I was having a conversation with my MA dissertation supervisor and mentioned that when I got my first scholarship payment I'd need to buy a new laptop (after the death of my previous one while writing my PhD application!)

She said not to worry about that as universities give PhD students an extra £1500 ish as research money and you can use that for new equipment/conferences etc. I was her student at a different university to the one that she now works at but both my previous uni and her new London university have this 'policy'.

Does anybody know about this? Or received a small lump sum at the start in addition to funding?

Thanks

It'll depend who you're funded by. I'm funded by the ESRC and I receive an extra £750 per year for conferences/travelling to participants etc. However, it's not like 'here's £750' each year, you get it as and when you use it.

Yes, it's going to depend on who funds you and your university policies. I'm funded by my department and I don't have any extra funding for things like research costs or conferences, while people in my department who are part of an EPSRC project have a small fund built into their project for extra research expenses. But I think computers are a bit different - my department gave me a brand new laptop when I started, and I think that was the case for everyone, however they were funded. I'd be extremely surprised if a university didn't have a system in place for providing computer equipment, it's not like you'd be able to do a PhD without one.

Yep I get £800 a year. But as fellow posters have noted you have to supply watertight receipts and stuff. And then it takes at least 3 months for them to "process" it. Bloody nightmare if you ask me. Last July 2011 I bought my flights for a conference to the States and I only got the money back there in June. Thanks.

It varies by funding source. I was AHRC funded and had no extra amounts like this. I ended up having to pay for a lot of essential stuff myself. And getting funding for travelling to a conference was a challenge, and again mainly self funded.