Funding
There is an a wide variety of internal, national and international funding opportunities are available for research. These can support:
- Research activity: program grants, project grants, equipment grants and travel awards
- People support - fellowships and scholarships.
To see what is available please see the Grants Calendar
Major Funding Schemes:
Information about specific major funding schemes can be found at the links below:
Other Opportunities
In addition to grant opportunities, the following contacts and resources may be useful when seeking funding for research:
Prizes and Awards - see the Prizes and Awards Calendar
Fundraising and Donations – contact MCRI Philanthropy or RCH Foundation
Pharmaceutical Sponsored Clinical Trials – contact the Melbourne Children’s Trials Centre
It's important to think about funding early in the research project. This Grants Office worksheet has been designed to get you thinking about how to frame your funding request.
The MCRI grants office may be able to supporting researchers in developing, writing, reviewing and submitting funding applications. Please see the following pages for useful information and tips, and then contact the MCRI Grants Office for personalised guidance.
Application Review and Submission Process
You can also review the Library of Successful Applications provides access to successful NHMRC grant and fellowship/scholarship applications. Membership of the NHMRC Assigners Academy and Peer Review Panels is publicly available on the NHMRC website - Some RCH / MCRI staff are on these panels and may be able to provide advice.
For information on accepting funding, varying grant and reporting to funders see here.
1. Planning |
To maximise time to draft, collaborate and review your application, start your application as early as possible. Please refer to the Grants Calendar (on the MCRI Intranet) to check when both internal and external application(s) will be due. |
2. Presubmission review |
All applicants for all grants and fellowships (including Expressions of Interest) must submit the Pre-proposal Notification form to the Grants Office prior to the internal application close date found on the MCRI intranet. |
3. Quality Review |
For major competitive grants and career award applications, MCRI will endeavour to arrange a scientific review. In this case, applicants are asked to provide contact details for at least two reviewers with scientific expertise relevant to the proposal. The Grants Office may also arrange a lay reviewer to consider the writing, style and structure of the application in order to improve readability and impact. |
4. Final Draft Submission |
The final draft of your application is submitted to the Grants Office before the internal closing date, accompanied by a completed and signed Internal Approval form. |
5. Technical compliance review |
The Grants Office will arrange review of the eligibility of the application, the budget and budget justification, MCRI requirements for direct and indirect costs, salary on-costs, and any administrative requirements set by the funding body. Administrative requirements can and do change, and will only be confirmed close to the application’s finalisation. |
6. Application Submission |
It is mandatory that all applications for grants and fellowships to be administered by MCRI are submitted by the MCRI Grants Office, and not directly by the applicant. Applications that require MCRI Director or Chief Operating Officer endorsement must be submitted three days prior to the close date to ensure their approval. |
7. Rebuttals & Interviews |
Some NHMRC schemes will provide Assessors Reports to applicants, and in turn are required to submit an Applicant Response, while others require selected applicants to attend an interview. The Grants Office will assist in preparation of these. |
8. Results of Application |
The Grants Office will be notified of application results, and will advise the outcome, coordinate the acceptance process and any further administrative requirements to the applicant. |
9. Funding acceptance |
All successful applicants are required to complete a Funding Acceptance form, which will ensure appropriate links to internal departments important for ongoing reporting, acquittals and data analysis. |
10. Release of Funding |
Funding Release will be dependent on ethics approval certification, signature of multi-institutional agreements and confirmation of employment status where appropriate. |
Preparing a study budget can be tricky. The Clinical Research Development Office have produced this guidance on how to ensure you consider all key points when developing your budget. We also have two budget templates you can use to help. You should look at both of these, as grant budgets often exclude important items such as on-costs.
Internal staff can also access a recording of the 2020 CRDO Workshop "Budgeting for Clinical Trials" for more tips on how to create and manage a trial budget.
Melbourne Children’s Campus is trialing a new program which will fund RCH clinicians (nurses, doctors and allied health professionals) to undertake a small research project which is intended to address a clinical problem or question.
The MCRI is funding a program which will offer 10 grants of $10,000 to support RCH clinicians for a 12-month project, as well as range of supports to help plan and activate the project i.e. Knowledge Translation & Impact planning, ethics & statistics. Out of the 10 grants offered this year, a minimum of 4 grants will be allocated to Allied Health and Nursing applicants. For details on eligibility and how to apply please see the application form.
Download Small Grants application form
We will be announcing the next funding round soon. Please watch this space.
For any questions please contact: [email protected]