CASRAI Dictionary

Tag: ukri grant transfer

  • UKRI COVID Grant Extensions: The CoA Audit Trail

    UKRI COVID grant extensions — formally the UKRI COVID-19 Grant Extension Allocation (CoA) — were a costed, time-boxed funding mechanism used between 2020 and 2021 to extend research and fellowship awards disrupted by the pandemic. Although the scheme closed to new applications years ago, its expenditure still falls inside institutional audit cycles, because UKRI’s funding assurance reviews and grant-condition checks operate on multi-year lookback windows, not calendar-year cut-offs.

    The CoA is defined by UKRI as a supplementary, costed award — distinct from an ordinary no-cost extension — issued to sustain UKRI grant-funded research and fellowships affected by the pandemic, subject to its own terms, conditions and reporting deadlines.

    What was the UKRI COVID-19 Grant Extension Allocation (CoA)?

    The CoA ran from 2020 into 2021 as UKRI’s principal response to pandemic-related disruption of active grants. UKRI’s own FAQ describes its aim as providing “UK organisations with resources to sustain UKRI grant-funded research and fellowships affected by” the pandemic. Unlike a routine no-cost extension, which extends time only, the CoA was a genuine additional award: UKRI’s terms and conditions state plainly that “extensions of CoA can only be offered in specific circumstances and will be supported through an additional award.”

    A related, narrower scheme targeted doctoral students specifically. In February 2021, a written ministerial statement to Parliament confirmed £44 million of urgent funding for up to six-month extensions for PhD students in their final year unable to complete their studies. UKRI later reported a further £19 million committed under the Doctoral Extensions Policy Phase 2 Awards, published in a full report dated February 2025, covering students who could not mitigate pandemic delays through the initial phase of support.

    Both strands closed to new applications once their windows lapsed, but institutions that drew on either allocation retained reporting obligations — a Final Report and a Final Expenditure Statement — that created the audit trail now being revisited.

    Why UKRI COVID grant extensions still surface in institutional audits

    Institutional audits and UKRI funding-assurance reviews do not treat 2020-21 expenditure as closed simply because the pandemic has receded. Grant conditions require institutions to retain records for a defined period after a grant’s Final Expenditure Statement, and CoA-funded costs sit inside exactly the same retention and eligibility rules as any other award expenditure.

    Three forces keep the CoA in scope for auditors in 2026:

    • Retention windows outlast the news cycle. Record-retention obligations attached to a grant run from the Final Expenditure Statement date, not from the original award date — so CoA awards accepted late in the scheme can still be inside their retention period.
    • Funding assurance reviews are cyclical, not one-off. UKRI’s assurance activity revisits institutional financial control on a rolling basis, which means expenditure from 2020-21 can legitimately fall inside a review conducted years later.
    • The CoA was a bespoke instrument, so its rules are easy to misapply. Because the CoA was a costed additional award rather than a standard no-cost extension, staff costs, equipment, and consumables charged against it must be tested against the CoA-specific terms and conditions — not the general no-cost-extension rules that apply to most current requests. Institutional audit teams that apply the wrong rule set are the most common source of a finding.

    CoA vs a standard no-cost extension: what changed under UKRI grant conditions

    The distinction between the CoA and today’s ordinary no-cost extension is the single most consequential fact for an audit reviewing pandemic-era files, and it is easy to lose years after the event.

    Feature UKRI COVID-19 Grant Extension Allocation (CoA) Standard no-cost extension (current UKRI grant conditions)
    Funding basis Costed — supported through an additional award No additional cost; time only
    Maximum duration Case-by-case, tied to pandemic disruption Up to 6 months over the grant’s lifetime for non-people-related reasons; up to the actual delay for people-related reasons (per UKRI guidance updated 7 May 2026)
    Application status Closed since 2021 Open, ongoing route via the grant’s award system
    Reporting obligation Final Report plus Final Expenditure Statement, due by end of 2021 Standard Final Expenditure Statement at the (extended) grant end date

    UKRI’s current guidance on requesting a change to a project confirms the modern no-cost-extension rule directly: “no-cost extensions due to non-people related reasons may not exceed six months over the lifetime of the grant, unless exceptions apply.” Extensions justified by people-related reasons — parental leave, sick leave, recruitment delay — may instead run for the actual length of the delay. Neither rule was designed with the CoA’s bespoke, costed structure in mind, which is exactly why an auditor applying today’s no-cost-extension test to a 2020-21 CoA award will misclassify the expenditure.

    What documentation satisfies auditors reviewing CoA-funded extensions

    Research offices preparing for a funding-assurance visit or an institutional audit that touches pandemic-era grants should be able to produce, for each CoA award:

    1. The original CoA award letter or additional-award confirmation, showing it was issued as a costed extension rather than a no-cost one.
    2. The stated justification for the extension, tied to a specific pandemic-related circumstance rather than a general reference to COVID-19.
    3. Timesheets or equivalent evidence for any staff costs charged against the additional award.
    4. The Final Report and Final Expenditure Statement submitted at scheme close, plus any correspondence extending those deadlines.
    5. A clear cross-reference showing which grant conditions — CoA-specific or standard — governed each cost line, so a reviewer does not default to the wrong rule set.

    Where a doctoral extension was funded under the separate £44 million or £19 million allocations described above, the same principle applies: keep the scheme-specific approval letter alongside the standard studentship file, because the eligibility criteria for those cohorts differ from both the CoA and the ordinary no-cost extension.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is the UKRI COVID-19 Grant Extension Allocation (CoA)?

    The CoA was a costed, additional UKRI award — not a standard no-cost extension — issued between 2020 and 2021 to sustain grant-funded research and fellowships disrupted by the pandemic. It closed to new applications once its funding window ended, but its terms still govern how that historic expenditure must be assessed in an audit.

    How long can a UKRI no-cost extension run under current grant conditions?

    Under UKRI guidance current as of May 2026, a no-cost extension for non-people-related reasons may not exceed six months over the lifetime of the grant, unless exceptions apply. Extensions justified by people-related reasons, such as parental or sick leave, may instead run for the length of the actual delay.

    Why do auditors still ask about COVID-era grant extensions?

    Grant record-retention obligations run from the Final Expenditure Statement date, and UKRI’s funding-assurance reviews revisit institutional financial control on a rolling cycle. Both mean CoA-funded expenditure from 2020-21 can still fall legitimately inside a current review, especially where cost lines were charged under bespoke, non-standard terms.

    Can an institution still apply for a new CoA extension today?

    No. The CoA closed to new applications once its funding window lapsed in 2021. Institutions cannot open new CoA claims; the only live task is ensuring historic CoA expenditure and its supporting evidence remain correctly documented against the scheme’s original, costed terms.

    For research offices, the practical implication is straightforward: pandemic-era grant files are not a closed chapter simply because the news cycle has moved on. Institutions that keep the CoA’s costed, bespoke terms clearly separated from today’s standard no-cost-extension rules — and can point an auditor to the correct rule set for each historic cost line — are the ones that clear a funding-assurance review without a finding. That discipline, more than any single retained document, is what the legacy of the CoA now demands of institutional grant administration.

    Research offices building broader institutional compliance capability may also find it useful to review general research administration practice alongside funder-specific rules such as these.

  • UKRI Training Grant Terms and Conditions Guide

    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?

    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.