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Home » Career Development Awards

Career Development Awards

Applications for Career Development Awards (CDA) to commence in 2011 are now open. To ensure you are eligible, refer to the Funding Policy below.

NHMRC wishes to advise RAOs and applicants that the closing date for applications for Career Development Awards (CDAs) has been extended as follows:

Old closing date/time: Wednesday 31 March 2010, Midnight  AEST
New closing date/time: Monday 12 April 2010, 5 pm AEST

This extension has been granted to assist RAOs and researchers in this first year of the new NHMRC Research Grants Management System (RGMS) to complete their internal administrative processes.

This scheme aims to further develop Australian health and medical researchers early in their career. It will enable investigators to establish themselves as independent, self-directed researchers; expand capacity for biomedical, clinical, public health and health service delivery research, and for evidence-based policy development in Australian health systems; and encourage the translation of research outcomes into practice.

A Guide for researchers applying for Career Development Awards

Applications for appointment as CDA Fellows are considered by a series of peer review panels, whose task is to consider and rank the applicants. In doing so, they take into account all the material submitted by applicants (see CDA selection criteria and scoring matrix in Appendix 3 of the CDA Funding Policy).

In 2010, it is anticipated that around 54 CDA Fellows will be appointed¹. NHMRC has been concerned about the rapid growth in the number of applications in recent years, rising from 136 in (2002) to 434 in 2009, the majority of which are not competitive against the top applicants.

To help researchers contemplating applying for CDA Fellowships, NHMRC provides below information on a “typical” successful applicant, to guide researchers who are deciding whether to apply. These were derived from information provided on the successful application forms received by NHMRC in 2009. These “typical characteristics” must not be regarded as a “bar” above which applications will be successful, because the peer review panels take into account all the selection criteria, and there are marked differences between even the top ranked individuals each year. These are produced as a guide to applicants.

In 2009, successful applicants typically, in the past 5 years, had:

• published 15 or more peer reviewed journal articles, with the peer review panel also taking into account first authorship (usually the majority of articles), and quality of the published work, and one or more review articles or book chapters;
• presented at international meetings at least twice;
• obtained research funding as a first named Chief Investigator in a competitive granting scheme;
• international postdoctoral experience;
• led their own (small) research group.

Please note that this is a guide only and there are many variations to this profile, depending on individual achievements.

Apply for Funding

There are two levels of CDAs to apply for:

• CDA Level 1 (2 to up to 7 years post-doctoral experience);
• CDA Level 2 (7 to less than 12 years post-doctoral experience)

Note: to apply for a CDA Level 1 you must have between 2 and up to 7 years post-doctoral experience. For a CDA Level 2 you must have between 7 years and less than 12 years post-doctoral experience.

Key dates

The key dates for the 2010 funding round for CDAs are:

• 13 January 2010 – Applications open
• 12 April 2010 – Applications close

How to Apply for a Career Development Award

1. Review the 2010 CDA Funding Policy, in particular the eligibility requirements;
   » Download: CDA Funding Policy (PDF, 142kb)
   » Download: CDA Funding Policy (Word, 239kb)
2. Applications for funding to commence in 2011 will be submitted using NHMRC’s Research Grants Management System (RGMS).

   » RGMS Guide to Applicants for CDA's (Word, 692KB)

   » RGMS Guide to Applicants for CDA's (PDF, 490KB)

   Additional documentation relating to CDAs including referee report forms is located in the RGMS Knowledge Store.

   » View further information regarding RGMS.

3. Partnership Career Development Awards

   The following document details current NHMRC Career Development Award funding partners:

   » Download NHMRC CDA Funding Partners Document (Word, 71KB)

   » Download NHMRC CDA Funding Partners Document (Word, 40KB)

4. CDA Referee Report form. Please ensure that you submit a report from each referee with your application through RGMS.

   » Download CDA Referee report form (Word, 53KB)

5. Any queries please email career.development@nhmrc.gov.au

¹It should be noted that NHMRC supports around 4,200 researchers on Project and Program Grants.

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