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ISSUE 61
 
DECEMBER 2009
Free view
Medical historylms go online
Special agent
Meet HenryWellcome’s expertcollectorLie withsleep apnoea
Rudeawakenings
 
At the heart of scientic advance is individualcreativity, and our responsibility as a funderis to create space and opportunity for this tooccur. We want to provide the researcherswe fund with the means to take onchallenging research questions. We aretherefore establishing a new scheme – theWellcome Trust Investigator Awards – toreplace our existing project and programmegrant schemes. These emphasise exibilityand individually tailored support, and willmean that we will fund larger grants thatcan deliver our resources more strategicallyand effectively, and in a way that will bringa greater impact from our funding.So why change our funding methods? Tosum up our thinking, I offer you two quotesthat I am sure will resonate with manyresearchers. The rst, from Sydney Brenner– “It is only through the use of subterfugesuch as applying for money for work alreadydone that innovative research can be freelypursued” (
Science
, 1998) – aptly describesthe problems of project and programmegrants, which require applicants to prescribein detail what they intend to achieve and donot readily embrace the unexpected twistsand turns that research often takes.Furthermore, as many of our project grantsare funded for only three years, it requiresresearchers to submit multiple, successiveapplications.Contrast this with Joshua Lederberg’scomment: “simply put, the best way toadminister a creative research environmentis to nd people of great talent and reasonableambition – whatever their specicdisciplines – and leave them to their owndevices” (
The Scientist 
, 1991). This is theessence of our Investigator Awards, whichwill provide substantial long-term supportto the very best researchers and their teams,and will give them the freedom to exploreriskier, more speculative lines of enquiry.We already take this approach for oursuccessful and popular Fellowship schemes,which provide researchers with the resourcesand exibility to pursue their individualvision. A key difference, of course, is thatour Fellowships are not open to researcherswith established positions; now, throughInvestigator Awards, we will be bringing thisethos to a wider community of researcherswho are salaried by their university orresearch institute.Studies of the age at which researcherspublish the discoveries that are laterrecognised by major awards, such as Laskerand Gairdner Awards and Nobel Prizes, showa peak of creative output for individualresearchers in their late 30s, though thespread is wide. It is a paradox that it isprecisely the researchers who are at the peakof their creativity who nd it hard to obtainproject and programme grants and, in theUSA, RO1 grants from the NationalInstitutes of Health. For this reason we willbe offering two categories – InvestigatorAwards and Senior Investigator Awards – forresearchers at different stages of theircareers; the former will be targeted specicallyat creative researchers at the start of theirindependent research careers.The Awards will open for applications inOctober 2010. We will also be offering twonal rounds of project and programme grantsin 2010/11 before the nal closure of theseschemes. Wellcome Trust Investigators,Senior Investigators and fellows will be ableto apply for Enhancement Awards, whichwill provide additional funding to explorenew opportunities that arise as their workunfolds, or to support signicantunanticipated costs such as access toequipment or resources. Furthermore, aspart of the Trust’s commitment to developinga community of research leaders, we areexploring opportunities to offer tailoredleadership training to those who wouldbenet from it.Over time, we believe that backing talentedresearchers who can demonstrate a clearscientic vision, creativity and potential forleadership, rather than a skill inmethodological detail and the traditionalconventions of grant writing, will be thebest strategy to generate breakthroughimprovements in global health.
Wellcome
News | Issue 61
Sir Mark WalportDirector o the Wellcome Trust
Wellcome News
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Editor
Chrissie Giles
Writers
Craig Brierley, Chrissie Giles,Mun-Keat Looi, Michael Regnier
Design
 Anja Fouad
 Assistant Editor
Tom Freeman
Photography
David Sayer
Publisher
Hugh Blackbourn
 All images, unless otherwise stated, are romthe Wellcome Library. Copies o images canbe obtained through Wellcome Images(images.wellcome.ac.uk).
 The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK.It unds innovative biomedical research, in the UKand internationally, spending over £600 million eachyear to support the brightest scientists with the bestideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debateabout biomedical research and its impact on healthand wellbeing.
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 This is an open access publication and, with theexception o images and illustrations, the contentmay, unless otherwise stated, be reproduced reeo charge in any ormat or medium, subject to theollowing constraints: content must be reproducedaccurately; content must not be used in amisleading context; the Wellcome Trust must beattributed as the original author and the title o thedocument specied in the attribution. The viewsand opinions expressed by writers within
WellcomeNews
do not necessarily refect those o theWellcome Trust or Editor. No responsibility isassumed by the publisher or any injury and/ordamage to persons or property as a matter o products liability, negligence or otherwise, or romany use or operation o any methods, products,instructions or ideas contained in the materialherein. ISSN 1356-9112. First published by theWellcome Trust, 2009. © The trustee o theWellcome Trust. The Wellcome Trust is a charityregistered in England, no. 210183. Its sole trustee is The Wellcome Trust Limited, a company registeredin England, no. 2711000, whose registered oce isat 215 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK.
PU-4659/13.1K/11-2009/AFCover image:
 blackred/iStockphoto.
See pages 4–5.
Editorial
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Features
Obstructive sleep apnoea 4Wellcome Film puts history online 9Henry Wellcome’s star collector 12
News
Nobel win or Trust-unded scientist 2Making a drama o e-health 3Jo Brand announces Book Prize winner 3
8109
Funding
Neurodegenerative Diseases Initiative 6Studying health impacts o climate change 6 Thailand Programme hits 30 7
Research
Conceptualising dogs 8‘My UKPMC’ helps grant reporting 8Investigating infuenza 10Q&A with Matt Hurles 11
Noticeboard 13
63
Wellcome
News | Issue 61 |
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