Researcher entitlement to family and sick leave

A funded researcher generally has two distinct layers of protection to consider. The first is your statutory and contractual entitlement as an employee, which comes from your contract with your Research Organisation (the university or institute that employs you). The second is what the funder allows the Research Organisation to claim and how a grant can be adjusted to accommodate your leave. It is important to understand that in most cases you are employed by the university, not by the funder. Your leave and pay entitlements flow from your employment contract and from statute, not directly from the grant.

Your entitlement comes from your employment, not the grant

Under the standard model used by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the research councils, staff and fellows whose salaries are charged to a grant as Directly Incurred costs receive sick pay, maternity pay and parental leave and pay from their Research Organisation based on their contract of employment, in the same way as any other employee. The grant is the funding mechanism; your rights are those of an employee. This means that to know your precise entitlement you need to look at your own contract and your employer’s policies, because many universities offer enhanced occupational schemes that are considerably more generous than the statutory minimum.

Sick leave and sick pay

At a minimum, an employee is entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if they meet the qualifying conditions, which include being classed as an employee and earning at least the lower earnings limit. SSP is payable for up to 28 weeks. Many universities operate an occupational sick pay scheme that pays full or partial salary for a defined period (often graduated according to length of service, for example a number of months at full pay followed by a period at half pay) before dropping to SSP. Your written statement of employment particulars or staff handbook should set out the exact scheme.

For grant purposes, where an employee is on sick leave the Research Organisation continues to pay them and can claim the additional net sick leave costs under the grant, meaning the amount paid to the individual less what the employer can recover from HMRC. The grant can also be extended to cover the period of the sick leave so the project can still be completed, unless there are time dependencies that prevent extension.

Maternity, adoption and related family leave

The statutory framework that applies to you as an employee includes:

Statutory Maternity Leave of up to 52 weeks, made up of 26 weeks Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks Additional Maternity Leave. The right to the leave itself does not depend on length of service.

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) for up to 39 weeks, provided you meet the continuous employment and earnings conditions. SMP is paid at 90 percent of average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks, then at the lower of that figure or the statutory flat rate for the remaining 33 weeks.

Equivalent rights apply for adoption (Statutory Adoption Leave and Pay) and, for the other parent, Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay, as well as Shared Parental Leave and Pay where the parents choose to share the leave.

As with sick pay, many universities offer enhanced occupational maternity, adoption and paternity schemes that pay more than the statutory minimum, for example a period at full pay. Check your contract and family leave policy for the enhanced terms and the qualifying conditions, because these vary between institutions.

On the funding side, the Research Organisation pays the individual and can claim the additional net parental leave costs from the grant, which is the amount paid to the individual less the Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay the employer can recover from HMRC. These additional costs are claimed under the “Absence” heading. The grant can be extended by the length of the leave, plus any remaining additional time needed, to enable the project to be completed, again subject to any time dependencies.

Parental leave and other family-related leave

Separate from maternity, adoption and paternity leave, employees also have the right to unpaid statutory parental leave of up to 18 weeks per child up to the child’s 18th birthday, capped at a certain number of weeks per year per child. There is also the day-one right to a period of unpaid Carer’s Leave, and the right to reasonable unpaid time off to deal with emergencies involving dependants. From 2024 there were reforms strengthening protection from redundancy for those taking maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, and extending flexible working as a day-one right, which may be relevant if you are considering how to combine research work with caring responsibilities.

The position if you are not an employee

The analysis above assumes you are employed by the Research Organisation, which is the usual arrangement for research staff and fellows. Your position can be materially different if:

You are a stipendiary student or a doctoral candidate funded by a studentship rather than employed. In that case your entitlement is not statutory employment leave but is governed by the studentship terms, and UKRI training grant conditions typically provide separate provisions for paid maternity, paternity, adoption and sick leave and for suspension of the studentship, rather than SSP or SMP.

You hold a personal fellowship or are otherwise engaged on terms that are not a standard contract of employment. Here the precise structure of your engagement determines whether statutory employment rights apply, and you would need to check the specific fellowship and host institution terms.

Because the correct answer turns on your exact status, the most important missing facts are whether you are an employed researcher, a fellow, or a funded student, which funder and scheme applies, and what your own institution’s occupational scheme says.

Practical next steps

1. Identify your status: check whether your funding pays you as an employee (Directly Incurred salary), a fellow, or a student stipend. This determines whether you rely on statutory employment rights or on studentship terms.

2. Read your contract and your employer’s HR policies on sickness absence and family leave. These will tell you the enhanced pay you may receive above the statutory minimum and the qualifying conditions and notification requirements.

3. Notify your employer’s HR department early, especially for maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, as statutory notice deadlines apply and missing them can affect pay.

4. Speak to your principal investigator, grant administrator or research office about a grant extension. The funder’s terms generally allow the grant to be extended to cover the leave period, but this needs to be requested and there may be time dependencies that limit it.

5. If you believe your employer is not honouring your statutory entitlements, sources such as ACAS, Citizens Advice and GOV.UK set out the current SSP, SMP and leave rules and the steps for raising a grievance or, ultimately, a claim.

If you tell me your exact status, your funder or scheme, and roughly how long you have been employed, I can give a much more precise breakdown of what you are entitled to and how any grant extension would work.