Research News & Funding Opportunities
- Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation – Community led activities in Melbourne’s West – EOI due to Advancement 6 October
- Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship program 2026 – outcome
- ASEAN-Australia Centre 2025-26 Grants – opens 16 Oct & closes 27 Nov – contact MERI grants team if interested in applying
- Spencer Foundation Research Grants on Education: Small – closes 15 December 2025 – contact MERI grants team if interested in applying
1. Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation – Community led activities in Melbourne’s West – EOI due to Advancement 6 October
If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please email the Advancement Philanthropic Grants Team Advancement Philanthropic Grants Team (advancement-philanthropicgrants@unimelb.edu.au) by COB Monday 6 October to let us know you’re interested. We will then respond with next steps.
Funding available is up to $225,000 per grant over two years. NOTE: these projects cannot be led by the University but can be a partner on community led applications
| Description |
| This grant round is focused on advancing a just and equitable Western Melbourne – where communities lead climate resilience, and shape fair and sustainable local economies. The Foundation recognises that many organisations are already working with their communities to address social justice and inequality, and this Initiative seeks to build on and amplify those existing efforts. By doing so, we aim to advance collective action and systems change towards equity and justice in the West. |
| Projects |
| This initiative, and the funding within this first phase, is focused on advancing a just and equitable Western Melbourne – where communities lead climate resilience, and shape fair and sustainable local economies. We see this future taking shape through two interconnected areas: Climate Justice: where communities lead adaptation efforts, strengthening climate resilience in ways that address inequities and centre those most at risk. Economic Justice: where communities shape economies that build community ownership, share power, and We welcome applications from community organisations or collaborations that are: Willing to collaborate with other organisations and networks through (funded) shared learning and action. Focused on social justice and equity. For example: working with under-served or marginalised people; strengthening community development, community building, gender equity, First Nations justice, food justice, or social inclusion; addressing disadvantage. Clearly connected with and reflective of the diversity of the communities in Melbourne’s West, especially in and across Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Melton, and Wyndham. Engaged and interested in the intersecting issues of climate resilience and economic justice. It is not essential that these are your main focus, but we are particularly interested in organisations that see connections between these issues and their work. Existing or emerging connectors, convenors, or community anchor organisations — those building bonding and bridging capital within or across communities (e.g. neighbourhood houses, community centres, First Nations gathering places, community service organisations, etc); and Focused on place — not only delivering services in a location, but seeking to shape change with and by their community/ies. |
Complete guidelines from Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation are attached and further information is available here.
2. Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship program 2026 – outcome
Congratulations to Professor Marcia McKenzie for her nomination of Professor Katheryn Yusoff for the 2026 Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Program. Professor Yusoff will present a lecture titled, Planetary Geostories and Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy in 2026. Please contact Prof McKenzie for more details.
3. ASEAN-Australia Centre 2025-26 Grants – opens 16 Oct & closes 27 Nov – contact MERI grants team if interested in applying
The ASEAN-Australia Centre (‘the Centre’) welcomes applications in line with the Centre’s objectives and strategic pillars in the following priority areas:
– Creative industry exchange initiatives to facilitate further collaboration between creative talent in Australia and Southeast Asia
– Cultural initiatives focused on creating market development opportunities to drive two-way trade, tourism, and business, and create cross-cultural connections between Australian and Southeast Asian institutions and organisations
– Grants for Australian researchers or institutions to undertake projects focused on practical efforts to strengthen Southeast Asia literacy in Australian business, government, the education and training system, and the community. Projects with a commercialisation objective and/or with industry partner involvement will be favourably considered. Joint projects with Southeast Asian partners may also be considered.
Click here to view full funding guidelines on the provider’s website.
4. Spencer Foundation Research Grants on Education: Small – closes 15 December 2025 – contact MERI grants team if interested in applying
Supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived.
The program supports budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. Applications are accepted three times per year.
This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. The Foundation’s goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. They seek to support scholarship that develops new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse.
This program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their career. The Foundation anticipates that proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that innovatively investigate questions central to education, including for example education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, or neuroscience, amongst others.
Moreover, the Foundation expects and welcomes methodological diversity in answering pressing questions; thus, they are open to projects that utilize a wide array of research methods including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, ethnographies, design-based research, participatory methods, historical research, to name a few. They are open to projects that might incorporate data from multiple and varied sources, span a sufficient length of time as to achieve a depth of understanding, or work closely with practitioners or community members over the life of the project. In addition, they welcome proposals submitted by multidisciplinary and multigenerational teams who are positioned to both contribute to the project as well as contribute to the teaching and learning of fellow team members.
Proposals to the Research Grants on Education program must be for academic research projects that aim to study education. Projects proposed may not be longer than 5 years in duration.
Click here to view full funding guidelines on the provider’s website.