Major National Funding Opportunities

The Australian Competitive Grants Register

The Australian Competitive Grants Register (ACGR) lists nationally competitive research schemes from the Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth research funding schemes. These schemes are provided for research and are awarded on a competitive basis after a selection by a well-qualified panel.

Grants in kind such as the use of facilities or equipment, or subsidised travel or accommodation are not available through the ACGR.

Funds awarded through ACGR schemes contribute to the University's research performance, which is measured via a number of performance indicators established by the Commonwealth Government and used in formulas to allocate 'block funding' for the Institutional Grants Scheme (IGS), the Research Training Scheme (RTS) and the Research Infrastructure Block Grants Scheme (RIGB).

The following link provides a list of competitive funding schemes for the 2011 Australian Competitive Grants Register (ACGR) - Grants paid in 2010:
2011 Australian Competitive Grants Register - List of Category 1 funding schemes

Australian Research Council (ARC)

The ARC is a statutory authority within the Australian Government's Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (IISR) portfolio. Its mission is to deliver policy and programs that advance Australian research and innovation globally and benefit the community.

The ARC manages the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP), a significant component of Australia's investment in research and development. Through the NCGP, the ARC supports the highest-quality fundamental and applied research and research training through national competition across all disciplines, with the exception of clinical medicine and dentistry.

The following link gives you access to funding opportunities that are available:
Australian Research Council (ARC)

National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is Australia's peak body for supporting health and medical research; for developing health advice for the Australian community, health professionals and governments; and for providing advice on ethical behaviour in health care and in the conduct of health and medical research.

NHMRC administers funding for health and medical research on behalf of the Australian Government. Research funding is organised into three categories: Research Support, Infrastructure Support and People Support.

The following link gives you access to funding opportunities that are available:
National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) / National Research Centres

The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program commenced in 1991. The objective of CRC Program is:

"To deliver significant economic, environmental and social benefits to Australia by supporting end-user driven research partnerships between publicly funded researchers and end-users to address clearly articulated, major challengers that require medium to long term collaborative efforts."

The CRC Program links researchers with industry to focus R&D efforts on progress towards utilisation and commercialisation. The close interaction between researchers and the users of research is a key feature of the Program. Another feature is industry contribution to CRC education programs to produce industry-ready graduates. To date there have been a total of 168 CRCs.

Since the commencement of the CRC Program, all parties have committed more than $12.3 billion (cash and in-kind) to CRCs. This includes almost $3 billion from the CRC Program, $3.1 billion from universities, $2.5 billion from industry and $1.2 billion from CSIRO.

The following link will provide further information and funding under various programs that are available:
Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) / National Research Centres