As the biomedical research enterprise evolves, funders' portfolios must evolve along with it. We need to respond to the growing importance of multidisciplinary research, consider how to nurture research in translational medicine, and make sure gifted young researchers are given sufficient opportunity to establish their careers.

The Wellcome Trust traditionally gives high priority to supporting individual scientists, through training programmes and career fellowships, which currently account for more than 20% of its funding. But to ensure that our funding schemes reflect emerging trends in biomedical science, we recently revamped our personal-support funding portfolio.

Establishing a research group is an important step. The Wellcome Trust's research career development fellowships, like most such awards in Britain, are for people who have held at least one postdoctoral position. But some high-flyers are ready for independence earlier. Our new Sir Henry Wellcome fellowships are for people within the first year of getting their PhD. These four-year awards will give postdocs ample freedom to tackle important biomedical questions in leading labs in Britain or overseas.

Young clinicians wishing to start a research career in Britain can apply for a Wellcome Trust research training fellowship, but the quality of training environments does not always match the calibre of candidates. Meanwhile, research training for medics is at a premium. With clinical training also undergoing a major shake up in Britain, there is a need for a strong, integrated approach to clinical research training. We are launching a competition to host PhD programmes for clinicians, based in labs where research and training is of proven excellence. These will complement existing fellowships and help medics to identify first-class supervisors and mentors.

Opportunities for researchers to collaborate, learn skills and obtain experience in other disciplines are also crucial, particularly with the growth of inter- and multidisciplinary research. Our new flexible travel awards will help established scientists take sabbaticals and provide travelling fellowships to those without established posts.

Biomedical research has become a competitive, global endeavour. We hope our revised portfolio better reflects the challenges and opportunities for research in the twenty-first century.