# Mental Health Award: Understanding how anxiety and trauma-related problems develop, persist and resolve

**Funder:** Wellcome
**Budget:** Up to £4 million
**Duration:** Up to 5 years
**Consortium:** Optional — collaborations and partnerships between multiple organisations are permitted and require a collaboration agreement, but a single applicant/organisation may also apply
**Application:** 2-stage: preliminary application → full application
**Official call:** https://wellcome.org/research-funding/schemes/mental-health-award-understanding-how-anxiety-and-trauma-related-problems
**Last updated:** 1 Nov 2026

## Eligibility & scope

Funds research into biological, psychological and/or social mechanisms underlying anxiety and trauma-related problems, with priority for multi-level analyses and research in/across low- and middle-income countries. Applicants cannot transfer grant funds into mainland China; lived experience involvement is required.

## Summary

Wellcome's Mental Health Award funds research into how anxiety and trauma-related problems develop, persist and resolve, offering up to £4 million over five years. The call welcomes higher education institutions, research institutes, non-academic healthcare organisations, not-for-profits and commercial organisations, and expects applicants to involve people with lived experience in the research. It particularly encourages work based in low- and middle-income countries, and collaboration between multiple organisations is allowed if backed by a collaboration agreement.

## Who should apply

- Researchers studying biological, psychological or social mechanisms of anxiety and trauma
- Higher education institutions, research institutes, healthcare organisations, not-for-profits and commercial organisations with working capital
- Teams planning to involve people with lived experience in the research design
- Applicants proposing research based in low- and middle-income countries
- Multi-organisation collaborations willing to formalise a collaboration agreement

## Key dates

- Two-stage process: preliminary application followed by full application
- Up to five-year project duration

## Tips for applicants

- Build lived experience involvement into the research design itself, not as an add-on, since Wellcome emphasises this explicitly for this call.
- If proposing work in low- and middle-income countries, make the local relevance and infrastructure case clearly at the preliminary stage.
- For multi-organisation bids, have the collaboration agreement terms worked out early, funding cannot move into mainland China, which affects any partner based there.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does the Wellcome Mental Health Award pay?

Up to £4 million for projects lasting up to five years.

### Who can apply for the Wellcome Mental Health Award?

Higher education institutions, research institutes, non-academic healthcare organisations, not-for-profits and commercial organisations with working capital can apply.

### Does the Wellcome Mental Health Award require lived experience involvement?

Yes, the call places emphasis on involving people with lived experience of anxiety and trauma-related problems.

### Is the Wellcome Mental Health Award a single-step application?

No, it uses a preliminary application stage followed by a full application stage.

### Can funds go to organisations in mainland China?

No, the award excludes transfer of funds into mainland China.

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Source: [The Great Grantsby](https://grantsby.eu/grants/wellcome-mental-health-award-understanding-how-anxiety-and--2026) — EU grant monitoring for academic researchers. Always verify details on the funder's website before applying.

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