Hi,

I contacted my former masters supervisor about doing a PhD with them but was told that their department doesn't have any funding and they would keep in touch if anything came up.

Would it be okay for me to suggest possible sources of funding? These sources of funding would require support from a supervisor before I could apply for them.

I worry that this was just a polite way of saying no and that I should look for other supervisors instead.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Depends. If you find a funding source and write a draft grant application yourself it should be fine. Write the proposal as best you can and ask would if they will support you in the application. Ie you are doing all the writing and they just give support. If you need advice with writing it, people on here should have some great advice.

It is not acceptable to suggest a source and expect them to do the legwork.