Wellcome Trust expands funding streams in the humanities and social sciences

WellcomeTrust expands funding streams in the humanities and social sciences

22 May 2013

The Wellcome Trust today announces the expansion of three funding streams to enable a wider range of research applications from the humanities, the social sciences and the arts.

Over the past five years, we have built on our long-standing focus on the history of medicine and biomedical ethics by enabling scholars from across the humanities and social sciences to apply for funding.

From today, all three of our funding streams in the humanities and social sciences will be expanding, with new opportunities for a wide variety of research proposals.

Applications to the Medical Humanities funding stream will no longer be limited to those that are 'historically grounded'. The stream now seeks to encourage bold and intellectually rigorous research that uses a range of methods and sources to explore the social, historical and cultural dimensions of health, medicine and disease. We believe that these broad approaches will not only help to illuminate our perceptions of health and illness in the past and present, but also serve to shape the practice of medicine and experiences of health in the future.

The Society and Ethics programme supports research that examines the social and ethical aspects of biomedical research and health, with the aim of addressing tractable, real-world problems. We remain committed to research informing the ethical dilemmas arising from biomedical or health research, healthcare practices, and health interventions. Our expansion of the programme reflects the recognition that broader research on the social, economic and cultural factors that influence biomedical research and health is essential to help meet ourstrategic challenges.

The Research Resources scheme now underpins research across the wider medical humanities and social sciences by supporting cataloguing and preservation projects in libraries and archives in the UK and Ireland. By improving access to significant collections of printed books, documents, film and photographic material, we aim to ensure important research resources are both well-known and well-used.