Office for Research

New Researcher Grants Scheme (NRG)

Mary MeadowcroftManager Research Grants and Centres

Office for Research

Purpose

To provide early career researchers (within 5 years of obtaining their PhD) with the opportunity to gain experience in preparing grant applications, managing a relatively small research project, publishing the outcomes and build a track record to win external grants.

To provide seed funding for researchers who have recently arrived at Griffith.

Provide short term funding for researchers who are changing fields of research.

Office for Research

Roles

First named Chief Investigator (CI) – Project Leader

» Responsible for managing the research project - including obtaining ethical clearance, complying with codes of good research practice, managing administrative and financial aspects of the project.

Second and subsequently named CIs

» Additional researchers working on the project.

Associate Investigators

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Roles continued

Mentors

» Senior academic staff (levels D and E) who will provide guidance, advice and support to the first named CI/Project Leader.

» To assist the Project Leader develop/advance their career.

» Importance of mentors – demonstrates support of the researcher and the project.

» Helps fulfil the criteria to build a research team.

Office for Research

Eligibility

There are three categories of New Researcher Grant:

A. Standard grants for New Researchers

B. Grants for researchers who have commenced employment at Griffith on or after 1 January 2009.

C. Seeding grants for researchers who are changing research field.

» Note: If you qualify for both categories A and B, you must apply under category A.

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Eligibility continued

Applicants must be Griffith University academic staff levels A to C with any of the following types of appointment:

A confirmed continuing appointment (ie, offer letter accepted).

A full time or fractional academic appointment of 50%or more for the 2011 calendar year.

A fellowship for the 2011 calendar year.

» Note: Adjunct staff members are not eligible to apply.

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Eligibility continued

Applicants must have a PhD awarded after 6 September 2005 and have published from their doctorate or demonstrated equivalent research experience.

Current Griffith RHD candidates are eligible to apply providing they have submitted their thesis by the closing date: 6 September 2010.

Applicants who will be on leave for more than six months of 2011 must make a case that they can undertake the research despite their absence or their application may be ruled ineligible.

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Eligibility continued

Applicants who currently receive, or are due to receive, funds from an Australian Competitive Grant are eligible to apply for a NRG as long as the ACG funds pay their salary as a fellow (eg. ARC APD or NHMRC Training Fellowships).

Category B and C applicants must not currently hold an ACG.

Pay attention to page limits and application guidelines to avoid your application being ruled ineligible.

Office for Research

Funding

NRG Budget = $300,000.

Average grant size = $15,000.

Approximately 20 grants will be awarded.

NRG applicants may apply for grants between $5,000 and $20,000.

Grants will be awarded for a one year period, with an automatic carry-forward for the subsequent year.

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Expenditure

Expenditure Items supported include:

Personnel Teaching Relief (rarely granted) Equipment Maintenance Travel Other

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Expenditure

Items NOT supported include:

A project that constitutes the topic for an applicant's higher degree thesis.

Salary for researchers to fund work at institutions outside of Australia - however there is no problem with employing a research assistant overseas if this is required by the nature of the project.

Equipment and facilities that could be reasonably expected to be provided by the School or Centre, eg computers, computer consumables, stationery.

Postgraduate Scholarships.

Conference support – including registration and travel expenses.

Office for Research

Writing An Effective Budget Justification

How to Start……

– Read the guidelines!!!

– Sketch out your research plan, then note all expenditure items :

• Personnel salaries (incl. oncosts) – eg Ras (not for CIs / AIs). Justify why you need an RA, explain what they will be doing, and state their salary rate.

• Teaching Relief

• Activities – eg. surveys, focus groups, data analysis, travel to where and when, laboratory work

– Equipment needed to complete the work (include quotes)

– Maintenance i.e. Consumable items – eg. photocopying, telephone survey call costs, chemical reagents

– Travel (to achieve the research tasks)

– Other

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Writing An Effective Budget Justification continued

– List the budget items at C1, providing accurate costings (exclusive of GST). Make sure you break figures down in sufficient detail so as to provide the panel with sufficient detail to assess your proposed budget.

– At C2, justify each in turn using the same headings as in the budget table (C1).

Handouts on how to write an effective budget justification, including examples, are available at this workshop.

Office for Research

Project Description

Topic Style - Exploratory Topics or Hypothesis Topics?

The topic style should be whatever the norm is for the discipline.

Consult your Dean Research for further clarification.

As long as the project is high quality, addresses the assessment criteria and the application is well written, it will be competitive.

Office for Research

Things to Avoid

Fishing expeditions, i.e. no basic scientific/research question being addressed.

Including claims without evidence and the judgement of peers via journal citations.

Unclear methods, lack of control experiments – need to convince reviewers the investigator knows what he or she is doing.

No back-up/contingency plan – outline alternative methodological approaches in case the primary approach does not work out.

Unrealistic project timeframe, eg. too ambitious.

Insufficient sample sizes for statistical analyses, or data analyses not adequately described.

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Things to Avoid continued

Research team lacking the necessary expertise for the project.

Too many acronyms and too much jargon. Applications should be written for the intelligent well-informed, but not expert, reviewer – pitch your proposal to the audience,

Lack of critical literature references - causes reviewers to think that the applicant either does not know the literature or has purposely neglected critical published material.

Budgets not in line with research methodology.

Budget consisting largely of travel expenses or teaching relief.

Office for Research

Assessment Criteria and Weightings

30% - Track record of CIs.

20% - Potential for developing into a competitive application to an ACG scheme.

40% - Quality of the application and proposed project.

10% - Potential to build a team of researchers

» Working in teams helps ECRs break into ARC. Having a mentor helps.

» Single CIs may be able to demonstrate that their project dovetails with research of colleagues in the same discipline, and include a plan to develop a project for external funding based on a combined research effort.

Office for Research

Assessment Criteria and Weightings

Six discipline areas – indicate the most suitable at A2 of the application form:

Eg. If your project utilises engineering based methodology, but has an application in the medical field, panel members on the BBH panel are unlikely to be expert reviewers. The EES discipline area is suggested as more appropriate.

Eg. In the psychology discipline, some applications will be assigned to the BBH panel, and others to the SBE panel. Please consider which panel would best assess your application.

Office for Research

Assessment Criteria and Weightings

Six discipline areas – indicate the most suitable at A2 of the application form:

These are combined to form 3 panels to assess applications:

BBH - panel MIC-PCG-EES - combined panel HCA-SBE - combined panel

If the panel considers that your application would be better assessed by another panel, then your application may be transferred to that panel.

Office for Research

Grant Writing Assistance

Library of Exemplar NRG Applications

Contact ronda.jones@griffith.edu.au, ext 57784 to request NRG Exemplar Applications.

A list from which to select NRG applications of your interest will be provided (handouts available at this workshop).

You are required to complete an Exemplar Application Statement for each application that you would like to view and send to the Office for Research.

Exemplar applications will then be emailed to you.

Office for Research

Grant Writing Assistance Peer review (from colleagues or research network) – some

faculties and research centres have a formal peer review process operating!

invaluable in ensuring the proposed research is cutting edge, with sound methodology.

Colleague’s past successful applications.

When you have finished your first draft, set it aside and then come back to it and critically review it.

Applicants should note that applications are not screened for errors and omissions by the staff of the Office for Research or members of the grant assessment panels.

Panel feedback will be provided to you with notification of the grant outcome.

Office for Research

Application Form

Complete the application form in consultation with the scheme guidelines.

Endorsement: Dean (Research) or RCD Endorsement and signature required – 100 word explanation of research goals / fit with school/centre.

Certification: CI signatures and (HOS or RCD) and Dean (Research)’s signatures required.

Allow enough time to obtain all necessary signatures prior to the closing date. Remember – LATE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED

Ethical Clearances

» Required if the research involve humans, animals or GMO’s. Ethical clearance protocol numbers or GU-IBC reference numbers will need to be provided to the Office for Research once the project is successful, before the project account can be opened and before research work can commence.

Office for Research

Any Queries?

Contact the Office for Research

– Ronda Jones

– Ext 57784

– Ronda.Jones@griffith.edu.au

– 2.31_N54 Office for Research