We are in the process of contacting all current award-holders individually.  If you haven’t heard from us, first check your “junk mail” folders then if you still can’t see an email from us, do please drop us a line directly if you need to speak with us urgently.

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 content for the start of the grant to be delayed.  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

If your grant was awarded prior to December 2017, 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.

Grants awarded between December 2017 and May 2019

For grants awarded from December 2017, you will need to make your claim via the online Grants Management System. Claims are made using online Finance Reports. Please ensure that you download these instructions and pass them to the finance officer you named on your application.

Grants awarded in or after June 2019

For grants awarded from 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 instructions and pass them to the finance officer you named on your application.

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. To find out more, please visit www.supportmysyudy.nihr.ac.uk.       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. To find out more, please visit http://enrich.nihr.ac.uk/.

The terms of your award set out your reporting requirements.   We normally require you to provide a yearly scientific 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 our Guide to Acknowledgement of Funding Support in Research Publications and the Media. Our logo can be obtained by emailing your grants officer or admin@dunhillmedical.org.uk.

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 Helpdesk@EuropePMC.org. 

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.