Employment of staff

General guidelines

The Wellcome Trust does not act as an employer with respect to personnel funded on a grant, and therefore in all cases where support is provided on the grant for the employment of staff, the organisation undertakes to issue a contract of employment that is in compliance with relevant law and regulations.

The institution must accept full responsibility for the management, monitoring and control of all the research work funded as a result of this grant and all those persons (including employees, students and visiting fellows) employed in or involved with any research funded as a result of this grant.

The institution must ensure that all permanent staff, temporary staff and students employed in or involved with the research receive training appropriate to their duties.

The Wellcome Trust expects that the institution will employ fixed-term contract staff in accordance with current legislation. All staff employed as a result of this grant must be recruited in compliance with the institution's requirements and recommendations for good practice in recruitment. We expect an individual's annual leave entitlement to be taken within the period of the grant.

The host institution is responsible, as the employer, for the contracts of employment of the staff concerned, and consequently for any redundancy or other compensatory payments that may be required.

For all Wellcome Fellows, non-research activities such as teaching, clinical work, advisory committees and external consultancies should not occupy, on average, more than eight hours per week (or two programmed activities for those who have finished their higher clinical training). Wellcome Trust-funded research assistants may not spend more than one hour per week on non-research activities.

Wellcome Trust-funded researchers must contact the office before applying to other funding bodies for support, which would be fully or partly concurrent with the Wellcome Trust grant.

All holders of clinical fellowships and all clinically qualified research assistants, whose research requires contact with patients, must hold an honorary clinical contract, for example as a senior house officer, specialist registrar or consultant. All clinicians whose qualifications and experience are appropriate to the specialist registrar grade must contact their regional postgraduate dean to discuss their higher clinical training. Any difficulties in obtaining a clinical contract at the appropriate level must be reported to the Wellcome Trust.

Guidance on costing fellows salaries

For grants awarded from 1 April 2006 onwards, the host institution will determine the appropriate basic salary for the individual, commensurate with the skills, responsibilities and expertise necessary to carry out the role, and the total costs of the post are to be detailed in the application form.

The total costs requested should include the fellow's basic salary, employer's contributions, incremental progression any locally-recognised allowances (e.g. London allowance), as applicable. Any previous Wellcome Trust enhancement paid to an individual should also be excluded. Figures for Year 1 may include known pay awards that will take place during the first year (or an assumed percentage, equivalent to our current inflation rate of 1.6 per cent where the scheduled pay award has not yet been confirmed). Inflation for Year 2 onwards, based on our current inflation allowance rates, will be factored into the fellow’s salary costs awarded by the Trust.

Employer’s contributions should include any statutory obligations (for example, in the UK, National Insurance contributions), and contributions towards an organisational pension scheme.

The Trust would not normally expect the basic salary of a Senior Research Fellow in Basic Biomedical Science to exceed £55 000 pa.

Basic salaries for Principal Research Fellowship candidates should normally be in the range £60 000 to £90 000 pa.

Additional justification will be required for salaries which fall outside the costs given above.

For UK/ROI based basic science fellowships, the Wellcome Trust will provide the following salary enhancements:

Distinction Awards for new principal research fellows of between £20 000 to £50 000 per annum based on the individual's standing and performance.
Fellowship supplements of £2500 per annum for 'training' or 'junior' fellows,£7500 per annum for 'intermediate' fellows and £12500 per annum for senior research fellows.

Distinction awards and fellowship supplements are provided at a fixed rate and should not be increased for inflation/cost of living awards.

An appropriate sum for employer's contributions to cover the costs of these distinction awards and fellowship supplements will also be provided.

It is not expected that the salary of current Trust-funded Fellows should be reduced as a result of these new costing procedures.

Inflation and Flexible Funding Allowance will be added by the Trust.

Employment of fellows

Funds are provided to support the fellow for a specified period of time. The fellow's support may not be extended beyond the specified period if there is an underspend in the post budget (for example, if the fellow is not a member of the UK University Superannuation Scheme).

This ring-fenced salary budget is provided for the support of the fellow only, and may not be used for any other purpose.

If the actual employment costs of the fellow exceed the budget provided, the Trust would be willing to supplement the grant to meet the additional costs.

The grant will end once the Wellcome Trust's commitment to provide personal support to the fellow has ended. Research assistants and other staff cannot be employed on the grant beyond this date. The Wellcome Trust should be consulted if any changes to the official grant end date are required.

For grants awarded before 1 April 2006, the funding arrangements detailed in the award will continue to apply (including the provision of different types of salary enhancement). For those grants awarded before 1 October 2004, these are not cash-limited and fellows' salary budgets will be periodically supplemented to reflect annual cost of living/pay increases.

Funding of students

Non-clinical/basic science students are paid stipends based on the Wellcome Trust's own studentship stipend scale. Clinical students are paid a salary determined by the host organisation. This is a ring-fenced budget and may not be used for any other purpose.

Inflation and Flexible Funding Allowance will be added by the Trust.

The studentship is awarded for a specified period of time. We should be consulted if any changes to the official grant end date are required.

Funding and employment of other staff

Applicants should detail the type of salary support required to undertake the research (by grade, experience, etc.) and the anticipated cost of each post in the application.

Post-specific salary costs, based on the host institution's own salary scales should be requested. The amounts requested should include the full employment costs of all individuals to be funded on the grant, including basic salary, employer's contributions, incremental progression and any locally-recognised allowances (e.g. London allowance), where applicable. Figures for Year 1 may include known pay awards that will take place during the first year (or an assumed 1.6 per cent where the scheduled pay award has not yet been confirmed). Inflation and Flexible Funding Allowance will be factored into the costing by the Trust.

Employer’s contributions should include any statutory obligations (for example, in the UK, National Insurance contributions), and contributions towards an organisational pension scheme.

Indicative budgets for salary support will be awarded. These funds are not individual-specific, and may be spent on the direct costs of the research at the grantholders' discretion in whatever way is best to deliver the project's objectives.

Virement between indicative budget headings may be made without the prior agreement of the Wellcome Trust.

The exact salary to be provided and the length of contract to be issued to staff employed on the grant will be a matter for negotiation between the post holder, the grantholder and the employing institution.

The tenure of staff recruited for work on a grant must be confined strictly to the period of the grant. The Wellcome Trust should be consulted if any changes to the official grant end date are required.

The Wellcome Trust does not wish to be consulted about the appointment of post holders to unnamed posts or as replacements once an award has been made, unless otherwise specified in the formal letter of award.

Supplementary funding for salary support will only be provided in exceptional circumstances.

For awards that include research leave, the replacement lecturer should commence their appointment at the same time as the award is activated. Except where specified in the formal letter of award, the Wellcome Trust will not agree to the replacement lecturer taking up their appointment later than one year after the start date of the grant.

For grants awarded before 1 April 2006, the funding arrangements detailed in the award will continue to apply. Grants awarded prior to April 2006 may include optional incremental salary enhancement for non-clinical postdoctoral research staff. Grants awarded before 1 October 2004 are not cash-limited, and levels and other salary budgets will be periodically supplemented to reflect annual cost of living/pay increases.