6.1. We cannot recommend Your application to the Minister for funding if it does not satisfy all grant eligibility criteria.
6.2. This section of the grant guidelines provides details of the eligibility requirements for:
eligible applications; and
b. eligible participants being:
- Administering Organisations;
- Other Eligible Organisations;
- Other Organisations;
- Partner Organisations; and
- named participants.
What are the eligibility requirements for applications?
6.3. To be eligible, Your application must:
include at least one Partner Organisation. You may also include Other Eligible Organisations and Other Organisations;
b. nominate at least one Chief Investigator (CI) from Your organisation who will be the Project Leader;
c. include a commitment from Partner Organisation(s) to provide total eligible cash and/or in-kind contributions that at least match the total funding requested from Us; and
d. include a commitment from Partner Organisation(s) to provide total eligible cash contributions of at least 25 per cent of the total funding requested from Us. If all Your Partner Organisations are Exempt Partner Organisations[1], You are not required to meet the 25 per cent minimum eligible cash contribution requirement.
6.4. You and each Other Eligible Organisation on an application must commit a significant contribution of cash and/or in-kind or other material resources to the application having regard to the total cost of the proposed project and the relative contribution of any Chief Investigators or Partner Investigator(s) at the organisation.
6.5. The application may nominate a Partner Investigator (PI) from each Partner Organisation. A PI who is representing a Partner Organisation on an application is required to have a role within that Partner Organisation.
Who is eligible to apply for a grant?
6.6. We will only accept applications from the Eligible Organisations listed below.
6.7. The Eligible Organisation that submits the application will be the ‘Administering Organisation’ and is referred to as ‘You’. All other Eligible Organisations listed on the application will be an ‘Other Eligible Organisation’.
6.8. Eligible Organisations
Australian Capital Territory
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
The Australian National University
University of Canberra
New South Wales
Australian Catholic University
Charles Sturt University
Macquarie University
Southern Cross University
The University of New England
The University of New South Wales
The University of Newcastle
The University of Sydney
University of Technology Sydney
University of Wollongong
Western Sydney University
Northern Territory
Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
Charles Darwin University
Queensland
Bond University
Central Queensland University
Griffith University
James Cook University
Queensland University of Technology
The University of Queensland
University of Southern Queensland
University of the Sunshine Coast
South Australia
Flinders University
The University of Adelaide
Torrens University Australia
University of South Australia
Tasmania
University of Tasmania
Victoria
Deakin University
Federation University Australia
La Trobe University
Monash University
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University)
Swinburne University of Technology
The University of Melbourne
University of Divinity
Victoria University
Western Australia
Curtin University
Edith Cowan University
Murdoch University
The University of Notre Dame Australia
The University of Western Australia
Who is eligible to be a Partner Organisations?
6.9. To be eligible as a Partner Organisation, an organisation cannot be:
an Eligible Organisation;
b. a controlled entity of any Eligible Organisation; or
c. an entity (for example a joint venture) where more than 50 per cent is owned by one or more Eligible Organisations.
6.10. Each Partner Organisation must participate in the project for the project activity period unless otherwise approved by Us.
6.11. Each Partner Organisation must:
provide evidence of new or on-going collaboration between the Partner Organisation either directly with You, and/or with an Other Eligible Organisation on the application; and
b. make a contribution of cash and/or in-kind and/or other material resources that is specific to the project, and having regard to the total cost of the project and not be part of a broader contribution to Your organisation.
be sourced from funds awarded or appropriated by the Commonwealth or an Australian State or Territory Government for the purposes of research, nor from funds previously used to leverage government research or research infrastructure funding; or
be a contribution to salaries for CIs and/or PIs on the application.
6.13. Partner Organisations whose funds are appropriated predominantly from Commonwealth or Australian State or Territory Government funding sources for the purposes of research are restricted in their capacity to contribute to the required Partner Organisation contribution. Cash and/or in-kind contributions from Partner Organisation(s) of this type are only eligible to make up a maximum of 25 per cent of the required Partner Organisation contribution. This maximum of 25 per cent is the combined eligible contribution from Partner Organisations of this type, and is not the maximum per individual Partner Organisation of this type.
6.14. Partner Organisation(s) whose funds are appropriated predominantly from Commonwealth or Australian State or Territory Government funding sources for the purposes of research can make combined contributions to the project over and above 25 per cent of the required Partner Organisation contribution, however these additional contributions are not eligible to make up part of the required Partner Organisation contribution.
6.15. The following types of Partner Organisations are exempt from the cash contribution requirements:
Exempt Archive and Public Record Office;
b. Exempt Charity;
c. Exempt Herbarium;
d. Exempt Museum and Collecting Organisation;
e. Exempt Non-Profit Organisation;
f. Exempt Small Business; and
g. Exempt Start-up.
6.16. Applications in which all Partner Organisations are exempt from the cash contribution requirements do not have to meet the overall cash contribution requirement specified at 6.3.
Who is eligible to be an Other Organisation?
6.17. Organisations that are not Eligible Organisations and not Partner Organisations but that are named as organisational participants on an application will be Other Organisations.
6.18. Other Organisations are not required to make a cash or in-kind contribution to the project, but must be relevant to and involved with the project.
Who is eligible to be a named participant?
6.19. Named participants are those individual researchers who are nominated for the particular roles identified for each grant opportunity.
6.20. Roles that named participants may be nominated for under the Linkage Projects grant opportunity are:
Chief Investigators (CIs); and
Partner Investigators (PIs);
6.21. All CIs and PIs named in an application must satisfy the eligibility criteria for the role they are to perform. Details of these eligibility criteria are provided in these grant guidelines.
6.22. All CIs and PIs named in an application must take responsibility for the authorship and intellectual content of the application, appropriately citing sources and acknowledging significant contributions, including from third parties.
6.23. A project cannot commence until all CIs and PIs meet the eligibility criteria in these grant guidelines.
Chief Investigator
6.24. CIs are expected to:
take significant intellectual responsibility for the conception and conduct of the project and for any strategic decisions called for in its pursuit and the communication of results;
b. ensure effective supervision, support and mentoring at all times of research personnel, including Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates and postdoctoral researchers for whom they are responsible; and
c. make a commitment to carrying out the project and not assume the role of a supplier of resources for work that will largely be undertaken by others.
Eligibility to apply
6.25. To be eligible as a CI, the individual nominated must, as at the date of application submission have met their obligations regarding previously funded projects, including submission to the ARC of satisfactory final reports.
6.26. An individual is not eligible to be nominated as a CI if, as at the grant commencement date, or during the project’s activity period, the individual is undertaking an HDR. Individuals are eligible to be a CI if they are undertaking an HDR during the application period and the HDR is conferred prior to the grant commencement date.
Eligibility to hold
6.27. As at the grant commencement date, and for the project activity period when the CI is engaged in the project, the CI must meet at least one of the following criteria:
be an employee for at least 20 per cent of Full Time Equivalent (0.2 FTE) at an Eligible Organisation; or
be a holder of an honorary academic appointment (as defined in the glossary) at an Eligible Organisation.
6.28. A CI must reside predominantly in Australia for the project activity period. Any significant absences including fieldwork or study leave directly related to the project must have approval from You and must not total more than half the project activity period. In extraordinary circumstances, changes must be approved via a Variation.
Partner Investigator
6.29. PIs are expected to:
take significant intellectual responsibility for the planning and conduct of the project and for any strategic decisions required in its pursuit and the communication of results;
have the relevant skills and experience to contribute to the project;
c. make a commitment to carrying out the project and not assume the role of a supplier of resources for work that will largely be undertaken by others; and
d. provide effective supervision, support and mentoring of research personnel, as required.
Eligibility to apply
6.30. A PI may, or may not, be an employee of a Partner Organisation.
6.31. A PI must not be eligible to be a CI at the grant commencement date.
6.32. To be eligible as a PI, the individual nominated must, as at the application submission date, have met all obligations for previously funded projects, including submitting satisfactory final reports.
Eligibility to hold
6.33. A PI must not meet the eligibility criteria for a CI at any time during the project activity period.
6.34. You may name a participant as a PI, who would otherwise be a CI but who does not reside predominantly in Australia.
What are the limits on the number of applications and projects per named participant?
6.35. These limits do not apply to PIs or to unnamed participants on projects such as HDR students, postdoctoral researchers and research assistants.
6.36. A named participant can apply for and be concurrently funded through the Linkage Program (as defined in the glossary) for a maximum of four Linkage Program projects (not including LIEF) as a CI.
6.37. We will calculate limits of projects and applications as at the date of submission of applications, and may re-calculate this limit as other grant opportunity announcements are made, by totalling:
the number of Linkage Program (not including LIEF) CI and Director roles that the participant will hold as active projects as at the active project assessment date; and
b. the number of Linkage Projects applications We are currently assessing which include that participant as a CI.
6.38. It is Your responsibility to determine if applying for, or holding, a project under these guidelines will affect an individual researcher’s eligibility for the other ARC grant opportunities as other ARC grant opportunities may have different project limits. We reserve the right to change project and application limits in future grant opportunities. All 2018 ARC grant guidelines are available on GrantConnect. For previous years, please visit the ARC website.
6.39. We must approve the relinquishment of a project or role before the application is submitted. Any relinquishment made or approved after the application is submitted will not be taken into account for the purposes of calculating the number of projects and applications for limit considerations.