Flexible Funding Allowance

A Flexible Funding Allowance (FFA) will be provided to meet the unanticipated, directly incurred costs of the research (including publication costs).

The FFA will normally be equivalent to 2.5 per cent of the transferable costs total, exclusive of the inflation allowance. However, FFA on grants is provided at the discretion of the Trust.

The FFA will:

• not be provided on some grant schemes
• not be provided for ring-fenced funds (including fellows’ salaries; student stipends; studentship course fees; health insurance; and any personal overseas allowances)
• be subject to a maximum ceiling of £50,000 per grant.

Note: for grants awarded from 1 October 2011, the Flexible Funding Allowance will only be provided on studentships and training and intermediate fellowships. For other grant schemes, where FFAs will no longer be provided, support for publication costs (with the exception of open access), formal transferable skills and personal development training, and PhD student fees for individuals employed on a Trust grant, may be requested in the application.

The Trust is a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers; the FFA can be used to cover the costs of formal transferable skills and personal development training courses for Trust-funded research staff and fellows.

Incorporating the Flexible Funding Allowance into grant costs
Applicants should not include the FFA in grant costings. The FFA will be added, where appropriate, by the Trust.

Grants awarded between 1 October 2007 and 30 April 2009
For grants awarded between 1 October 2007 and 30 April 2009, the Flexible Funding Allowance (FFA) was combined with compound inflation into one consolidated allowance. This was applied by the Trust to the total cost of the grant (with the exception of fellowships, where the inflation/FFA was applied to the total cost exclusive of the fellow’s salary costs and any fellowship supplement/distinction award). The FFA was normally set at a fixed 2.5 per cent of the total award.

Grants awarded between 1 April 2006 and 30 September 2007
For grants awarded between 1 April 2006 and 30 September 2007, the stand-alone FFA was set at a fixed 2.5 per cent of the total award. The FFA was to be used to meet the unanticipated directly incurred costs of research (including publication costs).

Grants awarded before 1 April 2006
For grants awarded prior to 1 April 2006, the FFA was determined by the number of research posts funded on the grant. The FFA on these awards was to be used to meet unanticipated direct costs of the research and also to fund certain cost types (e.g. staff recruitment, access charges for basic equipment, non-salary inflation).