Eligibility to apply

You are eligible to be considered for a Phase 2 funding extension if:

• your funding start date is before 1 March 2020
  
• your funding end date is 1 April 2021 or later
  
• you have not yet submitted your thesis (soft bound)
  
• you have not already received extension funding from your training grant holder
  
• your funding is either fully or partly provided by UKRI
  
• you have tried, and continue to try, to adapt and adjust your research project in order to mitigate the disruption caused by COVID-19, but you will be unable to complete your doctoral research within the funded period.

If you have not received the email about applying for UKRI Phase 2 funding extensions, it will be for one of the following reasons:

• the funding end date recorded for you on 18 January 2021 on Je-S, UKRI’s online electronic system, was before 1 April 2021
  
• your funding start date was 1 March 2020 or later
  
• your funding is not provided (in full or in part) by UKRI

If you have already received a UKRI-funded funding extension you are not eligible to apply for a Phase 2 extension.

Effect on approved Phase 1 funding extensions

If you received an email in September 2020 approving a Phase 1 funding extension, all agreed extensions still stand. The Phase 2 funding is aimed at those who were not in their final year of funding at that time and who have yet to receive an extension. Inevitably, because funding end dates have moved when extensions have been granted, we are picking up some people in the email list who have already received one.

New application process

If you are eligible to apply (as your funding end date is 1 April 2021 or later) but you submitted information about your need for a funding extension in June 2020, you should submit a new request in this Phase 2.

In June 2020, we were asked to submit provisional numbers of non-final year students who might need an extension to UKRI, to give them an idea of the scale of need. To capture this information, we asked students to provide us with details on the disruption faced and the likely extension they would require, should funding become available. The details from this exercise were submitted to UKRI on 30 June, and this, along with submissions from other institutions, was used to inform the process for the Phase 2 funding.

Now we have confirmation of the funding available, we have set up a new application process, as required by UKRI, so you will need to complete a new Phase 2 application if you still require a funded extension. As the funds we have been given are limited, we are asking for more specific information this time, to help us identify those in most urgent need of support.

EPSRC CDT incorporated students who are funded from other sources

Whether a CDT’s incorporated students are eligible for extension funding or not will depend on how the CDT registered them with EPSRC in May 2020. The same rules apply as in Phase 1, so if a CDT’s incorporated students were eligible then, they are also eligible now. You will need to check your individual circumstances with your CDT.

Students who are funded by the UKRI and another source

UKRI funds will only support an extension paid at the studentship proportion that they currently support. For example, if 50% of your funding comes from UKRI and you receive a 3-month extension, UKRI will only provide 50% of the funding for this. You, your supervisor, or your training centre Director should approach the partner funder to see if they will provide additional funding; this should be done in parallel to the UKRI application process.