OVERVIEW: Wellcome Leap is a global health research funder that creates large, time-limited research programs around ambitious health goals. It funds universities, research institutes, nonprofits and companies around the world to pursue them.
IP TAKE: Led by former DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) director Regina Dugan, Wellcome Leap is not a conventional health foundation. It builds tightly managed research programs—usually backed by roughly $45 million to $60 million—and assembles multidisciplinary teams to pursue breakthroughs on faster-than-typical timelines.
When a program launches, universities, nonprofits, government research organizations, startups and larger companies worldwide may compete. Applicants do not need an existing relationship with Leap. However, no unsolicited grant program exists. Each opportunity is tied to a specific technical challenge, and calls move quickly: recent competitions have gone from initial abstract to final funding decision in roughly 75 days.
Grant seekers must watch new program announcements closely. This funder is best suited to teams with a bold technical idea, measurable milestones and the multidisciplinary capacity. Joining Wellcome Leap’s Health Breakthrough Network can smooth contracting, but it is not required to apply.
PROFILE: The Wellcome Trust founded Wellcome Leap in 2020 as a U.S.-based nonprofit designed to accelerate breakthroughs in human health through a model inspired by DARPA. The organization launched with $300 million from Wellcome; in 2022, Wellcome committed another $335 million. It’s based in San Diego, California. President and CEO Regina E. Dugan previously served as director of DARPA and later built advanced-project organizations at Google and Facebook. Richard Wooldridge is chief operating officer, and Richard Gillingwater chairs the board.
Wellcome Leap describes itself as a “global ARPA for health.” Rather than maintain broad standing grant categories, it builds discrete programs around technical goals able to be rigorously tested. Program Directors actively coordinate funded “performers,” which may include researchers at universities, nonprofits, government institutions and commercial companies. Leap programs are “optimized to deliver breakthroughs in human health over 5 – 10 years and demonstrate seemingly impossible results on seemingly impossible timelines.”
The organization says it has executed 16 programs in 32 countries. Its Health Breakthrough Network now includes more than 170 organizations on six continents, representing more than 1.5 million researchers. Current work spans antimicrobial resistance, women’s health, Alzheimer’s disease, addiction, aging, maternal and infant health, the microbiome and RNA-based biomanufacturing.
Grants for Women’s Health
Women’s health has become one of Wellcome Leap’s most visible areas of expansion. Leap says its total investment in women’s-health breakthroughs now exceeds $250 million. In 2025, it announced a $100 million partnership with Pivotal, an organization founded by Melinda French Gates, to accelerate additional women’s-health research.
Current programs include:
- VISIBLE, a $55 million program jointly funded with Pivotal and supported by the British Heart Foundation, focuses on women with coronary microvascular disease and related forms of heart disease that can be difficult to diagnose. Its 2026 application cycle is closed.
- CARE — Cutting Alzheimer’s Risk through Endocrinology, a $50 million program, examines female-specific neuroendocrine risks for Alzheimer’s disease and aims to develop predictive models and prevention strategies beginning in midlife.
- The Missed Vital Sign, a $50 million program, is developing better ways to measure, diagnose and treat heavy menstrual bleeding.
- In Utero, a $50 million program, has supported technologies designed to detect pregnancy complications and reduce stillbirth.
Grants for Diseases and Antimicrobial Resistance
Antimicrobial resistance is another major current priority:
- Resistance Networks, a $50 million program supported by Bayer, seeks to understand how antibiotic resistance moves through bacterial networks and develop interventions that slow or stop its spread. Its 2026 application cycle concluded in October.
- Focused Antibiotics, also a $50 million program, aims to reformulate existing antibiotics so they can treat infections while minimizing harm to the gut microbiome and reducing antibiotic-driven resistance. Selected performers include university researchers, hospitals, research institutes and companies in multiple countries.
- These programs illustrate Wellcome Leap’s broad eligibility model.
- Applicants may come from universities, research institutes, government or nonprofit research organizations, and small or large companies, including venture-backed firms.
- Wellcome Leap wil, consider proposals from legal entities in any jurisdiction.
Grants for Neuroscience, Mental Health and Aging
Wellcome Leap demonstrates interests in brain health and mental health:
- Untangling Addiction, a $50 million program, supports work intended to improve prediction of addiction risk, develop quantitative measures of recovery and advance new interventions.
- Dynamic Resilience, a $60 million program, focuses on the biological mechanisms that determine why some people recover from physiological stress while others become frail, with the larger goal of extending healthy lifespan. The program was jointly funded with Temasek Trust.
- Leap has also completed Multi-Channel Psych, a $50 million program focused on depression and treatment response, and 1kD — The First 1000 Days, a $45 million effort examining early brain development.
Grants for Maternal and Infant Health
The Foundation’s work on maternal and infant health intersects with work involving healthy microbiome and biomedical platforms.
- FORM — Foundations of a Resilient Microbiome, a $50 million program, examines the maternal and infant gut microbiome and its relationship to healthy neurodevelopment. Selected performers were announced in 2026.
- R3 Global is the next stage of Leap’s earlier RNA Readiness + Response program. It aims to develop a distributed network of biofoundries capable of producing RNA and other biologic medicines quickly and at different scales, including for personalized therapies and outbreak response.
Other completed programs include:
- Delta Tissue, a $55 million program developing tools to measure tissue states and predict disease progression.
- HOPE, a $50 million effort using bioengineering and regenerative medicine to pursue replacement organ function.
- SAVE, a $50 million program focused on surgical training and safety.
- Q4Bio — Quantum for Bio, a $50 million supported challenge exploring whether quantum computing can deliver meaningful advantages for health and biology.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, this funder gave $145.9 million in total grants across 171 awards. There is no standard individual grant amount. Grantees have included University of California, San Diego, RiboPro BV, Centillion, the University of Birmingham and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, among others.
- Wellcome Leap does not maintain a general application process. Instead, it periodically announces a new program and opens a tightly defined global competition. Recent calls have followed a rapid process:
- Applicants receive roughly 30 days to prepare an initial abstract.
- The funder reviews abstracts in about 15 days and provides technical or programmatic feedback.
- Applicants then receive roughly 30 days to develop a full proposal.
- Final proposal review takes approximately another 30 days, putting the funding decision around Day 75.
- Universities, research institutions, nonprofit and government research organizations, and commercial companies may apply. Applicants from outside the United States and United Kingdom are welcome, and membership in the Health Breakthrough Network is not required before applying.
- Award sizes depend on the technical scope of the selected project and the role it plays within the larger program.
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