Last updated: September 2024

What is the RTSG?

Your RTSG (Research Training and Support Grant), is the money given to each Co(l)laboratory PhD candidate to support their research and training costs throughout their studies.

How much RTSG do you get?

Each candidate is given an RTSG worth a total of £1,500 for the entire duration of their PhD.

How much can you spend?

For full time candidates, we recommend that you budget for £500 per year of your PhD. However, any underspend will from one year will roll over into the next, meaning you will not lose any unspent funds.

It is also possible to spend more than £500 in one year, depending on your research and training needs. However, once your total budget of £1,500 has been spent, your RTSG funds will have been exhausted and your project’s budget code will close down.

Spending over and above the total limit of £1,500 is not allowed.

What can your RTSG funds be spent on?

Your RTSG funds can be spend on costs related to your training and development, or which are necessary for you to carry out your research. These exact costs will look different for each candidate and project, depending on individual training and development needs, and the needs of your research project. The tables below provide an general, non-exhaustive list of examples of what your RTSG can and can’t be used for.

If you are unsure if a specific item or service is able to be paid for with your RTSG, please contact collaboratory@universitiesfornottingham.ac.uk for clarification. If you pay for something that is not able to be approved, the purchase may be cancelled or will need to be charged to an alternative budget.

How to spend from your RTSG

Each candidate is assigned a unique code or pair of budget codes for their research project – see below. These codes are tied to your lead supervisor at your primary organisation. Your lead supervisor is considered the named budget holder for these funds, and so any expenditure against your RTSG budget requires your lead supervisor’s approval. Often this can be in writing, by cc’ing them into an email, or sometimes this requires them to make the purchase themselves through a specific process.

Whether you are based at UoN or NTU, making a purchase depends on what you are paying for and how. Your supervisor will need to contact their local finance officer (or similar person) to make any card purchases and raise invoices, while most supervisors will be able to book travel and accommodation through each university’s specified travel agent. If you are claiming reimbursement for costs, both UoN and NTU have specific ways for students to make claims through internal systems – please check with your supervisor’s local finance officer for details.

Whenever possible, you should NOT pay for RTSG expenses out of pocket and claim reimbursement! If you must do this, it is essential that you receive written confirmation for your supervisor before making the purchase. If you pay for something that is not able to be approved for charging to your RTSG, you will not be able to claim the costs back.

Managing your RTSG budget

It is the responsibility of both you and your lead supervisor to track and manage your RTSG budget. Both UoN and NTU finance colleagues will also be tracking these budgets, but the detail they see is sometimes limited. This means that, on occasion, you or your supervisor may be contacted by members of the finance team to confirm details of a spend, or to provide evidence such as receipts.

At a minimum, lead supervisors must ensure that:

• A tracking list of expenditure against the RTSG is maintained throughout their candidate’s PhD studies.
• This list should include dates of purchase, details of items purchased, and total costs inclusive of any VAT.
• Digital copies of purchase receipts (including photos or copies of physical receipts) must be kept.

Your RTSG budget codes

Please see a list of budget codes below. Only the named budget holder can spend against the associated budget codes.

NTU-based candidate codes Cohort 2023

• Codes with the nominal commodity code (middle 4 digits) of 3699 should be used for most RTSG costs.
• Codes with the nominal commodity code (middle 4 digits) of 4820 should be used for travel and accommodation costs only.

NTU-based candidate codes Cohort 2024

• Codes with the nominal commodity code (middle 4 digits) of 3699 should be used for most RTSG costs.
• Codes with the nominal commodity code (middle 4 digits) of 4820 should be used for travel and accommodation costs only.

UoN-based candidate codes Cohort 2023

UoN-based candidate codes Cohort 2023