Manage your grant
We’re delighted you’ve been successful in your application for a grant to support your work. You should have received a Grant Offer Letter, which sets out the terms and conditions of your award, and agreed with us a start date for your project. If you haven’t, please do contact us.
We’re aware that sometimes you need to make some adjustments to your project so we’ve provided some guidance to assist with some of the most commonly occurring issues. And of course, there are very few awards that haven’t been impacted by the restrictions imposed by the pandemic or the recent inflationary increases. We have provided guidance on the support we are making available in relation to those issues here too. We also ask you to keep us up to date with your progress. Our reporting mechanisms are also set out here.
Academic and clinical researchers
All of our grants are managed through the online Grants Management Portal.
When you apply, you will have completed a login profile and should use those login details to manage your grant.
If you are unsure of your login details, please contact us.
The current levels of inflation are something no-one could have forecast when many of your grant budgets were originally approved.
PhD stipends
In September 2022 our Board considered the impact of the situation on PhD students in particular and approved a 10% increase the stipend (effective 1 October). Our grants team are in the process of contacting all Principal Investigators and finance officers on our non clinical PhD studentship awards to discuss how this increase will be funded. A number of our PhD awards were made on a shared cost basis, in which case, we would expect a contribution from the host institution. In cases where the award is entirely funded by DMT, we will consider the financial position and forecast towards the end of the grant award, at which time any underspend may be vired to cover the additional cost. Where there is no underspend, we will meet the additional cost where there is no local university policy to do so.
If you have appointed a PhD student on a research project grant, please do contact us to discuss the available support.
Other staff costs
In the case of other staff costs, we have reviewed the budgets for research project grant awards and, in the majority of circumstances, the budgets have included assumptions for pay increases in line with the UK universities’ pay award for 2022/23 so, for the time being, the current budgets should not be impacted substantially. We will, however, be keeping the situation under close review and will be taking action to assist should the circumstances change.
Equipment and consumables
Regarding equipment and consumables costs, like the PhD stipends, we will consider the overall impact on the budget towards the end of the award and approve either virement of under-spend from other lines or consider applications for additional support favourably.
Everyone’s circumstances will be different, and we will discuss with you what you think you will need to support you to complete your project, or, in the rare circumstances where this will simply not be possible, to help you to bring it to an orderly conclusion.
At a more detailed level, it’s important that we don’t contradict the policies of your employing organisations.
If your salary was covered on the grant originally and you:
- are unwell
- need to self-isolate
- have caring responsibilities for someone affected
we will supplement the grant for the costs your employing organisation incurs paying your salary while you are away, less any recoverable statutory sick pay. (In all cases for costed extensions, we will review the position when the work is complete as there may be under-spend against which any additional costs can be netted off).
If you are “called up” to work on the national COVID-19 response and your salary was covered on the grant originally:
- If you then receive pay from the NHS (or other source) then we will provide an un-costed extension.
- If you are asked to do this work on a voluntary basis and your salary isn’t covered elsewhere, we will pay these costs and extend the grant for the period of time you are away (again, we will review the situation towards the end of the project and net off the additional costs from any under-spend).
Delays for other reasons
For other grants which may be affected (for example, if an organisation such as a care home or other clinical setting which provides the research subjects closes or university-based labs are closed down), we will look to minimise the impact wherever possible. There might be work packages that can be re-ordered or literature reviews that can be done to ensure that at least some part of the work can progress. This might involve providing an extension or supplement to the grant, where the financial impact is not covered by insurance or where a contribution to salaries funded by the grant are not covered by the Government’s furlough arrangements. We strongly encourage you to contact your university HR department and see if you can take advantage of this scheme to reduce the pressure on claims to our funds. If your salary IS able to be covered by the furlough scheme, we will top up the part of your salary not covered. Please note, this is not necessarily the position of all charities whose financial circumstances and policies may be different.
Delay to start of grant
We are generally content for the start of the grant to be delayed, however, if a substantial period of time has passed since the award was approved, we may ask you to confirm that the work is still current and relevant.
If this means that salary scales have increased by the time you are ready to recruit, we will adjust the budgeted assumptions and increase the award accordingly.
Part-way through recruitment of fixed term contract staff
If it is feasible to carry on the recruitment process then you should do so but you should delay the formal start date.
Travel, events etc
If you’ve incurred costs which can’t be refunded or are not covered by insurance and you have to re-book or re-purchase when the restrictions are lifted, we will cover the additional costs if they can’t be absorbed by any overall underspend.
Research Training Fellows
Self-isolation
If you are ill, we will use discretion, as we would if you were ill in other circumstances.
If you are not ill, but self-isolating, and your ability to finish your research within the funded period is undermined, we will consider an extension. This would probably be a costed extension, funded in the first instance from any underspend on the grant. Where there is no underspend, we will review at the end and increase the size of the grant accordingly.
In many cases you will be able to work from home even if the activities you are undertaking change. For short periods of self-isolation, even if you cannot work, you may be able to make the time up over the remainder of your doctoral studies.
If you are “called up” to work on the national COVID19 response:
- If you then receive pay from the NHS (or other source) then we will provide an un-costed extension.
- If you are asked to do this work on a voluntary basis and your salary/stipend isn’t covered elsewhere, we will pay these costs and extend the grant for the period of time you are away (again, we will review the situation towards the end of the project and net off the additional costs from any under-spend).
Grants awarded before December 2017 and our Multiple PhD studentship awards
If your grant was awarded prior to December 2017 or is a Multiple PhD Studentship award, you should continue to submit quarterly financial statements using this form. Your university finance department may submit an invoice, but this must be accompanied by a completed financial statement.
All other grants awarded after December 2017
For grants awarded after December 2017, you will need to make your claim via the online Grants Management System. Claims are made using online claim forms. Please ensure that you download these instructionsand pass them to your finance officer.
We appreciate that as projects progress, changes need to be made, for example to the methodology or to the composition of the research team. We encourage you strongly to let us know of any changes as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the next reporting period. We’ve listed below some of the frequent queries which are raised. Please note that all requests for a change to the grant must be made by the named Principal Investigator.
You can log your change request via the Grants Management System.
Changes to the methodology
We appreciate that as a project progresses, there might need to be changes to how the data are collected or processed. So long as there are no fundamental changes to the project, there should be no problem in this being approved.
Changes to the named researchers
Should the named researcher need to take a leave of absence, or advise that they are leaving the project, then, depending on the circumstances, the grant can either be halted until a replacement researcher has been recruited or we can allow the grant to continue with temporary personnel to ensure that the work can continue. Please note that we do not pay maternity pay.
Virement between budget headings
We recognise that the budget provided in the application was a forecast and that funds may need to be moved between budget headings. However, requests must be made in advance to ensure that there is no delay when processing the quarterly expenditure claim. Please email your allocated grants officer detailing the amount to be vired and the reasons why the request is being made.
Costed extensions (see also COVID-19 related guidance)
In occasional circumstances a request for additional funds for a grant will be considered. This is usually due to a discovery made during the project that warrants further investigation, which will add to or confirm the findings of the project. It is not possible to request additional funds due to over-spending or to extend the grant whilst further sources of funding are obtained.
“No cost” extensions
As long as there are sufficient funds available for the additional period, most requests for a “no cost” extension are granted. Please email your allocated grants officer with your request, providing details of the duration, the reasons why more time is required and what work will be undertaken. If the reason for the extension relates to the recruitment of study participants, please also see the further guidance below.
Assistance with recruitment of project participants
We are a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) non-commercial Partner. This means the studies that we fund may be eligible to access NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) support. If your study involves the NHS or NHS patients, we expect you to apply, where appropriate, for NIHR CRN support and subsequent inclusion in the NIHR CRN Portfolio of studies to fully benefit from the support that the CRN offers through their Study Support Service.
If your project involves research in care homes then the NIHR Enabling Research in Care Homes (EnRICH) network offers practical advice, resources and guidance and maintains a list of research-ready care homes.
The terms of your award set out your reporting requirements. We normally require you to provide an annual update on how your project is progressing, with a final report falling due three months after the end of the grant. Before commencing your project, you will have agreed a payment and reporting schedule, which details when you need to submit your progress and final report. You will receive a reminder by email one month prior to the report due date. The email will contain a link to the report in the online portal which you will need to complete by the agreed date. The purpose of the progress report is to allow you to update us on how the project is progressing, and any changes or difficulties that you have encountered. The final report is more in depth and allows you to report more fully on the findings of your project and any follow-on funding or new developments that might arise from your work. We warmly welcome hearing from you at any time about the impact arising from your work and there will be space within the reporting templates for you to do so. We will, however, in common with other funding bodies, now be collecting details of the outputs resulting from your work via an annual Researchfish® submission.
Collecting outcome and impact information via Researchfish®
We use Researchfish® to collect information about your project’s outcomes and impacts. Researchers with projects that are sufficiently underway (i.e. one year or more into the grant) will be asked to make a submission using this tool. We will continue to ask you for information up to three years after your project ends. Find out more about how the Trust uses Researchfish® and what that means for you as a grant-holder.
How do I tell you about the impact and outputs from my grant between reporting periods?
We warmly welcome updates on how your project is progressing, for example, conferences or meetings where you are presenting your work or other public engagement and we like to feature your successes in the Success stories section on our website. If you are using social media, we ask that all tweets include the @DunhillMedical Twitter handle and that any literature (brochures, flyers, leaflets) and conference presentations include our logo and acknowledgment of our funding. Please read ourGuide to Acknowledgement of Funding Support in Research Publications and the Media. Our logo can be downloaded here, but please contact us if you need it in other formats.
We welcome being informed of any publications at any point during your grant. Please do ensure that:
- you have linked the paper to your Dunhill Medical Trust grant on Europe PubMed Central (EPMC).*
- you have acknowledged the Trust in line with our acknowledgment guidelines.
- you send us either the link to the paper if it has been published in open access format or a copy of the paper if it is still embargoed.
*Europe PubMed Central (EPMC) is the Trust’s repository for all peer reviewed publications arising from our grants. If you need any help the EPMC helpdesk is very good and can be reached on 01937 546699 or by e-mailing [email protected].
If you have any papers subject to embargo, only the abstract will show unless the reader has a subscription for the journal. Do please note that even if you provide your grant reference number as part of the publisher’s manuscript submission process, there is no automatic linkage of your paper to your grant on EPMC and you must make this link yourself.
We have available a fund which enables us to provide an additional amount to help you to meet open access fees. Please see the Trust’s Open Access policy for more details. In the first instance, though, we ask that claims for open access fees are made as part of your normal grant expenditure claim. If there is an under-spend at the end of your grant, then this will be used to cover the open access costs that have been incurred. If there is no under-spend, then you will be allowed to claim an additional sum from the fund to cover these costs as detailed in the Open Access policy.
Please note that all requests for a change to the grant must be made by the named Principal Investigator. You can log your change request via the Grants Management Portal.
Community organisations
All of our grants are now managed through the online Grants Management Portal.
If you are unsure of your login details, please contact us.
We will guarantee up to 6 months’ additional support if you cannot deliver your previously agreed project as a result of COVID restrictions. Further support may be available but we will need to discuss your individual circumstances.
We are open to discuss:
- adapting your activities – that is, re-directing your project funding to supporting your core activities in delivering support services to your community;
- reporting requirements – we will change reporting deadlines so as not to put additional pressure on you;
- financial flexibility – we will allow you to move funds between budget lines – again to allow you to re-direct funds to where they are most needed.
We may also be able to award small additional sums (up to £5k) to existing award-holders to further enable you to direct services to where they are most needed during this challenging time.
Please get in touch to discuss with us what you need.
For project grants, the next instalment of your grant award is dependent on us receiving a satisfactory progress report and a financial statement for the previous year.
For building and infrastructure grants, we usually only require a financial statement with the final report. We will advise you separately if we need anything different from you.
Grants awarded prior to December 2017
You will need to complete the financial statement form emailed to you with the reminder that your report is due. When you complete your progress or final report on the online Grants Management System, there is a section at the end that allows you to upload this completed statement and return it to us.
Grants awarded in or after December 2017
You will need to detail the grant expenditure made during the previous year via the online Grants Management System. Instructions on how to do this are provided here (.pdf). To do this, you will need to log on to the system with the details you provided when the application was made. Please contact us if you need assistance with this.
We appreciate that as projects progress, changes occasionally need to be made. We encourage you strongly to let us know of any changes as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the next reporting period.
If you need to move funds between budget headings, for example, then you will need to make the request in advance to ensure that there is no delay when processing your next grant payment. Please email your request to your grants officer or [email protected], including details of the amount to be moved and the reasons why the request is being made.
Please note that all requests to change the grant must be made by the named grant holder.
For Project Grants
The terms of your grant offer require you to provide a yearly update on how your project is progressing. Your final report must be received three months after the end of the grant. The purpose of the progress report is to allow you to update the Trust on how the project is progressing, and any changes or difficulties that you have encountered. The final report is more in depth and allows you to report more fully on the findings of your project and any follow-on funding, tangible impact or new developments resulting from your work. We use the information that you provide in your final report to measure the impact of our funding schemes and to develop future funding strategies.
Before starting your project, you will have agreed a payment and reporting schedule which details when you need to submit your progress and final report. You will receive a reminder by email one month prior to the report’s due date. The email will contain a link to the report in the online Grants Management System which you will need to complete by the agreed date.
For Building and Infrastructure Grants
In most cases we will only require a final report. (We will have agreed with you in advance whether interim progress reports are also required). When submitting a progress or final report, you will also need to complete a financial statement showing how the grant has been spent. Please see the section on completing a financial statement for more details.
We warmly welcome updates from you at any time and we like to feature your successes in the Success stories section on our website. If you are using social media, we ask that all tweets include @DunhillMedical and that any literature (brochures, flyers, leaflets) and presentations include our logo and an acknowledgment of the funding. Our logo can be downloaded here. Please contact us if you require it in a different format.