Help! I’ve Run Out of Money For My Research!

#1 Prioritise your research goals

If you’re running out of money, you need to prioritise. List all the research questions that you would like to investigate in your PhD and then rank them in importance. Work out what is essential to completing the story of your thesis and what is an interesting side quest so you can assign the money to the most important areas first.

Once you know what projects are essential to your research, start planning out the different methods you could use to answer those questions. Map out the cost of each method, as well as its pros and cons, and discuss these with your supervisor. Make sure that you’re not compromising on research quality or cutting corners, but look for alternative methods that might bring your costs down. For example, collaborating with another institution where you can use equipment for free rather than outsourcing it. Discussing this with your supervisor might open up some doors you weren’t aware of, whilst keeping you focussed on the most important questions.

#2 Apply for research grants for separate projects

Your supervisor might also be aware of research grants appropriate to your topic. These are often not circulated to students but are separate pots of money available for specific research questions and can boost your budget. Grants come from a range of sources both internally, within your university, and externally such as charities or the government.

Writing a grant application is a great learning experience as you have to consider the potential beneficiaries of your research from different angles and plan out the work to be completed with a more commercial mindset. I have learnt so much from completing a grant application with experienced researchers, so I would recommend finding out about this option. You never know!

#3 Consider taking on students

At many institutions, supervising students (undergraduate or postgraduate) is associated with a small budget for their dissertation project. Whilst this won’t solve all your financial problems, it’ll allow you to do some additional analysis or extra repeats. This is a good way to supplement your budget whilst gaining teaching experience. I enjoy supervising students and it has really benefitted both my research skills and my project. I have written about supervising in a previous post if you want to know more.

#4 Research relevant academic societies that offer grants

My final word of wisdom is that academic societies are your friend. Lots of them offer small research grants to members for completing research in another laboratory or attending a conference. When your budget gets tight the nice things like conferences are the first to go, so having a society travel grant can ensure that you are still able to travel and present your work whilst staying under budget. It should be noted that there are fewer grants on offer since COVID, so these are very competitive, but it is always worth trying.

I hope this shows you that even if you run out of money, there are still options to get the work done. It just might take a bit longer and you might have to explore option B or even C (!) rather than following the expensive option A. Keep your eye open for opportunities for additional funding and speak to your supervisor, you never know what options might be available!

Good luck!

From a poor 3rd year PhD student (any donations welcome!!)

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