2019 ACEN Research Grants

2019 ACEN Research Grants

In 2019 ACEN is offering funding for three Work Integrated Learning (WIL) research grants up to $10,000 each and two grants of $5,000 for Early Career Researchers.*

*To be eligible for an Early Career Researcher (ECR) grant the project must be led by an ECR. An ECR is an emerging researcher who is at an early stage of their academic career. Researchers may be eligible to apply if they have been awarded a PhD within 8 years. The grants are open to both academic and professional staff.

Applications are invited on topics related to one of the following themes identified through National WIL Strategy and the 2018 ACEN National Research Symposium.
• Innovative and scalable WIL models
• WIL and global mobility
• Leadership in WIL
• Digital technology enabling WIL
• Building learner agency and professional identity through WIL
• WIL practices supporting diverse learners

Scheme Objectives

The grants are intended to:
• build the capacity of ACEN members including early career researchers and higher degree research students to undertake research into WIL
• promote and support scholarship in WIL
• develop effective mechanisms for identifying, developing, disseminating and embedding research-based practice in WIL programs
• leverage opportunities for collaboration in WIL research and the sharing of WIL resources.

Funding and Reporting Requirements

These research grants are valued at a maximum of $10,000 plus GST for each full Research Grant and $5,000 plus GST for ECR grants. The projects should be completed within a twelve-month period. Funding will be paid at the commencement of the project on provision of an invoice from the institution. Any unspent funds must be returned to ACEN at the end of the project.
At the conclusion of the project successful applicants will be required to complete a project report which will be published to the ACEN website and to submit a statutory declaration detailing how funds were spent.
• The grants are available to professional or academic staff of institutions with ACEN Full Institutional Membership.
• The grants are not available to members of the ACEN Board.
• Applications that include industry or community organization partners are encouraged.

Application Requirements

The application must be provided as a Word document and not exceed five pages and may be addressed to the ‘ACEN Research Chair’.
Areas that must be addressed in the application are:

Whether you are applying for a full Research Grant of $10,000 or an Early Career Researchers Grant of $5,000
Title of Project
Identification of the relevant theme to the project (see above)
Brief description of project for communication to WIL Community (around 50 words)
Project Lead/s contact details and short relevant bio (100 words max). Note applications for ECR research grants must be led by an ECR.
Names of other people, institutions and organisations (if applicable) involved in the project
How the project is consistent with vision, mission and aims of ACEN and how it will build on existing research and scholarship in work integrated learning
Aims of the project
Expected Outcomes
Research methodology
Impact of the project and significance to higher education (for example: expected impact on stakeholders, future practice and policy)
Dissemination plan
Overview of project phases and timeline
Project budget
If projects involve creating a website, the project must make clear how the website is to be maintained for up to five years.

Examples of allowable budget expenses include personnel plus on-costs (clerical support, student assistance, etc.), postage, printing, photocopying, travel for conference presentation, telephone and fax costs, and office supplies. Items must be directly related to achieving the research project.

Examples of non-allowable budget expenses include salary for the applicant, indirect institutional expenses, institutional overheads, permanent equipment and capital purchases.

A letter of endorsement from the first named project lead’s line manager must accompany the application. This endorsement indicates support for the project and a willingness to provide time for the project to be undertaken. The letter of endorsement should be attached to the same email as the application.

It is the responsibility of the Project Lead to:
• arrange ethics approval
• involve other ACEN members in the process, especially early career researchers, where possible
• meet negotiated timelines and ACEN reporting deadlines
• present on findings at an ACEN event including webinars
• leverage dissemination opportunities to share good practice including a refereed publication
• ensure that any resources developed through the project are designed with a view that these are made available for use by the ACEN community and where appropriate a Creative Commons License such as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International is applied to these resources
• any publications and resources developed through the project should acknowledge the contribution of ACEN to the project
• provide details of the refereed publication (when available) to ACEN National Board for dissemination.

Selection Process

The project proposals will be assessed using the following criteria:
• significance to one or more of the research grant themes
• quality of the design
• potential impact and transferability of project outcomes
• capacity of the project to deliver proposed outcomes
• involvement of early career researchers (this will be viewed favourably for projects applying for full research grants)