Faculty Research Grants Scheme
Guidelines for individual and group projects for funding from late 2008 to end 2009
The purposes of the Faculty Research Grants Scheme are:
- to give explicit priority to investing in more junior Teaching and Research staff, to ensure they develop their track records so their research careers can flourish,
- to encourage applications from teams of researchers as well as from individuals,
- to encourage the development and funding of larger, more significant projects, and
- to ensure that explicit plans for publication outcomes, and for ARC applications, are followed through as a result of these grants.
Eligibility:
For project applications from individual researchers, eligible applicants are:
- Level A, B or C Teaching & Research staff, regardless of how long they have been employed at the university;
- who are not currently a Chief Investigator on an ARC grant;
- with an appointment till end 2010 (when the results of ARC Discovery applications are known) &
- where applicants have an ARC Discovery or Linkage application for a cognate project under review, an award of a Faculty Research Grant may be provisionally made pending the outcome of that ARC application; if successful, the Faculty award would be withdrawn and made to the next ranked project; if unsuccessful, the Faculty grant would go ahead.
For project applications from research teams, eligible applicants are:
- teams of three or more staff
- which may include Level D and E T&R staff, and/or Research Only staff;
- provided that at least 50 percent of the members of a team are Level A, B or C, T&R staff;
- except that, in the case of teams, the proviso above regarding individuals with ARC applications under review will not apply.
Budgets:
Limits:
- Individual projects: min $5,000 to max $10,000
- Teams of three or more: min $10,000 to max $17,000
Budget items can include:
- expenses such as Research Assistance, teaching relief where explicitly approved by Head of School, and travel costs for bona fide research collaboration;
Budget items cannot include:
- purchase of publications or equipment such as laptops, or conference attendance.
Projects should begin as soon as selection decisions are made (August 2008), and funds must be expended by end 2009, or the balance returned to the Faculty for reinvestment. As noted above, where individual applicants have an ARC application under review at the time of application, Faculty funding will be held in abeyance until the result of this ARC application is known.
Selection Criteria:
Essential:
All applicants must:
- meet the eligibility criteria above;
- meet minimum research active criteria and have PDF-agreed research plans;
- note that, as this is a program for developing and building research capacity, Heads can make a case for circumstances explaining less than expected research performance of level A, B or C staff, relative to opportunity;
All applications must:
- demonstrate the intellectual merit and coherence of the project;
- demonstrate how this research project will lead to the development of an ARC application (or equivalent significant competitive grant);
- provide explicit and precise publication outcomes from this grant;
- in the case of individual projects, or of teams with no senior staff involved, applications must identify a senior staff member (D or E) who has agreed to mentor the researcher(s), but is not to directly benefit from the project funding (though may be involved in publications);
Desirable:
- demonstrated clear potential to develop research partnerships leading to Linkage applications
- demonstrated clear potential to develop research partnerships through international collaboration
Closing Date:
One round; closing date: Monday 30 June 2008;
Those who are successful in this scheme, and who also meet the criteria for the MRO Early Career Researcher scheme may then be able to use Faculty funds to leverage significantly larger amounts. (Note that the MRO grants are targeted to Level A, B and C within 5 years of their appointment, who ordinarily have not previously been a CI on an ARC grant, and require matching funding from the faculty.)
Guidelines for the MRO scheme are available at: http://www.research.unimelb.edu.au/grants/apply/unimelb/ecr/
What should my application include?
Applications should be submitted using the Faculty's Research Grant Scheme form.
Enquiries
Enquiries may be directed to:
Allison Dutka
Staff Support Officer
Research and Postgraduate Studies
Faculty of Arts
Room 202, Old Arts Building
The University of Melbourne VIC 3010
T: +61 3 8344 6461
E: adutka@unimelb.edu.au