Typically the APSF provides project grants up to A$15,000 per year for up to three years. Grants are awarded to institutions within Australia or other countries of the South West Pacific region for activities within those countries or within the region.

Grants are made in annual instalments, and payments are dependent upon the receipt of satisfactory, annual reports and financial statements. An additional progress report is required six months after the start of the project. Salaries of technicians and research assistants may be supported, but normally grants do not cover the salaries of scientific research staff or stipends of students. Administrative overheads are not funded.

Application forms may be downloaded here.(Microsoft Word document) or here (Adobe Acrobat document). This form was modified in early 2008. Please do not use earlier versions of this form.

The next round of applications closes on Friday 13 March 2009 at 5.00 pm, for new grants beginning on or after 1 July 2009.

Selection Criteria

When assessing applications, the Research Committee considers the following criteria:

PRE-REQUISITES

Conformity with the Foundation's guidelines as presented on this web site (see above), including that the project will be undertaken within Australia or other countries of the South West Pacific region under the umbrella of a university or other appropriate institution within those countries; that funding will be limited to no more than three years and A$15,000 annually, and that salaries for research scientists and stipends for students are available from other sources.

The project forms an identifiable element of work that would not be undertaken without the support of the Foundation. It may be a discrete significant sub-project of a larger investigation. (Projects that may be seminal to subsequent larger grants from other sources are attractive to the Foundation.)

The project is in the biological or biophysical sciences or has application in those areas, as exemplified in projects described on this web site, and is not medical research.

The components of the project budget for which funds are sought from the Foundation must be justified — both travel and equipment for which funding is sought must be essential for this project.

ASSESSMENT

Competition for new grants continues to increase. This is reflected in the continually improving quality of applications and in the number of applications received. In 2008 less than 20% of applications could be funded, even though many more were worthy of support. The efforts made by applicants are greatly appreciated and the Foundation is acutely aware of the time taken in the preparation of applications. Therefore, in order to minimize time lost in preparing applications that are not likely to be successful in an extremely competitive research environment prospective applicants are reminded of the criteria to which the Research Committee gives priority:

• The scientific merit of the application and its likelihood of cost-effective delivery against the stated objectives and outcomes remain paramount.
• Scientific merit is judged by peer review of the quality of the background information, the logic of the proposal and the experimental design. Applications may be improved in these respects if they have been critiqued by professional colleagues prior to submission.
• The likelihood of a successful outcome is assessed against the relevance of the application, the quality of science on which it is based and the qualifications and track-record of the principle investigator(s).
• The need to encourage capacity building is also acknowledged.
• In assessing track-record the Research Committee gives full recognition to applicants who may be comparatively new to research but who have relatively impressive performances in publishing in quality journals and/or who have demonstrably superior applied outputs and outcomes for the time they have been researchers.
• In the current competitive environment highly productive young post-doctoral researchers are more likely to be competitive that students with limited publications or other demonstrated successes.
• For the APSF capacity building in developing countries within the Pacific region is a particular priority which may necessitate greater weight being given to the input of students.