After your award FAQs

After you submit an application, you'll receive an acknowledgement email via our online grants system Flexigrant. This is sent from [email protected]. If you haven’t received this, please check your Junk folder. If you still have any doubts, please contact us.

We manage a number of different funding programmes and some applications take longer for us to review and respond than others. 

• If you’ve applied for a patient hardship grant, we aim to respond within two working days.

• If you’ve applied for a small grant and your request is below £2,000, we aim to respond within 10 working days.

• If you’ve applied for a small grant and your request is £2,000 or more, we’ll assess your application at one of our quarterly decision meetings. You'll need to apply by the third Friday of the following months:
  • May, for a decision in June
  • August, for a decision in September
  • November, for a decision in January
  • February, for a decision in March

• If you’ve applied for a Research Fellowship grant, we’ll assess your application at our annual Research Fellowships committee meeting, which takes place in March.

• If you’ve applied for an Innovate at Imperial grant, we’ll assess your application at our annual Innovate at Imperial committee meeting, which takes place in October.

We’ll always let you know when you can expect a decision after you’ve submitted your application, and keep you informed if there are any changes.

If your application was unsuccessful, we’ll provide feedback to help you understand our decision.  If you have any queries regarding this feedback, please contact us.

If your application is unsuccessful, we'll provide feedback to help you understand our decision. This will include guidance about re-applying. 

If you do re-apply, we strongly advise you to address the issues raised in the feedback. For further advice, please contact us.

Congratulations! We’ll have emailed you a Grant Award Letter, which will include information about the next steps.

You can also check our grant flowcharts, which provide a step-by-step guide to how our grants work. You'll find these in the 'Key Resources' dropdown boxes on the right of this page.

You'll need to accept our grant offer within two weeks of your grant award to activate the funding. Follow the link in your award email, or log in to your Flexigrant account and scroll down to find your application. Click 'View offer' and then click ‘Accept’.

We'll make two payments against your grant. Our payment run is weekly. The first payment is upfront and the second payment will be made at a sensible interval provided you confirm via email that your patient has spent the first payment appropriately.

Unfortunately we're unable to make any fast payments. We're also unable to make payments on Fridays, weekends, bank holidays or the brief periods during the year when the programme is temporarily closed.

If your patient/family member is in an emergency situation and requires a faster response, please contact us ([email protected]) and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

Please call us on 020 3675 2415 between 10am and 3pm Monday to Thursday. We'll need the payee's bank details by no later than 3pm on Thursday in order to process their first payment the following week. We'll need the payee’s name as it appears on their bank account, the name of their bank/building society, their sort code and their account number.

Please email us ([email protected]) to request the next payment by confirming that you're confident the previous payment has been spent appropriately.

Our payment run is weekly. Your patient and/or their family member should receive the payment on a Friday. We'll need you to let us know by no later than 3pm on Thursday in order to process their next payment for the following week.

If your patient/family member doesn’t have a bank account to receive a BACS payment, we may be able to arrange for them to receive their grant in cash. This is done via the hospital’s cashier and each payment will be for up to £100. You'll need to collect the cash and pass it to your patient. We'll ask you about your patient’s preferred payment type in the application form.

We'll make two payments against your grant. Our payment run is weekly. The first payment is upfront and the second payment will be made at a sensible interval provided you confirm via email that your patient has spent the first payment appropriately.

Unfortunately we're unable to make any fast payments. We're also unable to make payments on Fridays, weekends, bank holidays or the brief periods during the year when the programme is temporarily closed.

If your patient/family member is in an emergency situation and requires a faster response, please contact us ([email protected]) and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

We may be able to consider a new application for your patient if they have received a grant previously. However, they will only be eligible if they are receiving different medical treatment.

If this is the case, please contact us ([email protected]) to discuss further before you apply.

Your grant is valid for 12 months from the date of your grant award letter. If your grant has not been used up within this period, we’ll close down the grant and make the money available for other patients in critical financial need.

You'll need to:

• accept your grant on Flexigrant within two weeks of the date of the Grant Award Letter
• send us your Grant Start Certificate within six months of the date of the Grant Award Letter
• send us confirmation of your back-fill (if applicable).

You also need to send us:

• HRA (if applicable), when obtained.

We know that navigating fellowships can be complicated so we’ve compiled the following resources to help.

• This Imperial Health Charity/NIHR Imperial BRC Research Fellowship Getting Started Guide offers detailed guidance and include hints and tips from previous fellows.
• This Standard Operating Procedure document for Research Grants or Fellowships gives specific processes to follow within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Please read alongside the Getting Started Guide above.
• For further advice, you can contact:
  • if you work in Nursing and Midwifery:
    Professor Mary Wells, Lead Nurse for Research [email protected]
  • if you’re an allied health professional:
    Dr Caroline Alexander, Lead Clinical Academic for Therapies [email protected]
  • if you’re a medic:
    Professor Jeremy Levy, Director of Clinical Academic Training [email protected]
• Our grants team is always happy to answer queries or signpost you to other resources so please feel free to contact us at any time.​​​​​​

Before you start your fellowship, we'll arrange a welcome event attended by all our new fellows. This usually takes place in July. This induction includes information about making the most of your fellowship and how to manage your grant, with advice from our committee members, key research contacts and members of our grants team. The session will also provide opportunities for networking.

Later in the year we'll also hold an annual cohort meeting for all active fellows and our committee members. This meeting provides another key networking opportunity, as well as the chance to share progress updates and experiences, and troubleshoot any problems you're facing.

Attending these events is mandatory, as per our grant conditions. Invitations to these events, with full agendas, will be circulated well in advance.

We send you a Grant Start Certificate to complete as an attachment to your Grant Award Letter. This certificate confirms key information, including the date you’ll start your fellowship. 

You'll have up to six months to activate your fellowship by completing your certificate. The certificate needs to be signed by you and your Trust Divisional Research Manager.

You won't be able to start spending your grant until the date you set as your Grant Start Date, and we need to have received your completed certificate before this date. The certificate can’t be back-dated.

If you’re unable to activate your fellowship within six months of the date of your award, please let us know as soon as possible and before this deadline has passed.

Please tell us why you want to defer your fellowship, giving us a realistic new project timetable, and we’ll consider your request. We won’t be able to consider a grant increase to accommodate this and may need to withdraw the grant and ask you to re-apply at a later date.

Your salary will be paid by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust or Imperial College London as normal. They’ll then invoice us, quarterly in arrears, and we’ll reimburse them.

Usually, any other items will also be paid as a reimbursement to the Trust or College. The Trust or College will pay for your items/purchases upfront. You'll then need to ask them to invoice us, and we will repay them.

If you work at the Trust, the procedure is as follows:

• Contact the Trust’s Research and Development Finance department, to inform them of your award. Our contact is currently [email protected]
• Show your Grant Award Letter to your Trust departmental budget-holder - often the Head of/Matron/Sister/Business Partner. They will give you a cost centre code and an account code for your grant that you can use to make any order(s) or purchase(s).
• You can make any order(s) or purchase(s) through the Trust’s e-procurement system, coding the expenditure against your cost centre code and account code.
• Your budget-holder will need to pay your salary as normal, and then reclaim it, quarterly in arrears, by submitting a Trust Invoice Request Form (available on the Trust's intranet) to the Trust’s Research and Development Finance department. They’ll need to include backing documents to evidence the amount, and the dates being claimed for.
• Once order(s)/purchase(s) are made, you should fill in the Trust’s Invoice Request Form (available on the Trust’s intranet) and send it to the Trust’s Research and Development Finance department.Make sure you fill in all the required fields on the form, including your Grant Reference Number, and attach the necessary backing documents (your Grant Award Letter, and any receipts/invoices to evidence your spend).
• Trust Finance will then invoice the charity, and we’ll pay the money back to your cost centre code and account code.

If you work at the College, the procedure is as follows:

• Show your Grant Award Letter to your budget holder or finance manager. They will give you a funding code for your grant that you can use to make any order(s) or purchase(s) through the College’s purchasing system. You will need to code your expenditure against your funding code.
• Your budget holder or finance manager will need to pay your salary as normal, and then reclaim it, quarterly and arrears, by liaising with College Finance. They should notify College Finance of the costs that need to be recharged to the Charity, and send them the relevant backing documents.
• Once order(s) or purchase(s) are made, you should send any invoices, receipts, or evidence of the expenditure to your budget holder or finance manager and notify them that this needs to be recharged to the Charity. You should also quote the Grant Reference Number, and the approved cost type the expenditure relates to (as detailed in your Grant Award Letter).
• They will then liaise with College Finance who will invoice the Charity. We’ll then pay the College back, and the money will be credited back to the funding code it came from.

We’re aware that sometimes you’ll find better value for money when purchasing smaller items, such as personal computers, travel, and some training courses, for yourself. Please speak to us first before you do this, and if allowed, we’ll then reimburse you directly.

Your Grant Award Letter gives details of your grant’s approved costs. These come from your application form, and are broken down into different cost types, with an approved amount for each. You can move money between cost types. However, if this movement will increase a cost type by more than 10%, you'll need to contact us to ask for permission first.

We understand there are circumstances that might mean you need to pause your fellowship and restart it at a later date, such as parental leave, adoption leave, absences covered by a medical certificate and extended jury service.

To request a pause to your fellowship, please contact us as soon as possible, and before you need to stop. We may ask you to complete a Progress Report to give an update on what you’ve achieved so far, and give an estimated reactivation date. We’ll then pause your fellowship, and ask you to contact us to reactivate it when you return.

If you experience unforeseen issues or delays to your fellowship, we can consider a no-cost extension. Please contact us as soon as possible (and at least four weeks before your grant ends) so we can consider this.

We’ll ask you to complete a Progress Report and provide your proposed new timetable and how you will spend the remainder of your grant to achieve your intended aims.

Your award is set at the amount confirmed in your Grant Award Letter. If you’ve experienced unforeseen issues, we may be able to consider a grant increase but this is on a case-by-case basis and cannot be guaranteed.

We’ll need to take your request to the original decision-makers, which can take a number of weeks. Please contact us as soon as possible if you’re concerned about your fellowship’s costs and we can provide further advice.

We may ask you to complete a Progress Report, for an update on your progress to date and how much you’ve spent. We can ask for this at any time, but especially if you need to request a no-cost extension or to move large amounts of money from one cost type to another.

This report is available online on Flexigrant for you to view and complete at any time. Log in to your account, scroll down to your application, and click 'Reporting'.

We ask you to submit an End of Grant Report when your fellowship is complete, and within six months of your grant ending. You use this Report to tell us what you’ve achieved. how far your project has met its aims, and your future plans. You can also give us feedback, and share what you’ve learnt along the way.

The template for this report is available on Flexigrant. for you to view and complete at any time. Log in to your account, scroll down to your application, and click 'Reporting'.

We won’t make any final payments related to your grant until we’ve received your End of Grant Report. Find out more about the End of Grant Report here.

360Giving is a charity that helps organisations openly publish their grants data.

As part of our commitment to open grants data, we publish our grants on a yearly basis to 360Giving. For small grants, we share the project title, project description, amount awarded, award date and hospital site.

If you'd like to see our latest 360Giving grants report, please click here.

We send you a Grant Start Certificate to complete as an attachment to your Grant Award Letter. You'll have up to six months to activate your grant by completing your certificate.

The certificate confirms key information, such as your grant start and end date, and needs to be signed by you and your Trust/College finance department (or Trust Divisional Research Manager/College JRO office, if applicable). You won't be able to start spending your grant until we’ve received your completed certificate. The certificate can’t be back-dated.

If you’re unable to activate your grant within six months of your award, please let us know as soon as possible, and before this deadline has passed.

Please tell us why you want to defer your grant, giving us a realistic new project timetable, and we’ll consider your request. We won’t be able to consider a grant increase to accommodate this and may need to withdraw the grant and ask you to re-apply at a later date.

Usually, your grant will be paid as a reimbursement to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust or Imperial College London. The Trust or College will pay for your items/purchases upfront. You'll then need to ask them to invoice us, and we will repay them.

If you work at the Trust, the procedure is as follows:

• Show your Grant Award Letter to your Trust departmental budget-holder - often the Head of/Matron/Sister/Business Partner. They will give you a cost centre code and an account code for your grant that you can use to make any order(s) or purchase(s).
• You can then make any order(s) or purchase(s) through the Trust’s e-procurement system, coding the expenditure against your cost centre code and account code.
• Once order(s)/purchase(s) are made, you should fill in the Trust’s Invoice Request Form (available on the Trust’s intranet) and send it to your department’s Trust Finance contact. If you’re not sure who this is, send it to [email protected].
• Make sure you fill in all the required fields on the form, including your Grant Reference Number, and attach the necessary backing documents (your Grant Award Letter, and any receipts/invoices to evidence your spend).
• Trust Finance will then invoice us and we’ll pay the money back to your cost centre code and account code.

If you work at the College, the procedure is as follows:

• Show your Grant Award Letter to your budget holder or finance manager. They will give you a funding code for your grant that you can use to make any order(s) or purchase(s) through the College’s purchasing system. You will need to code your expenditure against your funding code.
• Once order(s) or purchase(s) are made, you should send any invoices, receipts, or evidence of the expenditure to your budget holder or finance manager and notify them that this needs to be recharged to us. You should also quote the Grant Reference Number, and the approved cost type the expenditure relates to (as detailed in your Grant Award Letter).
• They will then liaise with College Finance who will invoice us. We’ll then pay the College back, and the money will be credited back to the funding code it came from.

We’re aware that sometimes you’ll find better value for money if you purchase smaller items, such as personal computers, travel, and minor pieces of furniture/equipment, for yourself.

Please speak to us first before you do this, and if allowed, we’ll then reimburse you directly.

We can use our charitable status to VAT exempt certain purchases. This means that you won't be charged VAT for the item as you’re purchasing it with charitable funds.

The list of items that qualify is very specific and can be found here.

If you’re purchasing something from this list, please make sure the supplier will accept a VAT exempt certificate. Then, contact our finance team ([email protected]) with the following information before you make your purchase:

• a quote for the item from the supplier (valid for at least one month)
• the supplier’s name and address
• a description of the item being purchased
• the Purchase Order from the Trust/College.

Our finance team will then issue you with a VAT exempt certificate, and you can make your purchase receiving this VAT relief.

Your Grant Award Letter gives details of your grant’s approved costs. These come from your application form, and are broken down into different cost types, with an approved amount for each. You can move money between cost types. However, if this movement will increase a cost type by more than 10%, you'll need to contact us to ask for permission first.

We understand there are circumstances that might mean you need to pause your project and restart it at a later date. To pause your grant, please contact us as soon as possible, and before you need to stop.

We may ask you to complete a Progress Report to give us an update on what you’ve achieved so far, and an estimated reactivation date. We’ll then pause your project and ask you to contact us to reactivate it when you’re ready.

If you experience unforeseen issues or delays to your project, we can consider a no-cost extension. Please contact us as soon as possible (and at least four weeks before your grant ends) so we can consider this.

We’ll ask you to complete a Progress Report, and give us details of your proposed new timetable and how you'll spend the remainder of your grant to achieve your intended aims.

Your award is set at the amount confirmed in your Grant Award Letter. If you’ve experienced unforeseen issues, we may be able to consider a grant increase but this is on a case-by-case basis and cannot be guaranteed.

We’ll need to take your request to the original decision-makers, which can take a number of weeks. Please contact us as soon as possible if you're concerned about your project costs and we can provide further advice.

We may ask you to complete a Progress Report for an update on your progress to date and how much you’ve spent. We can ask for this at any time, but especially if you need to request an extension or to move large amounts of money from one cost type to another.

The template for this report will be available via Flexigrant soon. If you need it in the meantime, please contact us.

We ask you to submit an End of Grant Report when your project is complete, and within six months of your grant ending. This report tells us what you’ve achieved, how far your project has met its aims and your future plans. You can also give us feedback and share what you’ve learnt along the way.

The template for this report will be available on Flexigrant soon. If you need a copy in the meantime, please contact us.

We won’t make any final payments related to your grant until we’ve received your End of Grant Report.

Find out more about the End of Grant Report here.

360Giving is a charity that helps organisations openly publish their grants data.

As part of our commitment to open grants data, we publish our grants on an annual basis to 360Giving. For Innovate at Imperial grants, we share the project title, project abstract, amount awarded, award date and hospital site. If you would like to opt out of sharing your project title and abstract, please email us.

If you would like to see our latest 360Giving grants report, please click here.