Grant Experts UKTHE QUESTIONSNO HANDBOOKCOVERS
- Cost
- None. Membership is free.
- Language
- English
- Tone
- Questions and answers. No promotion.
What it is about
The group works like a Q&A forum. Someone gets stuck on an eligibility rule, an assessment or a funder's portal, asks the question, and a peer who has been through it before answers.
What comes up is mostly the knowledge that sits between the schemes: how an assessor reads a criterion in practice, which evidence survives a claim audit, which funder or combined authority interprets a rule differently from the next. None of that is in any handbook and you will not find it by searching. You hear it from someone who has been through it once already.
A client records their R&D hours in Jira instead of a separate timesheet. Has anyone seen how that holds up in an HMRC enquiry?
Innovate UK Smart grant: does a subcontractor based outside the UK count towards eligible costs, or does the work have to stay here?
Now that UK organisations can lead Horizon Europe consortia again, is anyone still routing budget through the UKRI guarantee, or do you go straight to the EU portal?
We are scoping a Knowledge Transfer Partnership for the first time. What does the university expect the company contribution to look like in practice?
Local growth fund via the combined authority: does anyone know whether a second round opens this year?
The funder wants evidence of match funding at application stage, and the claim audit asks for it again later. Is a board minute enough, or do they insist on bank statements?
Who it's for
Everyone in the group works with grant funding professionally, but from different sides of the table. That is exactly why it works.
Grant consultants and bid writers
From sole traders to large consultancies, generalists or specialised in a single programme.
In-house grant and funding teams
Employed by companies, charities, local authorities and NHS trusts.
University research offices
Pre-award and post-award staff handling UKRI, Innovate UK and Horizon Europe funding.
R&D tax advisers
Who have to make the claim stand up when HMRC asks for the detail.
What it is not: a marketplace. If you are looking for a consultancy to write your application, this is not the place. These are peers helping each other, not each other's clients.
How we keep it useful
One thing makes or breaks a group like this: whether you still open it after the hundredth notification. So the list is short, and we stick to it. Twin included.
This belongs here
- Questions about grants, schemes, tools and ways of working
- Answers from your own experience, including “that did not work for us at all”
- Developments in the field that affect colleagues
- In-person events in the UK
- Job openings posted by organisations
- With every link, PDF or document: one sentence on why you are sharing it
This does not
- Pitches, commercial posts, blogs, podcasts, videos and surveys
- Affiliate links, and the same message more than once a month
- Online events and webinars. In person in the UK is fine
- Messages from people looking for work themselves
- Unsolicited DMs. Ask first
- Voice memos and group audio calls
- Politics, religion, and anything unrelated to the profession
New to the group? Introduce yourself once. After that, just join in.
In case of a violation an admin will address it with you in a DM, not in the main chat. Repeat offences lead to removal from the group.
Frequently asked questions
May I mention my own service, firm or tool?
Only if someone explicitly asks for it, and then via DM. No pitches in the group itself, not even disguised ones, such as an “interesting blog” that happens to come from your own firm.
May I send someone a DM?
Only if that person has given permission. Asking a question in the group does not count as permission to be approached with an offer. Are you a service provider and someone asks for help? Then you do reply by DM, not in the main chat.
Can other members see my phone number?
Yes. In a WhatsApp group your number is visible to all participants. You can limit who sees your profile photo and status in your WhatsApp privacy settings.
What does Twin have to do with it?
Twin set up the group and manages it. The house rules apply to us too: no product pitches, no disguised marketing. What you read in the group comes from peers, not from us.
I have a problem with the group or with a message.
Send an admin a DM, not in the main chat. That spares everyone an irrelevant discussion.
Once a year we meet in person
Alongside the group, Twin hosts the Grant Experts UK Conference once a year, with AI as the common thread. Announcements are posted in the group.
Join
You come in, introduce yourself once, and beyond that you are mainly welcome to ask questions. Nobody expects you to contribute right away. Most people read along for a while first.
By joining you agree to the house rules above.
Grant Experts UK was set up and is managed by Twin. The group is not affiliated with Innovate UK, UKRI, HMRC or any grant consultancy. Answers in the group are peer experience, not advice you can base your application on blindly.
Looking for other groups?
There is one group per language, each with its own page and its own house rules.
SubsidieExperts NL
Netherlands, in Dutch
Dutch grant consultants, coordinators and project administrators answering each other's questions on Dutch and European funding.
Go to the group
Grant Experts UK
United Kingdom, in English
UK grant consultants, in-house teams, research offices and R&D tax advisers helping each other with UK and European funding.
You are here
Fördermittel Experten Netzwerk
Germany, in German
German grant consultants, in-house funding teams and university research offices covering federal, Land and European funding programmes.
Go to the group