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This situation I'm in currently is the following. This is all based in the UK (England, more precisely). I'm at university A with full EPSRC for a maths PhD. However, I'm not getting on well with the university, and would like to change to university B. (The particular reasons for this aren't pertinent to this question.) I've looked on the EPSRC website and I can't see anything that says this isn't an issue. Ideally I'd like to move to university B at the start of next year (so not wait until the new academic year).

I've spoken with university B about this, and they are happy to have me, subject to being able to be funded. The person I spoke to said they were unsure if I could get funding, as they'd heard that EPSRC will only fund someone once, and so since I've already had a term of funding, they wouldn't fund me again. They aren't sure on this though.

Does anyone have any knowledge of such things? Surely while changing university during a PhD wouldn't be common, it can't be that uncommon?

Note the close relation to this question "Is transferring to another university an option for an unhappy PhD student?", but that mine is slightly different. The university to which I would transfer have said that they would have me, subject to getting funding, so this is not an issue.

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Sam OT
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    The CV question should be asked in a separate post, and the question about how employers would view this isn't really one we can answer. – Nate Eldredge Dec 11 '16 at 16:26
  • I'd argue that it's one question with multiple parts, but that part wasn't the main part. As it is now, it's simply a question about funding policies. I don't expect just anyone to be able to answer this -- it's not an opinion question. I was hoping that there would be someone with more knowledge of the EPSRC regime than me. I've not used academia.se before; are funding issue off-topic for here? (If so, my apologies, I didn't realise. Funding is integral to academia, so I assumed it was fine.) – Sam OT Dec 12 '16 at 12:07
  • Funding issues in general are on-topic. I think the concern here is that you're asking about the policies of one specific organization; this site usually doesn't entertain such questions, on the grounds that they are relevant only to a narrow audience and should be asked directly of that organization instead. However, I think perhaps large (multi-)national funding agencies should be an exception to this, since their policies can be relevant to a large class of academics. I voted to reopen. – Nate Eldredge Dec 12 '16 at 14:16
  • Fair enough. I didn't realise that what I asked was off-topic, but I understand why it could be: this is a community, not a site just for people to get an answer to their specific question. I agree though that with EPRSC being one of the biggest agencies in the UK it would apply to more. If it's decided that it's off-topic, that's for the community to decide and I'll respect that :) – Sam OT Dec 12 '16 at 15:23
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    @NateEldredge EPSRC is the funding body for engineering and the physical sciences in the UK. I don't think that's "a narrow audience", so I'm also voting to reopen. – David Richerby Dec 12 '16 at 18:19
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    I agree with the reopen votes: I don't see why we should treat such a question any different from those about other funding bodies like the NSF. – Massimo Ortolano Dec 12 '16 at 21:20
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    Hi @ImranRashid -- I wasn't able to take my stipend with me, but this wasn't an issue: I simply stopped my funding at Uni A and Uni B gave me a new set of funding. This actually meant that I got an extra term of funding: Uni B gave me new funding, so 3yrs worth on top of the 1 term I'd already had at Uni A. – Sam OT Oct 03 '18 at 13:12

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From the tags I assume that you are a PhD student funded from EPSRC.

Unlike First Grants, Standard Grants, and Fellowships, PhD stipendships can not be transferred. The reason is that the EPSRC does not fund a PhD student directly. Instead, EPSRC funds Centers for Doctoral Training, and successful candidates get their funding from these centers. PhD students have financial "contracts" with CDT's, not EPSRC. Every CDT has a separate budget. For this reason, if you want to move universities, you can not take your stipend with you.

Dmitry Savostyanov
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  • I understand, thank you. Rather than transferring my stipend, do you know if I can apply for a new stipend at the university to which I would transfer? Is this basically up to the new university if they want to fund me, or it is that you can't get EPRSC funding (through a DTC/CDT) on two separate occasions? (Does this question make sense?) – Sam OT Dec 13 '16 at 10:43
  • You should check if you are still eligible, and you new target host should be able to help with it. I do not know if EPSRC allows it, but DCT's may have their own policies as well, and of course they are not keen to fund a student who can leave in a middle of a term. – Dmitry Savostyanov Dec 13 '16 at 11:15
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    Ok, thanks very much for your help! :) -- just to add to your answer, EPSRC don't only fund CDTs. They do stuff through DTPs as well: https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/skills/students/. – Sam OT Dec 13 '16 at 13:25