According to Dr Ellen Moran, HRB,

‘This change applies to all Wellcome fellowship schemes including those under the SFI-HRB Wellcome Biomedical Partnership. The change offers more flexibility to applicants and expands the pool of eligible applicants. Welcome are very approachable and we would encourage anyone who is thinking of applying for Wellcome funding to contact them for advice and guidance about which schemes are most relevant to their career stage’.

Anne Marie-Coriat, Head of Research Careers at Wellcome, commented on the change saying,

‘By removing the post-PhD time restriction for all our fellowships, we are taking away an artificial barrier. It doesn’t make sense for someone with great ideas and great potential to be restricted from applying simply on the basis of the length of time since they were awarded a PhD’.