Home > NHMRC > Eligibility for New Investigator Project Grants

Eligibility for New Investigator Project Grants

Applications requesting funding as a New Investigator must be justified. All Chief Investigators on an application for New Investigator funding must meet the following criteria:

Those eligible to apply for a New Investigator Grant include (but are not restricted to) holders of salary-only awards, such as a NHMRC Career Development Award or Training Award, or equivalent awards from other organisations that do not contain more than a total of $60,000 in research support, and those returning to the workforce or returning from overseas, who:

• are not named as a Chief Investigator on a previously supported NHMRC Project Grant or Program Grant; and

• have not received a competitive research grants totaling greater than $60,000 from the NHMRC or another source as a Chief Investigator or equivalent (excluding funding from the institution at which the researcher is previously or currently employed).

For example:
Eligible: You hold an NHMRC Training Award or Career Development Award, but you have not been a CI on an NHMRC Project or Program Grant.

Eligible: You meet the above criteria and you have received research funding (of any amount) from your institution, where applications are only open to researchers at the institution.

Eligible: You meet the above criteria and you have received research funding from an organisation, such as the Australian Research Council or the Heart Foundation, through a competitive process and the total funds of the grant received did not exceed $60,000.

Eligible: You meet the above criteria and you have received Fellowship or Training Award funding from an organisation, such as the Australian Research Council or the Heart Foundation, through a competitive process and and the total budget for research support was less than $60,000 (the salary component of the Fellowship award may exceed $60,000, however, if the research support allocation is greater than $60,000 you are ineligible as a New Investigator).

Ineligible: You have been a Chief Investigator on a previously funded NHMRC Project Grant.

Ineligible: You have received research funding from an organisation, such as the Australian Research Council, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Wellcome Trust or the Heart Foundation, through a competitive process and the total funds of the grant received exceeded $60,000 (except for Fellowship only support).

Ineligible: You have received competitive research grants from NHMRC or other organisations, and the combined total of the grants received exceeds $60,000. For example, a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for $30,000 and a grant from the Heart Foundation for $40,000; a combined total of $70,000 in competitive grant funding.

Please note that there is no restriction to the number of New Investigator Project Grants you may submit (numbers of Project Grants you may hold / apply for may not exceed six). You can apply for a New Investigator Project Grant and a Standard Project Grant in the same funding round. If both are successful, you may hold both.