Apply Now: John Mulvaney Fellowship Award (Australia)

Funding Information

• The recipient of the John Mulvaney Fellowship will receive $4000 towards undertaking research or fieldwork in Australia or overseas, including accessing archives and other research materials and connecting with researchers and networks.

Uses of the Funds

• Funds may be spent on economy class travel, accommodation, living, and research expenses. Successful applicants may also use the funds for expenses including but not limited to:
  • Domestic and international research assistance; including hiring an assistant to access the designated archives and research material on behalf of the researcher in cases where they are unable to travel to their intended destination.
  • Ordering and scanning archival and/or source material; including expenses associated with inter-library loans and other lending schemes (digital and hard copy).
  • Carer’s work; including expenses for childcare (e.g., hiring a carer, nanny, or paying for additional childcare) to enable the parent to conduct the research, and other caring work including care of a dependent child or family member due to illness or disability. If a child or dependent needs to travel with the applicant in order for the research to be undertaken, these expenses can be included in the application.
  • Other expenses deemed necessary by the applicant must be identified in the budget and approved by the Awards Committee. If you are unsure about your eligible expenses.
  • Fellowships are not available to attend conferences or to enrol in any course of study, although conference attendance incidental to research activity will not be penalised.

Eligibility Criteria

• Fellows and non-Fellows can nominate, or individuals can self-nominate. The Nominator must obtain the permission of the Nominee before nomination.
• Nominees/Applicants must be Citizens or Permanent Residents of Australia who are residing in Australia at the time of nomination.
• Nominees/Applicants must be citizens who are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent.
• The Fellowship is open to early career researchers (ECRs) and PhD students currently enrolled in an Australian institution.
• Nominations/applications will be accepted from independent scholars holding a PhD as well as those working in institutional settings.
• ECR Nominees must be in the early stages of their careers, which will be determined, inter alia, by how recently a PhD was conferred. In normal circumstances, it should have been conferred no more than five years prior to the closing date for applications.
• ECR Nominees who have received their PhD more than five years ago but who can demonstrate a significant, commensurate period of career interruption (such as maternity or parental leave, carer’s responsibility, illness, unemployment, or non-research employment) may be considered eligible. This includes disruptions caused by COVID-19. A justification for the career interruption must be submitted as part of the proposal.
• Nominees/Applicants must be working in the Humanities, defined as those discipline areas by which the Academy is structured – Archaeology; Asian Studies; Classical Studies; English; European Languages and Cultures; History; Indigenous Studies; Linguistics; Philosophy and the History of Ideas; Religion; Cultural and Communication Studies; and The Arts. Applicants working on projects in Digital Humanities; and Environmental Humanities will also be eligible to apply.
• Interdisciplinary work is encouraged, provided that it includes a substantial proportion of work in the Humanities.
• Previous recipients of the John Mulvaney Fellowship or Humanities Travelling Fellowship offered by this Academy are ineligible.
• The Awards Committee reserves the right to solicit nominations, which will be subject without favour to the same deadlines and competitive processes as unsolicited nominations.

Selection Criteria

• Applications will be assessed on the rigour and significance of the research, its likely impact within a specialist field, and its potential to engage and/or benefit the wider community.
• Nominees/Applicants will need to demonstrate the relevance of the project to the Nominee/Applicants academic career development and be able to show evidence of this through either traditional or nontraditional research outputs.

For more information, visit Australian Academy of the Humanities.