New funding opportunities are on offer from the Wellcome Trust this autumn, supporting the best scientists to broaden and strengthen their research from early stages to further along the career path.

Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships

To help launch the independent research careers of the very best newly qualified scientists, the Trust is now offering Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships. These awards will give a select few unprecedented freedom at an early stage of their career to pursue their own programmes of research, working in the best laboratories in the UK and overseas.

We expect Fellows to identify and tackle an important biomedical question, making significant contributions to the knowledge base in their chosen areas.

Deadline for preliminary applications: 20 November 2006

Flexible Travel Awards

The new Flexible Travel Awards enhance opportunities for mobility, collaboration and interdisciplinary research by enabling successful scientists at a later stage of their careers to travel to different laboratories.

There are two types of Award:

• Sabbatical Awards for internationally competitive researchers who hold established posts in the UK or Republic of Ireland and who wish to visit another lab for six months to a year, to enrich their research expertise and develop new collaborations.
• Fellowships offer support for researchers who wish to build on their existing expertise by moving into a new discipline or exploring an emerging aspect of their own field.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

Four-year PhD Programmes

First introduced in 1994, Wellcome Trust Four-year PhD Programmes provide world-class research training and mentoring to outstanding graduates in the biomedical sciences. Currently, 14 programmes operate in 11 UK institutions.

We are now launching a new competition for Four-year PhD Programmes from academic institutions in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Applications for new programmes will be considered in competition with applications for renewal of our existing programmes.

The new awards will provide up to five studentships a year for six years.

Deadline for preliminary applications: 1 December 2006

PhD Programmes for Clinicians

Wellcome Trust Fellowships support many of the UK's leading clinical scientists. Currently most Trust-supported clinicians get their research careers started with a Research Training Fellowship. To complement this support, we are inviting applications for new PhD programmes to deliver world-class training for clinicians beginning a career in research.

We expect these programmes to provide excellent research training environments and research opportunities – basic or clinical - for clinicians drawn from the range of specialities.

Deadline for preliminary applications: 1 December 2006