The Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) supports excellence which will enhance the University’s research reputation.  The UWA Near-Miss Central scheme provides funding to applicants whose grant application was ranked highly in the annual Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects or National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grants assessment process, but was not funded.   The funds are intended to support researchers to undertake a scaled down version of the research proposal or carry out preliminary research to further develop the research project, which will then lead to the submission of an improved application in a future ARC Discovery or NHMRC Project round.

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Eligibility

The following eligibility requirements must apply:

• The ARC Discovery and/or the NHMRC Project grant must have been rated in the top 10% nationally of those unfunded.
• The grant application must have been submitted through UWA with UWA as the administering organisation.
• The first-named Chief Investigator on the unsuccessful ARC/NHMRC Project grant must hold a UWA position or Adjunct position and not be an employee of another university. UWA adjunct appointees at Medical Research Institutes are eligible on the proviso there is a signed current affiliation agreement between UWA and the institute.
• The application must have gone through internal peer review and must have been submitted to Research Grants by the internal deadline. Internal deadlines will be specific for each scheme and will be included in the internal guidelines.
• The same project must not be funded from an alternative funding source e.g., projects which are submitted to the NHMRC and subsequently funded by a Cancer Council.

Level of Funding

An amount of $20,000 or 50% of the originally requested first-year budget, whichever is the lesser will be awarded to the first named Chief Investigator on the unsuccessful ARC/NHMRC application.

Conditions of Award

• Funds can only be used to support allowable expenses under the corresponding ARC or NHMRC Funding Rules and must be consistent with ARC/NHMRC allowable costs.
• Unspent funds will be recouped after 12 months.   Funding cannot be carried forward into a subsequent year.
  
• The Chief Investigator must submit a new application for a grant listed on the Australian Competitive Grants Register (ACGR) within 15 months or will not be eligible for any subsequent UWA Near-Miss Central award.
• No Chief Investigator can hold a UWA Near-Miss Central award two years in a row for the same project.
• It will be possible for a Chief Investigator to hold more than one UWA Near-Miss Central award concurrently for separate projects.