Funding Opportunities

If you are interested in applying for the following funding opportunities, please contact foe-grants@unimelb.edu.au as soon as possible.

Data.org ‘Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge” EOI to Advancement due 1 July

The Paul Ramsay Foundation “Experimental Evaluation open grant round” EOI to Advancement due 9 July

INEI Seed Funding Call due 27 September

NHMRC 2025 Investigator Grants (commencement for Jan 2026) NOW OPEN

Data.org

Data.org’s grant round ‘Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge (AI2AI Challenge)’ is now open, closing on 18 July. The University is required to take a coordinated approach to applications submitted. As such, Advancement will coordinate an internal selection process.

If you’d like to submit your project for consideration, please populate this form by COB Monday 1 July.

Funding available is $200,000 USD, and in addition, grants will also include technical assistance.

Description
The AI2AI Challenge is a global call for existing innovative AI solutions seeking scale to accelerate inclusion and economic empowerment. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, there is a pressing need to ensure that AI solutions advance inclusive economic growth, promote inclusion, and address inequalities for individuals and communities. They aim to foster applications focused on inclusive growth that are climate-aware, gender-equitable, racially sensitive, and locally informed, all while focusing on responsible AI principles and practices.
Project specifics
The Challenge looks for projects that:   Ensure that proposed AI solutions serve the public good to transform society for the better, uplift people’s lives, and help to advance economic growth for individuals in underserved communities – and do not further widen the digital divide in these communities.   Where communities are positioned as active drivers of the design and application of inclusive AI. Applications will need to describe the role of co-creation with the target community or user group in your solution and describe your strategies to keep the target community involved throughout the project lifecycle. Proposals from the diverse range of communities that are frequently left out of the AI for social impact conversation.  They understand that there are infrastructural challenges in many geographies around the world that hinder access to large datasets and certain technologies. We seek solutions that offer new approaches or suggestions to elevate existing technologies.  Entries to The Challenge will be assessed on the following criteria: Impact, including advancement of inclusive growth  Localism and IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, and access)  Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence  Originality  Feasibility  Organizational Capacity  Partnerships  Scalability: In pilot, scaling or replication.

Guidelines:

  • All applications should have a timeline of one year. Your project/ solution might be longer term and that is acceptable, but you will need to demonstrate what is feasible to achieve within a 12-month period.  
  • Awardees will be notified by Q4 2024
  • While they will accept multiple applications from a University, they need to be distinct, and permission must be sought in advance.
  • They understand that many solutions will have AI as a tool in a larger holistic toolkit. Please specify the use of AI in your key activities for the role it plays in bringing you closer to your goals. 

Previous grants distributed under this scheme:

  • See a list of impact stories from data.org here.

Funding to UoM

  • $500,000 for ‘A fair day’s work: Using data science tools to detect wage theft and improve labour law compliance’, via partner the Paul Ramsay Foundation

Further information can be accessed here.

The Paul Ramsay Foundation

The Paul Ramsay Foundation has announced a new program, the ‘Experimental Evaluation open grant round’ closing on 23 July. Advancement is coordinating an internal selection process to ensure the most competitive applications are submitted.

If you’d like to submit your project for consideration, please populate this form by COB Tuesday 9 July.

Funding available is up to a maximum of $300,000 over three years.

Description
PRF are seeking Expressions of Interest from organisations who are implementing, or are intending to implement, social impact initiatives that can be evaluated through a hybrid evaluation design that includes ethical experimental evaluation as its main component. The grant will fund the evaluation; it cannot be used to fund the initiative itself.   This grant round will help organisations and communities to better understand their impact and help us understand how experimental designs: Can be used to ethically evaluate areas of social impact. Can be used to evaluate social impact at a relatively low cost and quickly. Can complement quasi- and non-experimental evaluation designs.   Each evaluation is expected to show demonstrable effect sizes within 3 years.  
Initiatives
Priority will be given to initiatives that relate to the following questions or issues: Children and early years Initiatives that involve both the primary caregiver and the child during the antenatal/post-birth period to reduce caregiver stress and improve skill development. Initiatives that try to get children, particularly in regional and remote communities, into high quality Early Childhood Education and Care settings. Initiatives that support cohorts with complex out-of-school challenges to stay connected to education. Initiatives that improve education outcomes for young people with disabilities. Do school meal initiatives have an impact on student engagement, attendance, and achievement? Economic opportunity What is the relative effectiveness for unemployed people across a range of outcomes between nontraditional pathways, such as social enterprise, versus mainstream employment pathways? What is the effect on employment outcomes and incentives from income supports to unemployed people? What are the employment outcomes for initiatives that are an alternative to the disability employment sector? Young people and families How effective are ‘diversion and post-release through care’ models for reducing young people/young parents contact with the justice system? How effective are community-led youth-focused initiatives in reducing youth contact with the justice system? What Domestic and Family Violence service models might work to support two members of a family (at any point across the prevention-crisis continuum) to strengthen family cohesion?

Guidelines

  • The grant money can only be used for the design and delivery of the evaluation and dissemination of the learning from the evaluation (this can include contracting a third-party evaluator and/or internal evaluation capability building). The delivery of the initiative must already have secure funding independently of the evaluation.
  • Funding can be used for (but is not restricted to):
    – Contracting third-party evaluators (PRF can help you find these evaluators);
    – Capability building of internal staff to manage and conduct experimental evaluations;
    – Improving data collection and reporting systems;
    – Purchasing data;
    – Compensating participants in evaluation research;
    – Research and analysis software tools.
  • Funding cannot be used for:
    –  Initiative delivery costs that would need to be incurred irrespective of the evaluation
    – Initiatives already funded through a PRF grant
  • If you already have an evaluation budget for your initiative you can add this PRF funding to it, but the total from all sources cannot exceed $300,000.
  • At the initial EOI to PRF just wish to know that outcomes are measurable. For EOIs that proceed to application, PRF will provide support to identify relevant data sources, including connecting with government agencies that can make available data they hold.

Guidelines and FAQ are attached, and more information can be found here.

2025 INEI Seed Funding Call for Proposal

Please contact foe-grants@unimelb.edu for the application handbook

Monday, June 17, 2024: Request for Proposals announcement

Friday, September 27, 2024: Submission deadline

Monday, December 9, 2024: Winners announcement

Wednesday, January 1, 2025: Funding period begins

Tuesday, December 31, 2026: Funding period ends

Eligibility Criteria:

1.   Principal Investigators (PIs) and Co-PIs applying for INEI Seed Funding must have an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field, or appropriate experience in an education research-related profession. Including graduate students is encouraged, however students are not eligible to lead projects.

2.   All participants of the research team applying for INEI Seed Funding must be affiliated with INEI member institutions (See Appendix B for a complete list of INEI member institutions). 3.   Research teams that apply for INEI Seed Funding must consist of researchers from no fewer than two (2) INEI member institutes.

Requirements:

1.   All proposals must be submitted in English and budgets must be proposed in USD.

2.   The total amount awarded for 2025 Seed Funding recipients is USD$20,000 overa span of two-year per research team. PIs are encouraged to propose research projects that are longer than two (2) year and/or with proposed budget higher than USD$20,000.

3.   The affiliated INEI institution of the PI will administer the funds if the Seed Funding is awarded. If Co-PIs were affiliated with different institutions, only one institution will serve as the primary fiscal administrator. INEI does not award grants directly to individuals.

4.   INEI Seed Funding proposals must identify the program and agency to which a future proposal will be submitted.

5.   In order to ensure a fair and just review process, we ask all proposals to be drafted anonymously. No researcher’s name or affiliated institution’s name shall be appeared in the contents of proposals (except the Cover Letter). We do ask research teams to attach a brief team description, which include names and short bios for all research team members, and describe the role of each PI, Co-PI, and other key personnel mentioned in the proposal, in  the Cover Letter. Please be sure to submit your Cover Letter separate from your Proposal.

6.   All documents must be double-spaced and submitted in PDF format. The preferred font is Times New Roman, 12 point, and APA style is preferred for citations and references.

NHMRC 2025 Investigator Grants (for funding commencing Jan 2026) NOW OPEN

Applications opened in Sapphire on Wednesday 19th June 2024. Guidelines for this scheme are available from Grant Connect (GO7020). The application form is now available on Sapphire.

We ask that applicants submit a UOM Notice of Intent as soon as possible in order to receive important announcements and updates for this scheme.

Details of all internal dates, documentation and submission instructions can be found at:   https://sites.research.unimelb.edu.au/research-funding/nhmrc/investigator-grants

The NHMRC have updated their scheme application capping rules: please familiarise yourself with the Investigator and Ideas Grants Eligibility Tool and Eligibility FAQs

Key Dates

  • Open: Wed 19 June 2024
  • RIC Zoom Information Session: 10am-11am Wed 26 June 2024
  • Minimum Data: 5pm Wed 17 July 2024
  • RIC Review of Draft applications date: 10am Thu 18 July 2024
  • Supporting evidence documents to RIC: 10am Mon 5 August 2024
  • RIC Final applications due date: 10am Mon 12 August 2024
  • NHMRC Close date: Thu 15 August 2024

Scheme information session webinar Wed 26th June 2024

RIC will be hosting a webinar on the 2025 NHMRC Investigator Grants scheme for funding commencing 1st January 2026:

  • 10am-11am on Wednesday 26th June 2024 to present an overview of the scheme, describe any key changes in the funding rules and to provide an overview of the application process.

Join from PC, Mac, iOS or Android: https://unimelb.zoom.us/j/89615524973?pwd=zMUzoKOaPan9qJASncV4gWh6bOMYoi.1

    Password: 783000

The recordings and slides of the presentations will be available from the RIC Investigator Grants page

We will also be hosting twice weekly One-on-One drop-in sessions on zoom on Monday and Friday at 10:30am for 30mins between Friday 24th June through to Friday 9th August 2024 to provide applicants with the opportunity to ask any questions one on one with a RIC staff member. A RIC staff member will be available in a zoom meeting over this entire time period for applicants to drop in and ask questions about the scheme or their application. A virtual queue will be set up in a zoom waiting room and attendees will be admitted in order when a RIC staff member becomes available.

Join from PC, Mac, iOS or Android: https://unimelb.zoom.us/j/83328873927?pwd=UHpnOW1OcnZJRitxaUt4ZU96TkZ6UT09
Password: 357512

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Health and Medical Grants team at: nhmrc-people-support@unimelb.edu.au