For Research Staff - Research journey

NHMRC Investigator Grants

Investigator Grants provide five levels of fellowship and research support to the highest-performing researchers at all career stages.  An Investigator Grant offers a consolidated five-year funding package that includes salary (if required) and a research support package (RSP). The scheme comprises two categories - Emerging Leadership (EL) and Leadership (L).

Investigator Grants support:

• Research across the four pillars of health and medical research: biomedical, clinical, public health and health services research.
• Different career stages – early career researchers, mid-career researchers and established researchers.
• Researchers with clinical responsibilities (such as clinicians, public health and allied health practitioners).
• Full-time and part-time researchers.

The expected outcomes are:

• Flexibility for investigators to pursue important new research directions as they arise and to form collaborations as needed.
• Innovative and creative research.
• Opportunities for researchers at all career stages to establish their own research programs.
• Reduced application and peer review burden on researchers.

Eligibility Criteria

Emerging Leadership (EL)

• The EL Category is restricted to researchers who are ≤10 years post-PhD or equivalent and comprises two salary levels, EL1 and EL2, with corresponding RSPs.

Leadership (L)

• The L Category comprises three salary levels (L1, L2 and L3) and a RSP of $400,000 per annum.

Track Record Benchmarking

‘Benchmarking’ in academia involves the evaluation of a researcher’s, or group of researchers’, performance against other researchers to ascertain one’s standing in that field/s of research, whether it is below, in line, or above the respective average.

At ECU, we provide access to the online research performance assessment tool, Scival, to enable our researchers to benchmark their performance and compare against other researchers in the same or similar field/s or years Post PhD, to identify research trends, to plan research strategies, find potential collaboration partners, and more.

Gaining such valuable insight can help the researcher determine if the quality of their publication track record would be considered competitive for research funding grants and fellowship opportunities and/or strengthen their project collaboration strategies, particularly for Australian Research Council (ARC) and/or National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants. This knowledge may also be helpful for research-based employment opportunities.

The ECU Library Services provides step-by-step guides on using Scival including how to navigate the website, and how to use the benchmarking feature and reporting tools to evaluate performance. Click here to view these guides.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact the Library Services team at researchonline@ecu.edu.au

Key Dates

• 29 April 2024 - Expression of Interest: Submission of fellowship pre-assessment documents
• 19 Jun 2024 - Investigator Scheme Opens
• 26 Jun 2024 - Investigator Information Session
• mid-July 2024 - External review by GrantEd Services for approved applicants
• 17 Jul 2024 - Minimum Data Due
• 1 Aug 2024 - Research Administration Review
• 15 Aug 2024 - Investigator Scheme Closes
• TBC - Anticipated Announcement

Funding Documents - To be updated when scheme opens

• NHMRC Investigator Grant 2024 Guidelines
• NHMRC Investigator Grant 2024 Partner Organisations
• NHMRC Investigator Grant 2024 Key Characteristics of Investigator Grant Applications
• NHMRC Investigator Grant 2024 Peer Review Guidelines
• NHMRC Investigator Grant 2024 FAQs

Resources and Templates - To be updated when scheme opens

Resources

• Tip sheet - Preparing an Investigator 2024 application
• How to Assess Your Fellowship Readiness
• Information sheet - Research Impact
• NHMRC Eligibility Tool
• NHMRC Eligibility for Investigator, Synergy, and Ideas grants 2022 Funding Round
• NHMRC Peer Review videos (mentor video and reviewer briefing video)
• NHMRC 2024 PSP rates for funding commencing 2025
• NHMRC Direct Research Cost Guidelines
• NHMRC 2023 Investigator Grant Outcomes Factsheet
• NHMRC Summary of Results

Templates and Examples

• Grant Proposal Template

Information Session

An NHMRC Investigator Information Session is planned for 26th June 2024.

This session will provide current and future applicants with information on the Investigator grant scheme and tips and tricks to aid in preparing and strengthening an application. There will be opportunities to hear from guest speakers and ask your burning questions.

Please register at this link