Research Funding News & Funding Opportunities

  1. Call for EOIs for State Trustees Community Inclusion Grants – 10am Tuesday 19 August
  2. Applications for the Civic and Community Impact Fund – closes 22 August
  3. CASS Early Career Travel Awards – closes 29 August
  4. FoE research discussion group on Vocational Education and Training
  5. Update on capped 2025 open access publishing agreements
  6. EOI – Building up your big research ideas and getting grant ready

1. Call for EOIs for State Trustees Community Inclusion Grants – 10am Tuesday 19 August

Advancement is coordinating the EOIs

State Trustees have opened proposals for their Community Inclusion grant round, due 29 August. The University is eligible to submit one application, so Advancement is coordinating an internal selection process. Note: a community-based partnership is essential for University applications to be eligible for this grant round.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please complete this form by 10am, Tuesday 19 August. Note responses can be at a high level, we are seeking enough information to assess the project against the ambitions and key criteria of the Foundation.

Funding available is: $20,000 over one year.

Description
  Community Inclusion supports projects that are encouraging social inclusion and social participation for people living with disability in Victoria.  
Projects
Projects may include: Community awareness, education, and engagement programs to promote social inclusion and address direct and indirect discrimination Promoting participation in cultural life Programs to support social participation, to reduce social isolation and improve wellbeing and quality of life   Preference will be given to projects that: Provide an integrated solution to social inclusion and social participation Show social innovation, which can be interpreted as ‘novel solutions to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions’ (Phills, Deiglmeier & Miller 2008). Are from smaller community-led organisations Are Victorian based   We encourage regional, rural, and remote organisations to apply and special consideration will be given to these applications.  

Guidelines:

  • State Trustees will not fund:
    • Universities and other institutions seeking funding for academic research projects or research positions with minimal or no research translation activity or no community-based partners
    • Work conducted outside Victoria
    • Previously unsuccessful applications.
  • Previously successfully acquitted projects from either Community Inclusion or the previous Grassroots Program may be excluded.

Guidelines are attached and further information is available here.

2. Applications for the Civic and Community Impact Fund – closes 22 August

Grant information and the application can be accessed via the following link – https://unimelb.smartygrants.com.au/CCIF2025 

Grants provide seed funding for projects that further the University’s civic and community engagement. Civic and Community Impact Fund Guidelines are detailed in the above link. The grant program is open to colleagues with an academic appointment at UoM of at least 0.5 FTE for the duration of the project, with a PhD (or those able to demonstrate the capacity to lead a research project). Please note: PhD candidates are not eligible to lead a project but may be involved as co-investigators. 

Three levels of funding up to $15,000 are available. Applicants are encouraged to apply for funding appropriate to the level of development of their project and relationship with community; more grants will be available at lower levels.  

Applications close 11.59pm Friday 22 August, 2025. 

For more information and enquiries email: engage-partnerships@unimelb.edu.au  

3. CASS Foundation Travel Grants – closes 29 August

Assists early career researchers (ECRs) in the establishment phase of their careers.

The purpose of the Travel Awards is to enable Early Career Researchers (ECR) to attend an international conference of significance to their research. At this conference applicants are expected to be presenting their current research as an invited presenter, as an oral presentation or a poster presentation. The research material to be presented at the conference should be current and not based primarily on the Applicant’s PhD studies.

Click here to view full funding guidelines on the provider’s website.

4. FoE research discussion group on Vocational Education and Training

We are inviting academics and Graduate Researchers to join the FoE VET discussion group.

Researchers of VET are often dispersed in a variety of academic learning and research areas. The FoE VET group is an opportunity to connect and discuss research topics related to VET including: school-based VET, applied learning, vocational education and training (VET), work-based training and the labour market, both in Australia as well as in an international and a comparative context. If you would like to join our group, please contact A/Prof Gosia Klatt klattm@unimelb.edu.au.

5. Update on capped 2025 open access publishing agreements

We are approaching annual open access coverage caps for Wiley, Springer Nature, and Taylor & Francis journals. Articles accepted to hybrid (subscription) journals after caps are reached can be published behind paywalls to avoid open access fees. For open access journals, publishing fees will apply. See the Library’s Open Access Publishing page for details, or the recent Researcher@Library blog post for advice on navigating capped agreements.

Enquiries: Educ-librarians@unimelb.edu.au  

6. EOI – Building up your big research ideas and getting grant ready

MERI is offering a new research support program designed to support academics at the early phase of developing their ideas for new programs of work and research grants. 

There’s lots of really good ideas out there but sometimes they need some extra attention and ‘slow cooking’ to become really great knock-out ideas that form the basis of strong and compelling programs of work and funding applications. These ideas also need to be matched up with the right funding scheme or opportunity, including how the scheme fits with the researcher’s profile and interests. This series of four workshops is designed for those thinking of submitting research funding applications over the next 2-3 years, with a focus on mid-career researchers. Workshops will be interactive and require participants to do some ‘homework’ in between so that they are ready to contribute; these will be held in person from August 27th through to November 18th and participants are expected to attend all sessions. In the first instance, numbers will be capped at 15, with the aim to run the series again in subsequent years, subject to interest.

The dates and focus of each workshop are below. Please register your interest if you would like to participate. 

Workshop 1: Wednesday August 27, 12.00-2.00 pm Mapping out current thinking and early ideas

Workshop 2: Wednesday October 1, 1.00-3.00 pm Crafting your researcher profile and identifying the right funding opportunity

Workshop 3: Wednesday November 5, 12.00-2.00 Getting into the details: starting to turn ideas into feasible projects

Workshop 4: Wednesday, November 18, 12.00- 4.00 Practising the pitch: Presentations on project and feedback Lunch provided

The series is convened by Prof Julie McLeod (Research Capability Director) with Prof Kate Reynolds (Associate Dean Research) and the MERI team. Workshops will also be supported by invited presenters (e.g. Library Research Services, RIC, experienced researchers within FoE and other areas).

Please contact MERI – foe-research@unimelb.edu.au if you have any questions.