Financial Support

Financial support is offered at the UKRI’s minimum rates. This includes payment of a monthly stipend, tuition fees and a Research Support and Training Grant (RTSG). These figures are updated each year as the UKRI releases the set amount of funding for each intake.

Stipend

This is a tax-free payment made to the student based on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) minimum rate. Fees-only awards do not permit a maintenance stipend. ‘Inside London’ means in the City of London or a Metropolitan Police District.

2022 to 2023:
Outside London: £17,668
Inside London: £19,668

2023 to 2024:
Outside London: £18, 622
Inside London: £20,622

Fees

Sessional fees including tuition, supervision, registration and bench fees.

2022 to 2023: £4,596

2023 to 2024: £4,712

College fees are not provided as a separate, additional fund and UKRI-approved tuition fees do not include payment for college membership costs. Research organisations may use the flexibility provided by the training grant to pay college fees, provided that:

  • all other reasonable external sources of college fees have been exhausted
  • the student benefits in terms relevant to their research training.

Students should not be required to pay college fees from their stipend.

Research training and support grant (RTSG)

Contribution towards consumable costs of training research students.

All MRC PhD studentships should be allocated a minimum £5,000 MRC-funded RTSG per year. Exceptionally, the research organisation may allocate a lower MRC-funded RTSG, where £5,000 per year is in excess of individual project requirements (for example “dry-lab” based projects or where consumable funds have been drawn from external sources where possible). Research organisations are required to keep a record of such exceptional cases, which MRC may request for monitoring purposes. MRC units and institutes should award a minimum of £1,000 RTSG per student.

Travel and conference allowance

Contribution of £300 to the costs of attending scientific conferences, workshops or visits to collaborators.

iCASE studentships

For industrial CASE studentships, the industrial company is expected to make a financial contribution to the cost of the studentship.