Mental Health Award: Accelerating scalable digital mental health interventions

Overview

This call will fund research to evaluate and further develop scalable digital interventions to advance early intervention in depression, anxiety and psychosis.

Scope

Teams must have the research expertise required to drive the proposed research, an organisation which can take the intervention to scale (whether a company or not-for-profit) and lived experience experts.

This call is open to interventions designed to lead to reductions in symptom(s) and/or functional impairments related to anxiety, depression or psychosis. It is expected that teams already have a minimum viable product and feasibility data for their intervention.

Eligibility

This is a funding call for team awards. Applications must include a lead applicant and coapplicants. See here for further information.

Is your organisation right for this call?

An administering organisation is an eligible organisation that formally submits the application to Wellcome and is responsible for administering funding if the proposal is awarded. This is the organisation where the lead applicant is based.

Where your administering organisation is based

The administering organisation can be based anywhere in the world except mainland China and can be a:

Higher education institution.
Research institute.
Non-academic healthcare organisation.
Not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation.
Company or not-for-profit organisation. Organisations must be legally incorporated.

If your application is successful and your organisation has not previously received funding from Wellcome, a further financial assessment may be required.

Wellcome will not pay for working capital costs of commercial organisations.

Wellcome do not prioritise any type of organisation over another for funding.

What the administering organisation must do

The administering organisation is required under their grant conditions to own all the foreground intellectual property (IP) arising from the project and to take the lead in any commercialisation activity. Wellcome does not directly own or co-own IP arising from its research funding. For guidance, applicants are advised to read Wellcome’s intellectual property policy.

Is your research right for this call?

Applications must:

evaluate and further develop new or improved digital mental health interventions which are designed for large-scale implementation for early intervention in anxiety, depression or psychosis and
create or further develop collaborative partnerships between researchers, lived experience experts and organisations that can take the interventions to scale (whether a company or not-for-profit)

Interventions this funding will support

This funding call will support the evaluation and further development of software and/or artificial intelligence intended to be used for the treatment of symptoms of anxiety, depression or psychosis or for the reduction of functional impairment. This includes but is not limited to web-based programmes, mobile applications, applications of generative AI, chatbots, extended reality, wearable devices or video games.

In scope are interventions which:

Are designed to lead to reductions in symptom(s) and/or functional impairments.
Can be new or improved. “Improved” examples include, but are not limited to, an intervention that has been adapted (for example, language or cultural) to improve reach or accessibility; can be better targeted (due to better understanding of mechanism or aetiology); is more sustainable; is more cost-effective; and/or has fewer side effects.
May range from provider-administered used with intermittent/regular practitioner guidance, self-guided with human support to self-guided and fully automated.
Are standalone or integrated (blended) with other treatments (such as with psychological or pharmacological therapy).
Have the individual with mental health problems as the end user.
Are intended to be implemented in healthcare settings, workplaces, schools, homes or other settings.
Are designed for large scale delivery.
May be designed for children, adolescents and/or adults. Interventions may also target at-risk groups including but not limited to clinical-high-risk for psychosis or perinatal populations
Offer a competitive advantage in relation to existing options or developments in the field.

Wellcome define “early intervention” as an intervention designed to be used as early as possible in the treatment of mental health problems, in a way that reflects the priorities and needs of those who experience these problems.

Mental health conditions that proposals can address

This funding call is focused on proposals that target symptoms of anxiety, depression and psychotic disorders. This includes:

all types of anxiety and depressive disorders (including obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder)
all forms of psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia, postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder)

Wellcome recognise that the current diagnostic categories are imperfect but removing all categories or creating new ones also presents difficulties. Whilst they do not specify any particular diagnostic or classification system, they expect applicants to use a framework and measurement approach that fits their research aim and to provide a clear rationale for doing so.

For further information on what your research proposal must include, see guidance notes here

Funding Costs

A share of up to £7 million per project is available.

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