A Wellcome Change

The Wellcome Trust is going to change the way it supports researchers, moving away from the 'treadmill' of applying for short term grants. It will phase out two of its four main grant schemes in favour of an approach that puts researchers, not their proposals, first. Although peer review will still be used to make judgments applicants will no longer be assessed on written proposals, but by interviews instead.

Which all sounds like a breath of fresh air, and I wish Wellcome well. Whatever happens, I think it's worth exploring different ways of assessing applications for funding and, if it all falls apart in a year, at least they've tried to find a way out of the increasingly bureaucratic maze. More info on the changes is available here.