Research Grants Forms and Guidelines

Research Grants Office

Research Grants Forms

ARC Discovery Projects: Multi-Institutional Agreement [PDF] [RTF]

ARC LIEF: Multi-Organisational Agreement [PDF] [RTF]

Research Project Costing Spreadsheet (Excel)

Notification of Non-UWA administered Research Grant Applications (webform)

Research Grants Guidelines

The following information has been compiled to assist in the preparation of proposals for research grants and fellowships administered through the Research Grants Office. It contains, for example, information on costing salaries, number of copies, infrastructure, internal forms, and preliminary proposals. It should be noted that all applications for research funding, including those to be submitted online, should be submitted through the Research Grants Office (together with a Application Cover Sheet 'Gold Form') at least ten days prior to the funding agency's closing date. Applications received after the internal due date will be processed administratively, but late applicants may not benefit from the same level of feedback as applicants who submit their applications on time.

Staff of the Research Grants Office are available to advise and assist with the preparation of proposals and may be contacted by telephone or e-mail.

Researchers seeking feedback from other UWA staff members who have had experience with writing and reviewing applications may want to consult the Researcher Assistance Program page.

General Internal Guidelines

Salaries:

UWA employees (including UWA Faculty, Adjunct Faculty or Staff) submitting grants with salary components must use UWA Salary Scales. In cases where non UWA salary scales and/or costs are required by the funding body, please contact the Research Grants Office for advice. General salary scales, academic salary scales, casual rates and Common Classification Levels for Research Grant Funded Staff (maintained by Human Resources) are available. These salaries are current values and are exclusive of on-costs (i.e. workers' compensation, superannuation, payroll tax, etc). Likely increases and on-costs need to be taken into account when preparing budgets.

A project costing template is available to assist in the calculation of all project costs, including salaries and on-costs plus likely increases. The template is available here: Excel Template.

Funding of long service leave entitlements, in most cases, will be covered by the 3% levy included as part of the on-costs (not applicable for 2005). However, some funding bodies, such as GRDC, will not fund any long service leave unless full details of the leave are disclosed in the application and the leave is taken during the grant period. The guidelines and conditions of each funding body should be considered carefully and any questions should be referred to the Research Grants Office.

Infrastructure costs:

Infrastructure costs are not to be included if a grant is a Australian Competitive Grant. In general, infrastructure charges are not levied upon competitive grants, and therefore such costs need not to be included in the calculation of expenses. Similarly, such costs are not levied upon grants from charitable foundations. Infrastructure costs are levied upon contract research and consultancy, and applications for these, in general, must include a budget component for recovery of infrastructure. Please consult Recovery of University Infrastructure Costs, an appendix of The Art of Writing Successful Grants or contact the Research Grants Office.

The project costing template (Excel Template) should also be used for the calculation of infrastructure costs.

When costing the contribution of the research institution (ie UWA) towards the project, be sure to include the infrastructure cost, as outlined below under the section "Cash/In-kind contributions". This will give an accurate reflection of the actual contribution this institution will make. This is particularly important in research agreements where ownership of Intellectual Property is determined in line with the contribution of the parties.

Cash/In-kind contributions:

In cases where the funding agency requires the University to contribute to the budget the University's contribution should include:

• any direct cash contributions being provided by the University plus

• the "in-kind" cost of any UWA teaching and research staff member's time (including salary on-costs) plus the infrastructure charge (see below) calculated from that amount. Infrastructure includes the total institutional costs such as technical and administrative support, use of existing facilities and equipment (including laboratory and office space), and other indirect research infrastructure and support services (e.g. library computer services, telecommunications, building maintenance, cleaning, etc).

Applicants are requested to identify the relevant type of research activity from the list below, and use the corresponding percentage to calculate the infrastructure charge:

Budget justification:

Please ensure that the reasons for each budget item are fully explained in the budget justification and that there is a clear link between the research plan and the budget. Budget items should be given a priority ranking indicating their importance with respect to the successful completion of the project.

Animal costs:

Include the cost of purchasing and maintaining animals, where applicable.

Use of animals/humans/ionising radiation/genetic manipulation/potent teratogens or carcinogens, etc:

It is the applicant's responsibility to obtain approvals from the relevant committees prior to the commencement of the research, 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.

Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility:

The AMMRF has compiled an information sheet containing budgeting advice on microscopy & microanalysis research costs to be included into ARC and NHMRC applications. Please download the 2 page information sheet here [PDF].

Occupational health and safety costs:

Include the cost of satisfying occupational health and safety requirements if these are additional costs directly related to the project.

Relocation and Appointment expenses:

Up to $7,000 for applicants from overseas; around $3,000 for applicants from within Australia, but the allowance is based on the number of dependants, etc. Please refer to the UWA Human Resources "Relocation Expenses" page. Advertising costs can also be very expensive and should be included in the budget. Please check with Human Resources if in doubt about the potential cost.

Overseas Per Diem and Accommodation Rates

For overseas per diem amounts please make use of this Australian Taxation Office web page. For accommodation rates please use reasonable amounts. These can be obtained from accommodation providers' web sites.

Parental Leave and Return to Work Bonus

Where it is essential that staff be replaced during periods of parental leave, and where it is permitted by the funding agency, the costs should be built into the budget. Where this is not possible, such as in instances where the funding agency refuses to pay such leave, the costs should be met at the faculty level.

The return to work bonus associated with parental leave must not be paid out of research grant funds. Instead, the costs should be met by the relevant central fund and at the faculty level.

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

In preparing research grant,contract and consultancies budgets, researchers should be aware that GST affects research budgets on two levels; namely line items within the budget and on the total.

Line Items
When costing the research budget, items should be quoted at a GST exclusive price. For example, if a piece of equipment costs $1,000 plus $100 for GST, quote $1,000 in the budget - $100 will be paid from a central "GST account" held by Financial Services. Please note that there is no GST on salaries or on international travel.

Totals
The second level at which GST effects the research budget is that the total budget requested is the cost of the research (ie the cost of providing the service), therefore an additional 10% should be added on top of the total needed to do the work.

If an infrastructure charge is levied on a budget, then this is included in the total and the 10% then added for GST, as the infrastructure is part of the cost of the providing the service.

Sample:

Exceptions

In the case where the funding is deemed to be an appropriation from one government entity to another there is no GST added to the total. Advice from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) suggests that is the case with the NHMRC. Similarly, grants which are appropriations to universities under the Higher Education Funding Act (HEFA), such as ARC funding, attract no GST.

Other government departments agencies, notably the "rural industries" - including GRDC, RIRDC, HRDC and DRDC have the formed the opinion that they will be liable to pay GST on research grants to universities and GST should be added.

This is currently the best advice available, as rulings are still being sought on these and other areas and remain unclear--for example, GST on in-kind contributions is not yet clarified by the ATO.

Researchers should be aware that regardless of whether or not the funding body pays an "extra" amount to cover GST, one-eleventh of all payments made to UWA in respect of research grants for services provided after 1 July 2000 must be sent to the ATO. Please note that this does not apply to contracts signed prior to 8 July 1999.

If you have any questions about this or GST in general please contact our tax officer, Erin Waller on extension 7293 - email erin.waller@uwa.edu.au.

Cost of Auditing of financial statements:

In the case where the funding body requires a financial statement to be audited by persons external to the University, the costs of this audit should be included in the request.

Other materials:

If the project is likely to require the purchase of library research materials for the University Library collection, please include the cost as an operating expense and include it in the budget justification.

If the project requires published reports, please include printing and related expenses

Administrative contact:

Research Grants Office
The University of Western Australia
CRAWLEY, WA 6009
Tel: (09) 6488 1627 Fax: (09) 6488 1075
E-mail: iheystek@admin.uwa.edu.au

Number of copies:

Please forward along the number of copies as stated in the guidelines to applicants PLUS an additional file copy attached to the 'Gold Form'. The coversheet has a special "Checklist" to aid researchers in completing the application.

Closing date:

Submissions are generally due internally ten days prior to external close dates. However, in the instance of applications bound for eastern states, extra time may be required to insure prompt delivery.

Applications received after the internal due date will be processed administratively, but late applicants may not benefit from the same level of feedback as applicants who submit their applications on time.

More detailed information is available in The Art of Writing Successful Grants.

Preliminary Proposals:

It is important to note all requirements of the preliminary proposals in the funding bodies' guidelines. Some important considerations/inclusions are (but not limited to):

• appropriate costings in budget (use of UWA salaries & costs, etc)

• contact, employment details

• references to work of investigators

• work plan/timeframe

• summary details

• page limits

Preliminary proposals, like grant applications, must be submitted via the Research Grants Office. All copies should be forwarded along with an additional copy (Office copy) and the 'Gold Form'.

Fields of Research (FOR) and Socio Economic Objective (SEO) Codes

Fields of Research (FOR) and Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) Codes must be recorded on the 'Gold Form' and Acceptance of Offer (Green Form). These codes are required for internal and Commonwealth reporting purposes.

FOR Codes

The FOR classification is arranged in a hierarchical structure:

divisions
disciplines
subjects

The "subject" codes are required for reporting to the Commonwealth. A number not ending in "00"

SEO Codes

The SEO classification is arranged in a hierarchical structure.

divisions
subdivisions
groups
classes

The "classes" codes are required for reporting to the Commonwealth. A number not ending in "00"

The following relevant information is also available electronically (internal forms need not be printed on colour of paper indicated):

• Application Cover Sheet (Gold Form)
• Acceptance of Offer (Green Form)
• Fields of Research (FOR)
• Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
• Institution Codes

Lodgement of Applications

Unless otherwise indicated, all applications must be lodged at the Research Grants Office--Room 1.46 Administration Building (see map--northwest wing). Grants are due on the internal close date by 5.00 pm unless indicated. The internal close date allows for checking of the application as well as administrative processing. The processing of certain types of applications, such as ARC and NHMRC (among others) requires additional electronic processing, so printed internal close dates must be strictly adhered to. Grant applications received late will not benefit from the same level of feedback.

When will I know?

The process which grants undergo after they leave the Research Grants Office varies from funding body to funding body. In some cases, the guidelines give an indication of when researchers can expect to know the outcome of the funding round. The process can take from two months to twelve months. In cases of preliminary proposals, the researcher may be required to complete an additional application. Some grants involve interviewing of applicants, or even site visits. Results of the ARC and NHMRC are usually available by November. Frequently researchers will get letters directly from the funding body or perhaps from the Research Grants Office letting them know that they have been successful or unsuccessful. In some instances, no feedback is given regarding the application.