UKRI virement: moving money between budget headings on a grant

The short answer

Virement is moving money from one budget heading on a grant to another. On a UKRI research grant you can move money within and between the directly incurred and exceptions headings without asking UKRI first, as long as it pays for activity that meets the project's agreed aims and objectives. Equipment is excluded, and directly allocated and indirect costs cannot be moved at all.

UKRI does not approve virements in advance, but it can query them when it reconciles your final expenditure statement, and costs may be removed from the final payment. Anything still unspent at the end is recovered. If the problem is time rather than money, a no-cost extension adds months without adding funds, and for reasons that are not about people it is capped at six months over the life of the grant unless exceptions apply.

Which headings can move

A UKRI full economic cost (FEC) grant is split into fund headings, set out in your offer document. These rules apply to research grants and fellowships from the seven councils covered by UKRI's FEC terms and conditions: AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC and STFC. How each heading is costed in the first place is covered in our guide to UKRI full economic costing.

UKRI's guidance makes one narrow exception: visa, Immigration Health Surcharge and certificate of sponsorship costs for directly incurred staff on at least 50% of their contracted time can be met from other directly incurred or indirect funds, within the original grant cash limit.

The rules in RGC 4.4

Condition RGC 4.4 of the UKRI terms and conditions is the whole of the virement rule for research grants. In plain terms:

• Transfers between fund headings are permitted only within and between directly incurred and exceptions costs, excluding equipment
• Money moves at the rate for the heading as set out in your award letter
• You do not need to ask UKRI before transferring funds, with one exception: creating a new studentship post needs UKRI's prior approval. Money can be moved into studentship stipend or fees only to supplement a studentship post already on the grant
• Directly incurred and exceptions funds must not be used to meet costs on any other grant or activity
• Money can only be moved to pay for activity that meets the agreed aims and objectives of the project
• UKRI reserves the right to query any expenditure in the final expenditure statement that was not incurred in line with the terms and conditions

Not needing UKRI's approval is not the same as not needing anyone's. UKRI asks you to speak to your own research office before requesting changes, and your organisation may have its own sign-off for moving budget, so check with them.

Limits that sit beside virement

Several other conditions decide what the moved money can buy:

• Directly incurred and exceptions funds cannot pay for activity that falls after the end of the grant period, such as travel after the end date, even if it is booked in advance (RGC 4.2)
• Buying equipment in the last six months of the grant needs UKRI's prior written approval (RGC 9.1)
• Staff who work across more than one activity must keep timesheets, and their costs must reflect actual rather than budgeted hours on each UKRI project (RGC 4.6)
• Removing or adding a work package, or changing the fundamental research question, is a major change you must consult UKRI about (RGC 7.1), even if the money to do it is already in the right heading

Councils add their own detail

The UKRI terms and conditions apply across the seven councils, and a council can add to them. ESRC's research funding guide is the most explicit about virement:

• Grant holders are expected to give details of virements on the final expenditure statement, and ESRC reserves the right to ask for full justification
• Equipment funds are ring-fenced. In exceptional circumstances a move from equipment to directly incurred may be permitted, with ESRC's prior approval
• Money moved from exceptions to directly incurred moves at the 80% council contribution rate only, and the remaining 20% is repaid at final reconciliation
• Money moved from directly incurred to exceptions moves at the 80% amount only, and the grant total does not rise to cover the organisation's 20% contribution
• Flexible funding pots, where an opportunity allows them, are ring-fenced and cannot be vired to any other use

MRC says that in rare circumstances it may add funding where unforeseen circumstances prevent you meeting key obligations within the award value, through its Post Award Amendment process, and only for directly incurred costs. Studentships and pre-doctoral fellowships follow different rules again: money can move between all their fund headings except the Disabled Students' Allowance. Innovate UK projects are outside all of this; changes go through your monitoring officer. Any specific terms and conditions in your own grant agreement still apply on top.

How the expenditure statement treats it

Virement shows up at the end, when you submit the final expenditure statement and UKRI reconciles it against what it has paid.

• The statement is due within three months of the end of the grant period (RGC 10.1)
• Directly incurred and exceptions headings must show actual expenditure, and UKRI settles at the proportion of FEC in your award letter applied to that spend, providing it is within the grant cash limit
• Directly allocated and indirect costs are paid as requested, providing the total is within the cash limit and the grant ran its full course
• Once reconciled, the statement is final and any unspent funds are recovered (RGC 10.1)
• UKRI may query a transfer between headings the guidance does not allow, or spend not incurred in line with the terms and conditions, and costs may be removed from the final payment
• If the statement is not received within three months of the end, UKRI recovers 20% of expenditure on the grant, and all payments if it is not received within six months (RGC 11.2)
• Invoices for spend that happened during the grant can still be received in the three months between the end date and the statement's due date
• An error found afterwards can be corrected with a supplementary expenditure statement, requested within 60 days of the reconciliation payment

Unfilled posts also change the figure. Where a post that attracts estates, indirect and infrastructure technician costs is not filled, or its holder leaves more than six months before the end of the funded period and is not replaced, or is replaced by a category of staff that does not attract those costs, those costs are reduced proportionately.

No-cost extensions

When the money is there but the time is not, the other lever is a no-cost extension. Under RGC 6.1 the grant period can be extended after the official start date without additional funding, with UKRI's prior written approval. How long depends on the primary reason:

Extensions for reasons that are not about people approved before 1 April 2026 do not count toward the six months. Note that a recruitment delay counts as a reason that is not about people, so an extension to make up for a late start uses the six-month allowance.

Asking for an extension

• Request it through the system the grant was awarded from, the UKRI Funding Service or Je-S. The request has to be raised by a research development manager, post-award manager or similar role in your research office
• Submit it as soon as you know you need the time. A request made near the end date may not be processed before the grant ends, and after that the extension cannot be given
• Give one primary reason only, what has been achieved so far, and how the outstanding work will be finished in the new timeframe
• Ask only for the time actually needed. Contingency time cannot be requested
• Say whether animal or human participation will happen during the extension and, if it will, confirm the grant budget can meet its costs, or the request may not be approved
• For long-term absence or a recruitment gap, UKRI advises waiting until the person returns or is recruited so you know the time actually needed, and suspending the grant meanwhile if nothing else is happening on it

UKRI's guidance says extensions will not normally be given to spend unspent funds on supplementary work that was not in the original grant, to finish extra papers, to bridge key staff until an unrelated grant starts, to receive invoices while the grant is live, or so that linked projects can finish together.

When a researcher leaves

UKRI's guidance says it is the research organisation's responsibility to manage the resources on the grant, including the staff, and UKRI does not need to be consulted if staffing levels change. Replacing someone in a named role on the grant is a change of staff request, and you are responsible for making sure the new person meets the eligibility criteria and can fulfil the role. A fellowship is tied to the fellow and cannot be moved to someone else unless the grant's terms allow it.

If a post falls vacant unexpectedly, an extension can cover recruiting and training the replacement, with dates and an explanation for each part. UKRI's own example: recruitment took two months, the new appointee started after three months of actual vacancy, and two months were asked for training, so five months in all. If the person who leaves cannot be replaced and the project is no longer viable, the grant can be terminated instead.

An illustrative example

The figures here are invented and rounded to show the rules working, not taken from any real grant.

A three-year grant has its postdoc start four months late after a recruitment delay. By the final year the directly incurred staff line is heading for an underspend of about £15,000, while the directly incurred travel and other costs lines are close to their limits.

• Moving £5,000 from staff to other costs for consumables the agreed work needs is a transfer within directly incurred, so it needs no request to UKRI. Clear it with your research office and record why
• Moving any of it into the equipment heading to buy a £30,000 instrument is not allowed, and buying equipment in the last six months would need UKRI's approval anyway
• Moving it to estates or indirect costs is not allowed, because those headings cannot take transfers
• To keep the postdoc on for four extra months, the group asks for a four-month no-cost extension as soon as the shortfall is clear. A recruitment delay is not a people related reason, so this uses four of the grant's six months, and the salary comes from the existing staff budget because the extension brings no new money
• Whatever is still unspent when the statement is reconciled is recovered

Common mistakes

• Moving money into or out of the equipment heading
• Treating directly allocated or indirect costs, such as estimated project lead time or estates, as money that can be moved
• Assuming exceptions money keeps its 100% rate when it moves into directly incurred
• Asking for an extension in order to spend leftover money on new work that was not in the original grant
• Leaving an extension request until the last weeks, when it may not be processed before the grant ends
• Buying equipment in the last six months without UKRI's prior approval
• Charging activity, such as conference travel, that takes place after the end date
• Forgetting that several short extensions for reasons that are not about people add up toward the same six-month limit
• Using a transfer to create a new studentship post without UKRI's approval

Where AllocBoard fits

Virement is easiest when you see the underspend months before the final expenditure statement rather than while writing it. AllocBoard keeps each project's spend against its award as the grant runs:

• Budget forecasting projects each project's final spend from the figures already entered, with a confidence band, so an overspend or underspend shows up as a forecast rather than at reconciliation
• Budget risk is graded low, moderate, high or critical, and reads in both directions: a projected surplus is a finding as well as a projected overrun
• Expense categories are your own, so you can set them up to follow the headings in your award, and log planned and actual amounts by month
• Budget ceilings against the approved award refuse any actual allocation or expense that would take a project over its budget, while planned figures are free to exceed it and warn
• Reporting periods carry budget left unspent in a closed period into the periods still to run, and name which ones funded it
• With Alloc Intelligence, included on Group and Portfolio, Alloc Agent reviews every project weekly and points out projects heading over or under budget while there is still time to act

Sources

This guide summarises UKRI's own terms and guidance. It is not financial or audit advice: your grant agreement, any specific terms and conditions on your award and your research office have the final word. UKRI applies the latest version of its terms to existing grants as well as new ones, and for audit the version in force when the cost was incurred applies.

• UKRI, Terms and conditions of FEC grants, version 16, updated 1 October 2026: RGC 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 6.1, 7.1, 9.1, 10.1, 11.2 and Annex A

• UKRI, Guidance on FEC grant terms and conditions, updated 1 October 2026: RGC 4, RGC 6, RGC 7, RGC 7.1, RGC 10 and Costings information

• UKRI, Transferring money between types of cost (updated 13 May 2025)

• UKRI, Requesting a change to your project (updated 7 May 2026)

• UKRI, MRC funding: requesting a change (updated 7 July 2026)

• ESRC, Research funding guide for the UKRI Funding Service (updated 23 October 2025), section 8, Virements