No-cost extensions

All Blood Cancer UK grants are awarded for a defined period as detailed in your Grant Award Letter and will have a specific end date.

For non-milestone grants, we will consider requests for no-cost extensions (NCEs) if received before the end date of a grant and there are sufficient unspent funds remaining on the grant. These fall into two main categories:

Extension of the grant end date to accommodate changes in funded research staff available to work on the project:

• Recruitment delays (where multiple key posts are not all activated at the same time);

• Gaps in post occupancy during the grant (e.g. a postdoc leaving);

• Where the grant-holder takes a period of leave (e.g. parental leave or sick leave);

• Where the grant-holder revises their hours of employment.

The grant end date may be extended in time only by up to 12 months to allow the continuation of project-related activities, within the scope of the original award.

These may include:

• Extra time required to complete original objectives of the grant due to delays encountered during the grant period;
• Extension of research activities (e.g. increase ‘n’ number);
• Dissemination activities – access to funds required beyond original end date to allow for conference attendance to disseminate data, to hold workshops/meetings as part of grant activities.

• Non grant-specific activities – e.g. if the aims/activities on the grant have been completed, or the extension activities are significantly different from the original proposal (since these would not have been peer reviewed);
• Conference/meeting attendance for any purpose that is not dissemination;
• Writing new grant proposals;
• Bridging funds to cover a period between grants.

Underspend – use of underspent funds to support a NCE must be justified. Significant underspend should be explained in relation to progress and/or the original costs requested.

Multiple NCEs – multiple postponements may be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Duration – NCE requests longer than 12 months for extended activities will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.