Prototyping Phase
July 26 – March 27
Six teams will be selected to prototype their data tool. Each team will receive grant funding of up to £100,000.
The Wellcome Mental Health Data Prize UK
We’re launching expressions of interest for the Mental Health Data Prize 2026, a UK-wide innovation programme funded by Wellcome to support teams developing new data tools for mental health science.
The Mental Health Data Prize – unlocking innovation in mental health science.
The next round of the Mental Health Data Prize UK will launch in February 2026, supporting the development of data tools that contribute to improving early intervention for anxiety, depression and psychosis.
The Mental Health Data Prize is an open challenge that provides innovation funding, tailored support and a diverse learning community, supporting teams across the UK to develop scalable tools that use existing mental health data to drive new insights and approaches.
The first Mental Health Data Prize ran between 2022–24, supporting over 10 teams to develop novel insights and tools. The next round of the Data Prize will launch for full applications in February 2026. To register your interest and receive updates about the Data Prize, please fill in the short expression of interest form at the bottom of this page.
The programme is being delivered by Social Finance in partnership with Wellcome, a global charitable foundation whose vision is a healthier future for everyone. The Data Prize contributes to Wellcome’s mission to enable a step change in early interventions for anxiety, depression and psychosis.
Building on the success of the inaugural Mental Health Data Prize, we are thrilled to extend our partnership with Social Finance to support teams to develop digital tools utilising existing data. The Data Prize will foster multidisciplinary collaborations and robust, responsible data use in mental health research. We are excited to pave the way for a better understanding of how mental health problems develop, persist and resolve.
Dr Catherine Sebastian, Head of Evidence for Mental Health at Wellcome
What does the Data Prize offer to participants?
The Mental Health Data Prize will provide teams with the opportunity to develop their data tool concepts from initial ideas to working prototypes, running across two 9‑month phases.
Sustainability Phase
Jun 27 – Feb 28
Three winning teams will be selected at the end of the prototyping phase to further develop and scale their data tool. Each team will receive funding of up to £300,000.
Alongside innovation funding, participants will have access to:
Group workshops and expert surgeries.
Team mentoring and tailored support.
Workshops that guide meaningful integration of lived experience throughout the development process.
Opportunities to showcase prototypes and gather peer and user feedback through ‘Show and Tell’ sessions.
Opportunities for connection, collaboration and knowledge sharing with a diverse network of experts across mental health science and related fields.
What type of innovations will the Data Prize support?
The Data Prize aims to support the development of scalable data tools that use existing mental health data to drive new insights and approaches, contributing to the overall vision of improving early intervention for anxiety, depression and psychosis.
Data tools can be designed for use by the research community, or for use by policymakers or mental health practitioners.
Tools should address a well-defined opportunity area that aligns with the overall vision for the Data Prize. A range of tools will be considered within the scope of the Data Prize, such as:
- Tools that help users to perform data analysis
- Tools that help to facilitate data analysis, for example by supporting data cleaning and manipulation
- Tools that share insights from data analysis in a format accessible by different audiences, such as researchers, policymakers and/or practitioners
Further guidance on the types of tools that are in scope for the Data Prize will be shared when full applications launch in February 2026.
Find out more about the previous winning teams
Harmony is a free-to-use AI tool for researchers to make better use of existing mental health questionnaire data, by bringing together different studies.
The team: Eoin McElroy, Bettina Moltrecht, Thomas Wood, Mauricio Scopel Hoffmann, George B. Ploubidis
DigiCAT is a digital tool that analyses cause and effect in observational mental health data. This can accelerate progress in identifying potential intervention targets.
The team: Aja Murray, Marie Allitt, Ingrid Obsuth, Josiah King, Dan Mirman, Patrick Errington and Helen Wright
SHRN is a digital dashboard that empowers schools to use bespoke data to create environments that promote good mental and physical health.
The team: Jeremy Segrott, Hayley Reed, Frances Rice, Simon Murphy, Rhys Bevan-Jones, Yulia Shenderovich, Olga Eyre, Nicholas Page, Maria Boffey and Edna Ogada
Who can apply?
We encourage applicants to form multidisciplinary teams that bring together the range of skills and experience needed to deliver their proposal. This is likely to include a combination of expertise such as:
- Mental health research
- Data science
- Digital tool development
- Lived experience
- Mental health policy
- Mental health practitioners
- Specialists in areas such as data ethics, open science, and expertise relevant to sustaining and scaling data tools
A key aim of the Data Prize is to contribute to building a thriving mental health science community that brings together individuals from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.
We actively welcome applications including early career researchers and practitioners, and individuals with relevant skills and experience who are interested to apply these to the field of mental health for the first time.
If you do not yet have a full multi-disciplinary team, please use the form below to express your interest as an individual and we will organise opportunities and events for you to form connections with other interested organisations or individuals.
Eligibility for lead applicants and co-applicants
At the full application stage, teams will be asked to name a lead applicant organisation which is able to receive the grant funding on behalf of the team. Lead applicant organisations:
- Must be based in the UK
- Should be based at either a higher education institution, a research institute, a non-academic healthcare organisation, or a not-for-profit organisation
Applicants will also be asked to detail all co-applicants involved in their team. Co-applicants:
- Can be based anywhere in the world apart from mainland China
- Should be based at either a higher education institution, a research institute, a non-academic healthcare organisation, a not-for-profit organisation, a commercial organisation, or self-employed (for example a freelance data scientist).
All applicants must be able to sign up to a set of standard grant conditions, which will be made available at the launch of the application window in February 2026.
Interested to know more or thinking about applying?
In the lead up to the launch of the application window in February 2026, we are inviting expressions of interest from prospective applicants.
Please fill in your details below to register your interest and we will let you know when further information about the Data Prize is published, including dates for upcoming webinars to learn more about the programme.
For any questions you can reach the team at dataprize@socialfinance.org.uk
By submitting your details you are agreeing to Social Finance’s privacy policy Privacy Policy | Social Finance
If you have any questions or would like additional information please reach out to the team at dataprize@socialfinance.org.uk