Eligibility

Overview

NHMRC’s eligibility framework helps to ensure fair and equitable access to, and distribution of, a large proportion of Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA) grant funding. It reduces applicant and peer reviewer burden by limiting application numbers and it helps NHMRC to achieve its goals and objectives through its grant program.

A key element of NHMRC’s eligibility framework is the cross-cutting eligibility policy for its 2 largest funding schemes, the Investigator and Ideas Grant schemes.

Eligibility to apply for, and hold, an Investigator and/or Ideas Grant is based on the number of other Investigator and/or Ideas Grants the Chief Investigator (CI) currently holds or has applied for, as well as scheme-specific capping.

CIs can apply for up to 2 grants from the Investigator and Ideas Grant schemes per funding round. CIs are not allowed to apply for more grants (in the same funding round) than they would be eligible to hold (for example, if the CI holds 1x Ideas Grant, they cannot apply for 2x Ideas Grants, in the same funding round). Where a CI is offered an Investigator or Ideas Grant to the maximum that they are eligible to hold, any current Investigator or Ideas Grant applications will be made ineligible and removed from further consideration (note: Ideas Grant applications not seeking NHMRC funding are not relevant to NHMRC application or grant capping).

An Investigator Grant Chief Investigator A (CIA) cannot apply for an Ideas Grant until the final year of their Investigator Grant, using the ‘original’ grant end date.

Each scheme also has scheme-specific capping rules. CIs can submit up to one (1) Investigator Grant application per funding round, and up to 2 Ideas Grant applications per funding round. Investigator Grant CIs can hold up to 1 Investigator Grant concurrently, but are allowed to apply for a subsequent Investigator Grant once their existing grant is in its final year on 1 January of the year that the new Investigator Grant is scheduled to commence. If successful, the new Investigator Grant cannot commence until the existing Investigator Grant has been completed. In this way, an Investigator Grant CI is never considered to be holding 2 Investigator Grants, for the purposes of eligibility.

Applicants must refer to all documentation made available under the relevant grant opportunity on GrantConnect when considering their eligibility to apply. Documentation on GrantConnect is the authoritative source for information on each grant opportunity. 

The CIA and Administering Institution are responsible for ensuring applications meet all eligibility requirements when applying, and throughout the life of the grant (if successful).  

Grant offers may be withdrawn and action may be taken over the life of a grant if at any time eligibility criteria are not met. 

Note: NHMRC staff will not make eligibility rulings before an application is submitted.  

Resources

Eligibility Tool

Eligibility FAQs