Wellcome Prize for Mental Health Science with Nature

Benefits & funding

• US$1,000,000 to the overall winner.
• US$250,000 to each of the three finalists who do not take the top prize.
• Funds are paid into the lead applicant’s employer account and spent on advancing the technology, scale-up, partnerships, regulatory work and communication. Institutional overheads, indirect costs and general administrative charges are excluded.
• Coverage on nature.com, plus media tours and meetings with policymakers.
• A place on a development programme that helps move the intervention towards adoption.
• An invitation for the lead applicant to the prize ceremony and symposium in London in June 2027.
• No entry fee at any stage.

Eligibility

• Teams of full-time or part-time staff at universities, research institutes, hospitals, government bodies, not-for-profit organisations, or small and medium enterprises with fewer than 350 full-time equivalent employees.
• The lead applicant must be a core member of the team, and the application must come from the team that originally discovered or invented the intervention. Teams may apply themselves or be nominated. Start-ups and academic spin-outs qualify on the same terms.
• Teams based in any country may apply, other than those based in the restricted territories named in the terms: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Belarus, Crimea and the occupied territories of Ukraine. People named on EU, UK, US or UN sanctions lists are excluded.
• Multi-institution collaborations name one lead institution, list every collaborator and hold their written permission; prize funds go to the lead institution only.
• The intervention must address anxiety (including OCD and PTSD), depression (including bipolar disorder and postnatal depression) or psychosis (including schizophrenia and postpartum psychosis). Transdiagnostic approaches qualify, at any point in the care pathway.
• Evidence must show clinically meaningful improvement rather than statistical significance alone, from an appropriately powered randomised controlled trial or an equally rigorous design. The most recent clinical data must be published in a peer-reviewed journal or a verifiable repository within five years of the submission date.
• The intervention may already hold regulatory approval in one or more territories, and must not yet be adopted as standard of care in more than two countries. It must also go well beyond what is currently used in practice.
• Applications are written in English.
• One entry per cycle and three in total; no team may be shortlisted more than twice. Past winners and finalists, judging panel members, and staff, directors and close family of the organisers may not enter.
• Involving people with lived experience is not an eligibility requirement, and the panel does weigh it.

Application process

1. 1
   Read the prize terms and the FAQs to confirm that both the team and the intervention qualify.
2. 2
   Agree on a lead applicant and a lead institution, and collect written permission from every collaborating organisation.
3. 3
   Gather the clinical evidence, including the most recent published trial data from the past five years.
4. 4
   Register on the Nature Awards submission portal linked from the prize page and complete the application form in English. There is a single submission stage.
5. 5
   Submit by 18 September 2026, 23:59 UTC — later entries are not accepted.
6. 6
   Wait for eligibility screening and expert panel review; shortlisted teams are notified during March 2027.

Program timeline

1. Applications open

   May 14, 2026

2. Application deadline (23:59 UTC)

   Sep 18, 2026

3. Shortlisted teams notified

   March 2027

4. Shortlist announced

   April 2027

5. Finalists announced

   May 2027

6. Winner announced at the ceremony and symposium in London

   June 2027