Grant to fund High Quality Research (Australia)

The research grants program supports the mission: Prevent Cancer. Empower people. Save lives. They are relentless in the pursuit of cancer breakthrough and this passion is shared by the donors who fund their research program.

Funding Information

• These grants support research teams to undertake research focused on improving prevention, detection, treatment and care for people affected by cancer. This year, there are eight grants available, each valued at maximum $360,000 ($120,000 p.a for up to three years):
  • 7 general grants (no restrictions on type of research or cancer type)
  • 1 targeted grant for a research project that (a) addresses the needs of people affected by cancer in rural/regional Victoria and that (b) is led by a regional research institution.
• An application must articulate a case to be funded and justify the requested budget. Budget items must be directly related to the proposed research project, the expense must be incurred between the grant start and end dates and most of the funding must be spent in Victoria. Any funds requested to be spent outside Victoria must be justified. They may ask for verification of projected costs.

Eligible Funding

• Salary requests (excluding on-costs)
  • Salary requests for Chief Investigator A (CIA) will be permitted provided the CIA’s PhD (or MBBS) was awarded < 13 years ago at the closing date for EOI applications. To verify eligibility, at Full Application the CIA must include the date of the letter advising them of their PhD or MBBS qualification being approved. Career interruptions will only be considered if the CIA provides specific details of their situation.
  • Salary requests for second and onwards Chief Investigators (CIB, CIC, CID etc.) will be permitted provided the salary is not being requested to support someone who is a group leader or head of laboratory.
  • Salary requests for other research personnel.
• Equipment: Items costing > $10,000 that are essential to the conduct of the proposed research.
• Direct research costs: Includes costs such as consumables, software, recruitment, imaging and diagnostic fees, travel to conduct the research (e.g., data collection) and specialized expertise (e.g.,statistician support).

Ineligible Funding

• Corporate and infrastructure overheads.
• Publication fees such as article processing charges.
• Dissemination costs such as conference registration and article processing charges.

Eligible Projects

• For projects applying for the targeted grant (regional funding), the project must meet both below points:
  • The project meets an identified regional need related to discovering and improving the prevention, detection, treatment and care for people affected by cancer who reside in regional, rural or remote areas; and
  • The project must be led by a Victorian organization based in a regional, rural or remote area. The research can be collaborative (including with metropolitan organisations), however the lead organisation must be in rural or regional Victoria.

Eligibility Criteria

• They invite applications from the full spectrum of Victorian cancer research activity including psychosocial, palliative care, allied health, epidemiology, health economics, behavioural and clinical research. Applications are encouraged from both clinical and laboratory-based researchers.
• To be eligible for this funding the application must satisfy all the points below:
  • The research team:
    • Appropriately qualified investigators must conduct the research at a Victorian administering organisation (university, health service, medical or scientific research institute).
      • The CIA must hold a primary appointment at the administering institute.
      • Collaborative research may be funded, provided that the administering organisation and majority of the research funded is based in Victoria. Any funds requested to be spent outside Victoria must be justified.
    • The CIA must be an Australian citizen or graduate from overseas with permanent Australian resident status at EOI close date.
  • The research proposal: 
    • Relevance to cancer is the fundamental criteria for eligibility for Grants-in-Aid funding. The primary focus of the project must be focused on discovering and improving the prevention, detection, treatment and care for people affected by cancer. You must include relevance to cancer in your application, including how you might progress the results of your work and its translation into clinical practice. The application will be considered insufficiently relevant if the relevance and significance to another disease is greater than to cancer, or if the research is of such a fundamental nature that its likely short- or medium-term impact on cancer control is low.

For more information, visit Cancer Council Victoria.