome Trust (WT) "Seeding Drug Discovery" funding program, this program has been running successfully for many years but it was recently announced that there was to be a review of the WT funding activities. The results of the review are now available on the website http://dmtrk.net/2PXJ-E0XO-23KRZ4WBE/cr.aspx.

Key points are:-

In February 2017 Wellcome will be launching ‘Innovator Awards’ for proposals of up to £500k. One of the aims of this scheme will be to encourage people that do not currently work with us to apply - including translators and innovators from outside of the life and medical science community. We think this is important because new technology has the potential to transform biomedical science, as well as have significant applications to health.

We believe that in order to achieve greater impact on human health - we also need to focus on a smaller number of activities - something that we refer to as Flagships. An example of an existing Flagship is the Hilleman Laboratories – an R&D facility in New Delhi, dedicated to generating new vaccines. This is a joint venture between Wellcome and Merck, USA. We also consider our recently announced Wellcome Centres at Kings College, Dundee University and UCL as Flagships.

We will remain open to great ideas in any area. In our first year much of our support will focus on ideas and solutions involving mental health, neurological disorders and neglected tropical diseases, but these are not exclusive and other areas of particular interest will be announced in the future.

I have to say I delighted to see the focus on mental health and neglected tropical diseases, areas which I've tried to support.