Early Career Researcher Grant

Overview

The University of Melbourne’s Early Career Research (ECR) Grant scheme aims to support early career researchers to undertake high quality projects and pilot studies, strengthen their track records, and enhance their profile for competitive external funding. This scheme is a core part of the University’s research development strategy , which places a high priority on supporting ECRs.

Funding

Each successful project is funded by a matched commitment from Chancellery (50%) and the host faculties and departments (50%).

• Applicants from the faculties Architecture Building and Planning, Arts, Business and Economics, Education, Fine Arts and Music, and Law, may apply for between $5000 and $25,000 in research funding.
• Applicants from the faculties Engineering and Information Technology, Science, and Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences, may apply for between $5000 and $40,000 in research funding.

How to apply

1. Review the funding documents

   Review the Scheme Guidelines, FAQs and Instructions to Applicants documents for this scheme.

2. Review faculty processes

   Ensure that you are aware of any additional submission requirements specific to your Faculty/School.

   Faculty	Contact	Instructions
   Architecture, Building and Planning	Matthew Scamporlino (abp-research),  abp-research@unimelb.edu.au	Draft Smarty Grant Application Exported into PDF Format due to abp-research@unimelb.edu.au no later than Monday the 15th of May 2023.
   Arts	Arts Research Office, arts-staffresearch@unimelb.edu.au
   Business & Economics*	Ryan Perera, 9035 3863, fbe-research@unimelb.edu.au	Notice of Intent Due: Friday 5 May Draft project description and application form (PDF copy generated in SmartyGrants) to be submitted to FBE for review: Monday 29 May
   Engineering and Information Technology	FEIT Research Services, FEIT-research@unimelb.edu.au	Register for the FEIT support program
   Education	mgse-grants@unimelb.edu.au	Please submit your draft project description and application form (PDF copy generated in SmartyGrants) for review to mgse-grants@unimelb.edu.au by 1 June 2023
   Law	Mas Generis, 8344 9983, law-research@unimelb.edu.au
   Science	Veronica Loew, 8344 8236, science-internalfunding@unimelb.edu.au	Submit directly to RIC
   Fine Arts & Music	Adelene Auyong, fineartsmusic-research@unimelb.edu.au	Expression of Interest due: Friday 31 March
   Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences*	Tessa Grimmond, 9035 0995, mdhs-grants@unimelb.edu.au	Submit directly via Smartygrants
   Eligible Affiliated Research Insititutes	Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (PMCC) The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health Bionics Institute The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute Melbourne Business School (MBS) Orygen/CYMH [noting that most staff of CYMH are directly employed by the University, meaning they can apply under 4.1(b) of the guidelines]	*ECRs with honorary appointments who are employed by eligible affiliated research institutes may apply. MBS please follow any instructions from FBE. PMCC please provide review copy to Grants@petermac.org by 10am 19 June 2023. Other MRIs follow any instructions from MDHS. If awarded, these grants will be administered via the UoM faculty/department.

3. Complete an eligibility exemption request

   If applicable, complete the eligibility exemption request form via SmartyGrants.

4. Complete the application form via SmartyGrants

   Remember to leave plenty of time to have the certification statement signed by your head of department. This will need to be uploaded into your SmartyGrants application form before you can submit.

5. Complete a Themis Grants Workbench Submission

   Once your application is submitted in SmartyGrants, attach this final PDF to a Themis Workbench Submission (TS). The type of submission is "4 - internal grant sponsored by UoM" and the scheme name is "Early Career Researcher Grants Scheme - 2024 - JUL" (it should show up in the dropdown after a few moments once you start typing). The status needs of your submission needs to be "Forwarded to HoD" by the due date.  We understand if there is a slight delay in receiving electronic approval from the HoD. Your faculty research office can assist you in the first instance if you are not familiar with this process. If you have further technical trouble with the submission, you may email res-devschemes@unimelb.edu.au with your Themis submission number (TS) and we will try to assist.

Supporting documents

Documents/links updated as of 1 May 2023.

Key documents

Resources

Contacts

Manage Your Grant