Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF)

The Oxford-Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) will support strategically important activity across the University of Oxford in biomedical and clinical sciences, public health, social sciences and the medical humanities. The ISSF is open to all researchers across the University of Oxford working in these areas. £1 million per year has been awarded to the University of Oxford by Wellcome for a five-year period (2016-2021). The ISSF Committee especially welcomes cross-divisional bids.

Funding is allocated across the following funding streams:

INDIVIDUAL CAREER SUPPORT

Support for early career researchers, mid-career researchers and discipline hopping to pump prime activity and facilitate successful applications to external funding schemes.

INTERDEPARTMENTAL STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

Support for strategically important equipment, research assets or staff within shared facilities or support to facilitate the establishment of cross cutting themes.

TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

Support for early stage translational projects in order to accelerate the transition from discovery research to translational development projects via the University of Oxford Translational Fund.

DIVERSITY

The ISSF is contributing toward supporting diversity at the University of Oxford. This includes supporting the institutional bids for Athena SWAN Silver and the Race Charter Mark, and the Returning Carers’ Fund small grants scheme.

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT WITH RESEARCH

Support to establish a culture for Public Engagement with Research (PER) across the University by building capacity, raising the profile of PER and supporting reward and recognition. This includes the University Public Engagement Seed Fund.

Further information

For full details of the scheme, deadlines and information on how to apply please visit the Medical Science Division’s website.

Contact

To discuss a potential application, please contact Kathleen Dolan.