Hi,

So I have received an offer from my dream university for my dream program but the funding decisions are only around in February/March next year. I would really like to accept this offer right now, but would like to know if it is polite to still appear for other interviews in the interim because I don't know yet if I would get funding for the program I have been accepted to. Any advice is much appreciated!

Delay acceptance for as long as you can if they don't need an answer right away, and then keep looking elsewhere. It's understandable if you give up a non-funded place for a funded one.

Agreed, you might end up shooting yourself in the foot by accepting without funding in place if things later fall through on the funding end. Contact them and see how long you can have to think it over and use that time to continue to apply and attend interviews. Academia is a dog eat dog world in my experience so they wont hold it against you as long as you do reply within the agreed timeframe.

Your supervisor for the project should have an idea if s/he will get funding. These things are very rarely last minute decisions. Send a polite enquiry about the position and ask if you can have assurances that the funding will be granted and be honest, say you can't self-fund and are considering other offers.

There's no point in accepting if the supervisor is already aware there won't be funding for the research. My current department and previous one where I did my phd have knowledge of how much funding they'll likely have which dicates how many phds/postdocs and research assistants they can hire for specific projects.

Don't put all your hopes on this one project as much as you want it to happen, it would be best to keep your options open and apply to other positions that interest you.