Hi friends,

How are you doing?

Bit hectic out there right now isn’t it?

I really hope you’re doing OK.

It ain’t easy working in this industry but the world really needs people like you right now (no pressure, lol).

Amongst the turmoil and head-banging, I’ve got a bit of good news for you today… two interesting funding opportunities from the Wellcome Trust.

If you haven’t heard about Wellcome before, they’re a global charitable foundation focused on solving urgent health issues. One of their primary focus areas is mental health.

I recently caught up with some of the folks from the Wellcome team to learn more about these two funding opportunities for Gen-AI research and for validating new targets for drug discovery - two super interesting and high potential areas.

In this article, I tell you what you need to know about these opportunities and also share some of the interesting background behind why Wellcome are funding these areas and some of the applications of Gen-AI they are most excited about in mental health.

Let’s get into it.

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1. Funding target validation for mental health drug discovery

TLDR: Wellcome is offering up to £700,000 for research teams validating novel drug targets aimed at early intervention in anxiety, depression, or psychosis. Applications close on the 15th of April 2025. 

Why is this important? What's the background?

There’s been hardly any novel psychiatric drugs developed in the past 50 years. That is absolutely wild! While most other areas of health have benefited from new pharmacology treatments, mental health has been in the doldrums.

Most new treatments are simply variations of older drugs, targeting the same biological mechanisms discovered decades ago. It’s one of the primary reasons we haven’t been able to improve outcomes in mental health - we just can’t find new drugs that work well.  

The problem here is that we just don’t understand the brain that well - or in more technical speak, we don’t have a strong mechanistic understanding of how mental health conditions emerge and progress at the biological level.

As a result, we’re often shooting in the dark when it comes to drug discovery in mental health. Shooting in the dark is something pharma companies aren’t too fond of and it’s caused them to reduce their investment in the space. 

As highlighted in a recent WSJ article, “a hurdle for the industry is the lack of clear biological targets”.

So we need lots of new research to improve our understanding of the brain and mental health so that we can find new drugs. But the primary funder (big pharma) has been pulling back from the space, limiting research and the potential for new drugs to come to market. The kind of drugs big pharma needs to justify the investment in the first place…

Rock, meet hard place…

This is the problem Wellcome are trying to address.

This funding call - developed by Wellcome in collaboration with the Psychiatry Consortium - aims to accelerate the validation of new biological targets with the potential to transform early intervention in anxiety, depression, and psychosis.

Pretty cool.

What exactly is this grant?

When it comes to mental health, Wellcome’s goal is to;

“Drive a transformative change in the ability to intervene as early as possible in the course of anxiety, depression and psychosis in ways prioritised by the people who experience them.”

Over the years, they’ve delivered tens of millions in funding for mental health research - including a recent funding call for digital mental health interventions, the successful applicants of which we will find out soon!

This current grant, however, will provide up to £700,000 over two years, per project, to support early-stage research that validates new drug targets. Projects must focus on building a strong scientific case for how modulating a specific biological target could improve mental health outcomes.

Who is this for?

The main criteria here is that teams must have a novel drug target that they are looking to validate with the ultimate application being in early intervention in anxiety, depression or psychosis. 

In terms of the finer details, the grant is available for interdisciplinary research teams from around the world (except mainland China) working in fields like genomics, neuroscience, pharmacology, computational psychiatry, molecular biology, and related disciplines. Teams must include at least one person with expertise in the biological mechanisms of mental health conditions.

Applicants can be from universities, research institutes, not-for-profits, or non-academic healthcare organisations.

Commercial organisations can’t apply as lead applicants but can participate as consultants (allowing them to get paid) or collaborators (where they cannot get paid) NB: Make sure you choose the right category!

 What do you get?

• Up to £700,000 in funding per project

• Project duration of up to 2 years

• Access to an experienced industry expert to support your work (this is optional however, you don’t have to take it)

What can I use the funding for?

The funding is for target validation research—not target identification or drug screening. Your proposal must focus on:

• Demonstrating the therapeutic potential of modulating a novel biological target

• Generating a robust data package to support future drug discovery

• Prioritizing early intervention in anxiety, depression, or psychosis

• Including lived experience perspectives and inclusive research practices

Eligible costs include lab work, modelling, in-vitro/in-vivo studies, consultants, travel, CPD training, and more.

What do I do now?

1. Watch the webinar replay for advice on how to reply. Can’t recommend this enough. 

2. Start your preliminary application via the Wellcome Funding Platform.

3. Ensure your application is submitted before the deadline of 15 April 2025 at 17:00 BST.

4. If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to submit a full application which will be due 31 July 2025.

5. Final decisions will be announced in September 2025.

2. Funding Generative AI research for improving measurement or treatment

TLDR: Wellcome is offering up to £3M for research teams to investigate the use of generative AI in the measurement and treatment of anxiety, depression, or psychosis. Applications close on the 28th of May 2025 for the accelerator - you must be part of this to apply for the funding call later this year. Final funding decisions will be made by February 2026. 

Why is this important? What's the background?

OK, Gen-AI is everywhere right now and mental health is no exception.

I’ve written about this at length already, including analysing research on its impact as well as my thoughts on how it might change the world of therapy.

Amongst all the hype, there are still a lot of unknowns. 

But what we know for sure is that it’s a powerful technology and that it’s rapidly evolving. Considering its power, I believe we should be investigating if this technology can be applied in safe, ethical and effective ways to improve population mental health. 

The Wellcome Trust seem to agree with me and is now offering up to £3M to fund research projects in this space. 

Miranda Walport, Director of Mental Health at The Wellcome Trust recently wrote a blog post outlining why they are funding this research. 

I’m already a Wellcome Trust fanboy, but this post by Miranda further endeared me to their work. They have a refreshingly well-balanced and truth-seeking approach to this topic that I respect. They recognise the concerns and worries of many people in the community, but also see the potential benefits of this technology and want to explore it.  

Interestingly, in her post, Miranda asks the question; 

“Is it right to apply higher standards to AI than we apply to humans?” 

Whilst Miranda doesn’t answer the question herself, my interpretation of the piece is that she believes we shouldn’t. If that is her belief, I agree with her.

But back to this funding opportunity…

Miranda outlines four areas where she sees the application of Gen-AI in mental health;

• Reducing administrative work

• Supporting therapist training by providing training data or AI personas

• Helping people learn new skills that may have new therapeutic benefits

• Providing fully automated therapeutic chatbots

They the potential, they see the risks and they have consciously chosen “curiosity over fear”;

They are willing to invest to find answers and I’m super excited about the opportunity this presents for researchers and the findings we will someday gain from it.

What exactly is this grant?

Wellcome is providing up to £3M for projects researching the use of Gen-AI in improving the measurement or treatment of depression, anxiety or psychosis. Applicants will first go through a 4-month accelerator run by MEXA, before being able to apply for the grant which will fund their work for up to two years.

Who is this for?

This grant is available for interdisciplinary teams of researchers with experience in both mental health and generative AI. The inclusion of lived experience and AI ethics expertise is also required. 

NB: Businesses can’t apply for this directly, it’s primarily for research organisations. However, individuals from commercial organisations can still be included in applications as co-applicants or collaborators.

How does it work?

Wellcome are running this funding call over two distinct stages.

Applicants must first apply to join a 4-month accelerator run by MEXA. After this, they can submit their proposal for the full grant. Only teams selected to participate in the accelerator will be eligible to apply for the funding call.

What do you get?

If you get accepted into the MEXA accelerator you’ll get:

• Funding for pilot research and/or pilot model development

• Funding to cover contributions of team members who cannot join the accelerator as part of an existing salaried position

• Support for your project application for the next round of funding

• Access to workshops on designing pilot experiments and project, code, and data management for collaborative research projects

• Collaboration opportunities with foundation model industry partners

• Support from the Wellcome team or broader network including expertise in lived experience integration, ethics and technical aspects around research and model development. Etc.

If you are successful in securing the subsequent funding, you will receive;

• Up to £3M in funding per project

• Support for up to 2 years

• Ongoing support from the Wellcome team

What can I use the funding for?

• Building or improving Gen-AI models to measure or treat symptoms of anxiety, depression, or psychosis

• Generating evidence on how these models should interact with clinicians and end users

• Creating new datasets, methods, or benchmarks for mental health-specific AI

• Exploring ethical, safe, and inclusive applications of genAI in mental health

What do I do now?

1. To find or join a team, use the matchmaking service (express interest by 14 April 2025).

2. Apply to the accelerator stage via the Wellcome Funding Platform. Applications close 28 May 2025.

3. If selected for the accelerator, you'll receive support and be eligible to apply for the full grant later in 2025.

4. Final funding decisions will be made in February 2026.

Alright that’s all for this week.

If you’ve got any questions about these funding opportunities feel free to reply to this email and I’ll do my best to help.

Many thanks to Min Lee and Naomi Hertz from Wellcome for their time in pulling this together.

As always... Keep fighting the good fight!

Steve

Founder of The Hemingway Group

P.S. Connect with me on LinkedIn if you haven’t already

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