UKRI training grant terms and conditions govern doctoral studentships and are legally distinct from the standard terms and conditions that apply to UKRI research grants. The two documents share a similar condition-numbering structure but diverge sharply on studentship transfer, extensions, absence/leave, stipend funding shares, and cohort-level data reporting through the Studentship Data System.
A UKRI training grant funds one or more Studentships at a Research Organisation — typically through a Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) or Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) — and is governed by the Standard Terms and Conditions of Training Grant, not by the fEC-based conditions that apply to a standard research grant.
UKRI revised its training grant conditions with effect from 1 October 2025, following a policy statement published on 30 January 2025 after an equality-focused review. DTP and CDT administrators need to know exactly how the training-grant rulebook diverges from the standard research grant rulebook their finance teams already use.
- How do UKRI training grant terms differ from standard research grant terms?
- What are the rules for studentship and training grant transfer?
- What cohort and studentship data reporting do DTPs and CDTs require?
- How do extensions and leave provisions differ?
- Answer-first Q&A on training grant terms and conditions
- Implications for DTP and CDT administrators
How Do UKRI Training Grant Terms Differ From Standard Research Grant Terms?
UKRI training grant terms and conditions are built around the Student and the Studentship; standard research grant terms are built around the funded project and its staff. Both use a similar numbered-condition format, but the numbering and substance diverge from condition 8 onward.
The Standard Terms and Conditions of Training Grant run to thirteen Training Grant Conditions (TGC 1–13). The parallel Terms and Conditions of fEC Grants run to fourteen Research Grant Conditions (RGC 1–14) — the extra condition is a dedicated RGC 9 Equipment clause with no training-grant equivalent, and RGC 8 covers Staff where TGC 8 instead covers Student Absence.
| Condition area | Standard research grant (RGC) | Training grant (TGC) |
|---|---|---|
| Funding basis | Full Economic Costing (fEC) — UKRI meets 80% of the assessed project cost | At least 50% of the total Studentship cost must be drawn from UKRI; the remainder can come from the Research Organisation or partners |
| Condition 8 focus | RGC 8: Staff | TGC 8: Absence (Student leave categories, including family leave) |
| Equipment | RGC 9: dedicated Equipment condition | No equivalent condition; funds cover stipends, project costs and Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) |
| Extensions | No-cost extensions for non-people-related reasons capped at six months over the grant’s lifetime (from 1 April 2026) | Extensions tied to Student leave categories; Studentship suspension capped at 12 months cumulative absent exceptional circumstances |
| Transfer | Handled via the standard change-of-institution request process | TGC 6 sets an explicit Studentship/Training Grant transfer clause (see below) |
| Data reporting | Standard financial and technical (final) reporting | UKRI Studentship Data System: per-Student records, annual 31 October check, submission-rate monitoring |
UKRI’s own guidance confirms the split directly: TGC 2.10 requires every Student stipend to be at least equal to UKRI’s published minimum rate for the relevant academic year, a rate reviewed annually and typically uplifted from 1 October — a mechanism with no equivalent in the standard research grant conditions, which fund salaries rather than stipends.
What Are the Rules for Studentship and Training Grant Transfer?
Under TGC 6, when a Student transfers institutions, the receiving Research Organisation must accept all terms and conditions relating to the Studentship exactly as originally offered — including its start date, duration, registration requirements and submission date. This is training-grant-specific; standard research grant terms have no direct parallel, since a research grant is tied to a project rather than an individual person’s award.
Where several Students sit on one Training Grant, the two institutions arrange the transfer of funding between themselves; the grant itself stays with the original Research Organisation. Where the transferring Student is the only Student on that grant, UKRI requires the entire Training Grant and any remaining funds to move to the receiving Research Organisation.
- Receiving institution inherits the original start date, duration and submission date in full.
- Multi-student grants: funding transfer is arranged institution-to-institution.
- Single-student grants: the whole grant and remaining balance transfer.
- Both Research Organisations must record the change in the Studentship Data System.
What Cohort and Studentship Data Reporting Do DTPs and CDTs Require?
Training grants carry a data-reporting layer standard research grants do not: the UKRI Studentship Data System, which superseded the Je-S system’s student functionality in 2025. Research Organisations must create a new Student record within one month of starting and log status changes within one month of formal agreement.
UKRI additionally requires Research Organisations to undertake an annual check of every Student record by 31 October each year, and Councils use submission data from the system to calculate annual submission rates across a DTP or CDT’s cohort — a Studentship terminated before the end of its first year is excluded from that calculation. UKRI states it monitors submission rates and may apply sanctions where they fall short. Standard research grants instead rely on conventional financial and technical end-of-grant reporting, with no equivalent cohort-level mechanism.
How Do Extensions and Leave Provisions Differ?
Training grant extensions under TGC 6 are driven by individual Student circumstances rather than project delivery risk. Extensions arise from categories of Absence set out in TGC 8 — family leave (maternity, partner/paternity, adoption, neonatal care and parental leave), medical leave and other specified reasons — and Studentship suspension is capped at a maximum cumulative 12 months unless exceptional circumstances apply. Research Organisations must keep leave records, since UKRI requests this information whenever an extension is sought.
Standard research grant extensions under RGC 6 work differently: a no-cost extension for a “people-related” reason (parental leave, sick leave, a reduction from full to part-time working, jury service) may run for the full duration of the delay, but extensions for non-people-related reasons — such as recruitment delays — are capped at six months over the grant’s lifetime, and no-cost extensions approved before 1 April 2026 do not count toward that cap. Neither route allows contingency time; every request must state one primary justification.
Answer-First Q&A on Training Grant Terms and Conditions
Do UKRI training grants use the same terms as standard research grants?
No. UKRI training grants are governed by the Standard Terms and Conditions of Training Grant (Training Grant Conditions, TGC 1–13), a separate document from the Terms and Conditions of fEC Grants (Research Grant Conditions, RGC 1–14) that apply to standard research grants. The documents share structure but diverge on funding share, extensions, absence and studentship-level data reporting.
Can a UKRI-funded studentship transfer between universities?
Yes. Under TGC 6, a Studentship can transfer to a new Research Organisation, which must honour the original start date, duration, registration requirements and submission date. If the Student is the sole award-holder on that Training Grant, the entire grant and remaining funds move with them; otherwise the two institutions arrange funding transfer directly.
What is the minimum UKRI stipend requirement?
UKRI publishes a minimum Stipend rate for each academic year, and TGC 2.10 requires every Student’s Stipend to meet or exceed it. Rate changes should be applied from 1 October, though UKRI permits limited flexibility around that date, and Research Organisations must never link an uplift to a Student’s individual start-date anniversary.
How long can a UKRI training grant extension last?
There is no fixed universal cap — extensions follow the Student’s category of Absence under TGC 8. However, Studentship suspension is limited to a maximum cumulative 12 months unless exceptional circumstances apply, which differs from the six-month non-people-related extension cap that applies to standard research grants under RGC 6.
Implications for DTP and CDT Administrators
For institutions running a DTP or CDT, grant finance teams cannot apply their standard research-grant compliance checklist to a training grant file. Studentship transfer, cohort-level monitoring through the Studentship Data System, and Absence-driven extensions each require processes that sit outside the fEC grant workflow.
Since the October 2025 revision followed an equality-focused review, DTP and CDT administrators should treat the current terms as a baseline UKRI is likely to keep refining, particularly around leave, part-time study and international eligibility. Mapping each Training Grant Condition to a named responsible team — anchored in wider research administration standards rather than folded into general grants administration — is the most durable way to stay compliant as the terms continue to evolve, and will make UKRI’s next round of condition updates easier to absorb without re-auditing every open Studentship file.
