Graduate Research and Scholarships Office
Grants, fellowships or travel grants awarded to postgraduate students are administered through the Research Grants Office.
The academic requirements of postgraduates, however, are administered by the Graduate Research School and Scholarships Office.
Now that you've gained a grant, there are some tasks you need to undertake.
Please note, that if you have been contacted directly by the funding body, the Research Grants Office should be notified of your success (acceptance of offer).
- Acceptance of offer
- Lodgement of acceptances
- Who signs the funding body acceptance of offer form
- Ethics and biosafety clearances
- Intellectual property, publications and confidentiality
Acceptance of offer
Although an offer will normally refer to a Chief Investigator and a specific project, the research is undertaken in the name of UWA, and UWA assumes legal responsibility. When a proposal becomes successful an offer is made to the University and the University is often required to enter into a formal agreement with the funding agency.
Students and staff, including Heads of School, do not have authority to accept research grants or postdoctoral fellowships, or to accept conditions of award on behalf of the University. In many cases, funding agencies require Chief Investigators and Heads of School to sign the funding agency's acceptance of offer form, but those signatures alone do not constitute a formal acceptance of responsibility by the University.
The funding agency's offer form and any agreement or contract must be sent to the Research Grants Office in all cases, together with a UWA Acceptance of Offer form.
Having read the conditions of the award, the researcher should now complete and sign the UWA Acceptance of Offer form:
The signed form provides the Research Grants Office with confirmation of the following:
- the Chief Investigator/Head of School's commitment to adhere to the conditions of the award
- the agreement to the apportionment between two or more schools where there is collaboration, so that the proportions are taken into account when the research component of the University's budget allocation to faculties is calculated
- details for entry into the research grants management database
When completing the UWA acceptance of offer form, Chief Investigators are required to state whether all clearances for matters such as animal welfare, human ethics and biosafety issues, etc have been obtained. Funds will not be released until relevant ethics approvals have been obtained.
Lodgement of acceptances
Receipt of the completed, signed acceptance of offer form in the Research Grants Office indicates that the researcher has read and accepts the conditions of award. The form should be forwarded to the Research Grants Office in a timely fashion along with any accompanying documentation, which could include:
- ethics clearances
- notification from the funding body of award
- contract
- correspondence
- conditions of award
- funding body acceptance of offer.
Researchers are advised to retain a copy of the conditions of award as well as a copy of the Acceptance of Offer form.
Details of the award will be sent to the Public Affairs for future publication in UWA News if the researcher has agreed to this on the Acceptance of Offer form.
Who signs the funding body acceptance of offer form
It is imperative that all researchers read any conditions of award regarding the grant.
The Research Grants Office organises the signing of all agreements between funding bodies and the University.
Researchers, Heads of Schools, Deans and the like are not permitted to sign contracts or agreements on behalf of UWA. Researchers should never enter or sign an agreement or contractual obligation without consulting the Research Grants Office.
In some cases, intellectual property rights, legal liabilities or financial arrangements may need to be negotiated; this should be done by the Research Grants Office in consultation with the researcher.
Ethics and biosafety clearances
You will need to complete this application form:
Approval Form for Experiments Involving the Use of scheduled Carcinogens/Mutagens/Teratogens [A Word document, 436KB provided from the UWA Safety website].
It is the applicant's responsibility to obtain approvals from the relevant committees before the research work starts, and for providing a copy direct to the funding agency in cases where the agency requires written evidence of approval. The copy should be provided either as part of the application material, or as otherwise specified by the funding agency.
Where written evidence of clearance is required by a funding agency that is not available at the time of application, the Chief Investigator is responsible for sending a copy to the Research Grants Office when it becomes available (unless other arrangements have been made with the relevant Executive Officer of the Committee). The Research Grants Office will then pass on the ethics clearance to the funding agency.
If this occurs after a grant offer has been accepted subject to that approval being obtained, access to the research account can only be granted once the Research Grants Office has been notified.
Full details on granting clearance of projects involving use of carcinogens, mutagens and teratogens for NHMRC and ARC research project grants is available on the UWA Safety website.
Intellectual property, publications and confidentiality
An increasing proportion of research grants are linked to complex research agreements that place obligations on the University in relation to intellectual property, publications and confidentiality. Some funding agencies also require the University to enter further agreements with other parties where research is collaborative or if it will be subcontracted.
The University's Legal Services office is available to provide advice on research agreements and contracts. Staff and students should only sign confidentiality agreements that have been sanctioned by the Intellectual Property and Contracts Officer.
Important notice concerning Funded Research Contracts and intellectual property.
University information
CRICOS Code: 00126G
