Wellcome and Nature Launch Award to Highlight Mental Health Research

More than one billion people worldwide live with a mental-health condition, according to the World Health Organization. Anxiety and depression affect close to 700 million people, and approximately 700,000 individuals die by suicide each year. Governments allocate a median of 2% of health budgets to mental-health services.

Funding for mental-health research fell to 2014 levels by 2023 after earlier growth between 2014 and 2020.

Wellcome and Nature have created a new award to raise the profile of mental-health research. The organizations state that outcomes from such studies do not always reach people who could benefit. The award will recognize work that improves understanding or treatment of mental-health conditions.

Organizers expect the prize to encourage greater attention to the field among researchers and funders. Shortages of trained mental-health professionals remain widespread. Low- and middle-income countries allocate even smaller shares of health spending to these services than the global median.