Funding for a delivery partner to award university scholarships to women

So the Boosting the Next Generation of Women in STEM program. It was announced in the most recent budget as part of the Women's Budget Statement. It provides $42 million over seven years to support women to pursue higher level university STEM qualifications, and it builds on a suite of actions and investments aimed at encouraging gender equity in STEM education and careers.

In terms of the broader policy context, there's been a range of measures in place for some years focussed on advancing Women in STEM. In 2019 the government released the Advancing Women in STEM Strategy. That was followed in 2020 with an Action Plan, and the first edition of the STEM Equity Monitor. And the second edition of that STEM Equity Monitor was released earlier this year.

Also in 2020 the Government through the Budget announced the Women's Economic Security Statement. And of course in this Budget there was the Women's Budget Statement 2021 of which the Boosting the Next Generation of Women in STEM program was included.

In terms of the objectives of the program. The program is intended to increase participation of women in STEM tertiary education including for retraining, seeking higher qualifications or undertaking study after a career or study break. To support women to build the cross-cutting and multi-disciplinary skill sets sought by industry. To foster the next wave of mentors and role models and support re-entry into the workforce

It's also intended to stimulate an increase in the number of women in senior leadership and decision making positions in government, research organizations, industry, and businesses.

In terms of the timeline, and I'm sure many of you are aware we currently have our process open for applications for the design and delivery partner. The closing date for that opportunity is the 7th of October of this year. Following the closure of that process the department will assess the applications, we'll seek approval of the outcomes of the selection process. As you would expect we will then move into negotiation of grant agreement and announcement of the successful applicant. And before the end of the year we'll look to commence the co-design process. Early in 2022 we'll finalize that co-design process and will seek to begin the enrolment of universities and industry participants. Scholarships are then due to commence in Q3 of 2022.

So broadly the department has three steps in the near term. Step one is to find the delivery partner.

So what are we looking for in that partner? Experience and or access to expertise that bring together industry and universities to achieve a common goal or common goals. Experience or access to expertise in delivering programs of a similar nature. Experience or expertise in managing a project of this size including managing a large budget. And any other valuable or relevant experience that will benefit the design and delivery of this program

Who is eligible to apply? This information is included in the guidelines which are available online and I would encourage everyone to read those guidelines comprehensively, but here are the main criteria to be eligible to apply. I won't run through them all but I'll just give you a moment to read through them.

One question we have been asked is if we can submit joint, sorry if you can submit a joint application. Absolutely consortia arrangements are very welcome, noting that we will seek to enter into a single grant agreement. The lead organization must be an eligible entity as per the criteria on the previous slide and will be responsible for meeting the milestones set out in the grant agreement. There are further details on joint applications in the guidelines I believe on page 10, so if anyone listening in is interested in applying as a part of a consortia, I strongly encourage you to read that part of the guidelines.

So an obvious next question who is who is not eligible to apply? Again I'll refer you to the guidelines and encourage you all to read those in full, but I did want to take a moment just to note that we did make a minor change to the guidelines recently. There were some inconsistencies between eligible and ineligible entities and so we've just clarified that.

So in terms of the assessment criteria for this grant opportunity, the first is alignment with policy intent. We're asking that your application demonstrate this by identifying the extent to which your organization has relevant experience, skills and knowledge in the STEM research or industry sectors to manage the project. We're also asking for a detailed plan to manage the co-design process including a plan for stakeholder engagement, timeline and other work, with an implementation plan for the scholarship scheme to be delivered prior to the 30th of April 2022.

The second assessment criteria; capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project. Again your application should demonstrate this by identifying your track record and experience in managing projects of a similar nature or scale, including gender specific programs, and your plans specific to this project to utilize and manage personnel with the right skills and experience, including strong governance management financial and technical expertise. Your plan to manage and deliver this project should include service arrangements and governance, implementation methodology, time frames, delivery risks, and budget. And your access or future access to any required infrastructure, capital equipment, technology, commercial agreements, intellectual property, specialist skills or expertise and regulatory or other approvals should also be included.

And the third assessment criteria, financial capability and governance. Your application should demonstrate this through identifying a detailed project budget that identifies the costs of the co-design process and estimated costs of the scholarship program, including costs of promotional activities, the development of content, travel and financial audits. Your budget should demonstrate that costs are commensurate with the level of service to be provided. Your application should also include or outline your ability to fund the running costs of your organization external to the project, and any project costs that are not covered by the grant. And finally how your organisation, and your partner organisation should you look to submit a joint application, meet appropriate governance standards.

So step two of those three steps that I've spoken about is the co-design process. So the successful applicant will work closely with the department to design the program in consultation with stakeholders including industry and universities will of course be key to this. Some questions that we may look to answer include; what characteristics of a scholarship program would meet the needs of participants? What skills are needed in industry? What sectors should be a focus? How can networking and career development opportunities be leveraged, and what cohorts should be targeted?

In the third step of this process is program delivery. So early delivery milestones in the grant will be focused on the co-design process and the implementation plan ss you might imagine. Final details of the program will be informed in large by the co-design process, and this of course is to ensure that the program will meet the needs of those who will use it. As I mentioned earlier the expectation is that scholarships will start to be delivered from Q3 2022.

So I appreciate that there may be some universities on the line today, and you may have questions what if you're a university? So as per the guidelines, universities are not eligible to apply on their own but can be members of a joint application where the lead applicant is eligible. Of course the views of universities will be incredibly important during the co-design phase. We want the program to meet your needs and those of your students. All universities will have the opportunity to participate in the program when it is implemented.

What if you are a business? As a business you are an eligible organization for this grant program, and we encourage you strongly to consider applying. We also want to hear from you and others during the co-design process. It's incredibly important that this program identifies sectoral needs that will support current and future industry needs.

And of course what if you want to apply for a scholarship? If you are a current or future potential student please stay tuned! As I mentioned earlier the purpose of today's discussion is to look at bringing on board the design and delivery partner for the program. We'll have further detail available about how to access the program in 2022 but of course as with the other slides I've just mentioned, we want to hear from you during the co-design process. So please stay engaged with us as we rush towards the middle of next year.

So as I mentioned, we invited people to submit questions in advance of today's webinar and I thank those people who have sent questions through. We have developed some answers for you and I will run through them now. We do, in looking at the questions, they broadly canvassed three main areas. We had questions about the scholarship funding, we had questions about the co-design process, and we had questions about the policy intent. So we'll run through all of those now.

So we had some questions, are there restrictions on how the scholarship money can be used by recipients or is it untied. And if there is an intent in the program that scholarship funds are to be used to cover course fees for non-HECS courses or that HECS exemptions will apply for the courses undertaken. In short the final details for these questions or for these issues we'll be informed by the co-design process, though we anticipate the scholarships will cover a range of items as outlined on this slide.

We also had a question around is it a mandatory requirement for the scholarships to be co-funded? What flexibility could be accommodated to support streams of scholarship without funding? So again yes there is an expectation that co-funding of scholarships by industry is a required element of the program. However the exact nature and scale of that contribution will be informed by the co-design process.

In terms of questions about the co-design process. Clarification please – the application should include a plan to co-design the program however the exact details of the implementation of the program do not need to be included as these will depend on the co-design process. Very similar the question is the expectation that a concept design approach and action plan be incorporated into the application? So yes that is correct your application should include a plan for co-design, and details of your capability and capacity to implement the program. An implementation plan for the program itself will be an early milestone of the grant agreement and is not required for your application.

We also, as I mentioned, had a range of questions around the policy intent.

These included; is it correct that scholarships are intended to be more like industry PhD where the project is jointly designed by academia industry or industry led? Please provide more information on collaborative industry projects in priority areas. Again as I mentioned earlier it is the broad policy intent that industry will play a role in the design of projects, however how this works in practice will again be informed by the co-design process.

We had a question with respect to the aim to fund women in STEM tertiary education. Is it restricted to PhDs in research or in a specific discipline? Could scholarships include a proportion of STEM graduates who pursue other qualifications? Again these are details that will be informed by the co-design process in order to ensure that the program meets the needs of industry, universities and scholarship recipients. Again I'd note just to circle back to the original three, the intent of the program that I covered earlier in the presentation.

We also had a question it would be good to get some hard numbers to get a sense of market size. Do you the department have data on how many women would be keen to do further study, return to work/research? In short the department doesn't currently have this data. This could be considered as a topic for consultation during the co-design process.

Further question we had was - is there the additional objective of fostering diverse STEM careers or is the early focus entirely on industry academic collaborations? So the program is focused on those collaborations, noting this may lead to diverse, sorry diversified stem career opportunities and options, but it is not the primary focus of the program.

We had a question is 500 a firm number or could there be fewer with a better supported higher quality training experience? Again as per the government announcement this program is to support 500 women over the life of the program.

At what level of experience are scholarships expected to be pitched? This will be informed also by the co-design process, however we anticipate both undergraduate and post postgraduate degrees will be offered to women of all ages, including those who are retraining, seeking higher qualifications or undertaking study. Either for the first time, or to extend and broaden their qualifications after a break from either study or the workforce.

We had a question does this include further study at universities or could students attend the Australian Institute of Company Directors or other leadership type courses? Could they be available to the vet sector? So these scholarships are to support study at universities only however additional professional development could be considered as part of the program, and this again will be informed by the co-design process.

Boosting the next generation means ensuring we have inspiring senior level teachers confident to expose students to applied research that aims to have that aims to have impact. Can this be an element of the initiative? Whilst we certainly don't (dis)agree with that sentiment this is out of scope for this particular program.

We had a very good question about what is envisaged by fostering the next wave of mentors and role models. In essence this means that the program will support women to gain the skills that are needed for STEM industry jobs of the future, giving them the tools to help them succeed in their studies and careers going forward. This will build a pool of women who can then be positive role models and mentors.

We had questions about the expectations and limitations of being considered in res- sorry what expectations and limitations are being considered in respect to target sectors. For example, lead to employment, promotion, certification and reskilling. How would these be rated and ranked and what are the measures of success? They are very good questions and again they'll largely be informed by the co-design process. However as we discussed earlier the intent of the program is it that will lead to an increase representation of women in the STEM workforce and deeper and new connections and collaborations on industry relevant programs.

So what is the focus of getting women into jobs versus qualifications and is there an expectation of an academic qualification at the end of the scholarship? So in response it is expected that through the scholarship the participants obtain an academic qualification and that the experience and connections provided through industry involvement provide increased opportunities for employment.

So I am advised by my team, so sorry let me step back a second. They were all the questions that were submitted prior to today, so I hope that they were helpful for everyone listening in. I am advised by my team that there have been some additional questions in a chat. My apologies I can't actually see those just because of the technology restraints that we're working with, and I'm just - my apologies guys. I understand that some of them may have been answered during the course of the presentation. We have had a couple of more come in, as I said I'm just struggling to see those so what we might look to do is, I understand my team is recording all of the questions that are being asked. I might give people a few more minutes, I'll just pause and put myself on mute if there's any other additional questions that people want to add in, please add that in to the chat function now. If we're able to give you some answers now we will, just give us a few minutes. If not as I said, we'll look to record them all and put them up on our website. So I’ll just give people a couple of minutes to think about the presentation that we've just given, and again if you have any questions please pop them in the chat function.

All right thank you guys. I really appreciate everyone's patience today, I know it's slightly odd. I'd much rather be talking to everyone being able to see faces or being in a physical room, so I do appreciate the fact that there has been some questions added to the chat. As I said, I don't have visibility of those but my team is separately giving me some indications so just very quickly I believe there was a question on objectives. Does the project have to meet all three or just one. The answer to that question is that the project must meet all three project objectives.

There was also a question can we please have a copy of the slide deck? Of course my apologies I was remiss in not flagging at the beginning that a copy of this presentation will be uploaded to it [recording cuts out – silence for 10 seconds] um we'll take that question on notice and consider that one a little bit further and pop an answer up on our website. Oh thank you sorry it sounds like we're having some audio issues again please bear with us.

We've had a question are there any age limits for scholarship applicants. Again we will take that one on notice and put an answer up on our website.

I'll just give people a couple of more minutes, if they do have any questions to type that into that chat function. I might just give it two more minutes and then we may look to wrap up this presentation.

Okay everyone, I understand from my team that there may be some people still writing questions. There's also I believe some comments that have been added to the chat function, thank you very much for those we will note those as comments they'll also be recorded and will take them on board fabulous.

Okay does the - sorry we've had a further question. Does a lead need to meet all criteria independently or can collectively demonstrate this? Thank you for that question we'll take that one on notice also and pop that response on our website.

We've had a further question - so just confirming we've seen it. Can you provide examples of collaborative industry projects? Again that will be one we'll take on notice and we'll look to put an answer up on our website.

Good point thank you we've just had a question. Guidelines say up to 500, presentation says exactly 500 please clarify. Yes so it is up to 500, not exactly 500 though the expectation is that as you can appreciate, get as close to that 500 as we possibly can.

Fabulous I'm being informed that there's nothing further in the chat. I do really appreciate everyone's patience in the last couple of minutes, I know it's slightly stilted to be adding into the chat function and just a shout out to my team who is doing an amazing job while I'm flying somewhat blind to pass on these questions. We have answered some now but I know that we have taken a range of questions on notice. We'll look to provide those answers on our website as soon as is practicable.

Thank you all very much for joining today I do hope that you found this presentation informative and helpful and we look forward to receiving applications in the very near future.

Thank you all have a great afternoon.

Slide 1

Shanan Gillies, General Manager Science Policy and Governance

6 September 2021

Slide 2: Acknowledgement of Country

Our department recognises the First Peoples of this nation and their ongoing connection to culture and country. We acknowledge First Nations Peoples as the Traditional Owners, Custodians and Lore Keepers of the world's oldest living culture and pay respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

Slide 3: Introduction

No additional text

Slide 4: Boosting the Next Generation of Women in STEM program

• Announced in 2021-22 Budget (May 2021) as part of the Women’s Budget Statement.
• Provides $42.4 million over seven years to support women to pursue higher level university STEM qualifications.
• Builds on a suite of actions and investments aimed at encouraging gender equity in STEM education and careers.

Funding profile

• 2021-22: Administration ($0.4m), Scholarships ($0.0m)
• 2022-23: Administration ($0.8m), Scholarships ($3.1m)
• 2023-24: Administration ($0.8m), Scholarships ($7.2m)
• 2024-25: Administration ($0.8m), Scholarships ($11.8m)
• 2025-26: Administration ($0.8m), Scholarships ($8.8m)
• 2026-27: Administration ($0.8m), Scholarships ($4.5m)
• 2027-28: Administration ($0.4m), Scholarships ($1.0m)

Slide 5: Policy context

• 2019 Advancing Women in STEM Strategy
• 2020 Action Plan and STEM equity monitor
• 2020 Women’s Economic Security Statement
• Women’s Budget Statement 2021

Slide 6: Objectives of the program

• The Program is intended to:
  • increase participation of women in STEM tertiary education including for re-training, seeking higher qualifications, or undertaking study after a career or study break
  • support women to build the crossing-cutting and multi-disciplinary skillsets sought by industry to foster the next wave of mentors and role-models, and support re-entry into the workforce
  • stimulate an increase in the number of women in senior leadership and decision making positions in government, research organisations, industry and businesses.

Slide 7: Timeline

Q4 2021

• Assessment of applications
• Approval of outcomes of selection process

Q1 2022

• Negotiation of grant agreement
• Announcement of successful applicant
• Commencement of co-design process

Q2 2022

• Finalisation of co-design process
• Enrolment of universities and industry participants

Q3 2022

• Scholarships commence

Slide 8: Step 1 (of 3): Find a delivery partner

• What are we looking for in a partner?
  • Experience and/or access to expertise in bringing together industry and universities to achieve common goals.
  • Experience or access to expertise in delivering programs of a similar nature.
  • Experience or expertise in managing a project of this size, including managing a large budget.
  • Any other valuable or relevant experience that will benefit the design and delivery of the program.

Slide 9: Who is eligible to apply?

• You must have an Australian Business Number (ABN) and be one of the following entities:
  • an entity incorporated in Australia and a trading corporation, where your trading activities:
    • form a sufficiently significant proportion of the corporation’s overall activities as to merit it being described as a trading corporation; or
    • are a substantial and not merely peripheral activity of the corporation
  • an incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust
  • an incorporated association
  • an incorporated not for profit organisation
  • a publicly funded research agency (PFRA) as defined in section 14.

Slide 10: Can I submit a joint application?

• Yes!
• Joint applications are welcome.
• The department will only enter into a single grant agreement.
• The lead organisation must be an eligible entity, and will be responsible for meeting the milestones set out in the grant agreement.
• Further information on joint applications can be found on page 10 of the guidelines.

Slide 11: Who is not eligible to apply?

• Listed in detail at section 4.3 of the guidelines
• Note that the guidelines were updated on 18 August to remove an inconsistency between eligible and ineligible entities
• This means that tax exempt entities are eligible to apply
• Universities, as Publicly Funded Research Organisations (PFROs) are not eligible to apply

Slide 12: Assessment criteria 1

Alignment with policy intent

You should demonstrate this by identifying:

• the extent to which your organisation has the relevant experience, skills, and knowledge in the STEM, research or industry sectors to manage the project
• a detailed plan to manage the co-design process, including plan for stakeholder engagement, timeline and other work, with an implementation plan for the scholarships scheme to be delivered prior to 30 April 2022.

Slide 13: Assessment criteria 2

Capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project

You should demonstrate this by identifying:

• your track record and experience in managing projects of a similar nature or scale, including gender specific programs, and your plan specific to this project to utilise and manage personnel with the right skills and experience, including strong governance, management, financial and technical expertise
• your plan to manage and deliver the project including service arrangements and governance, implementation methodology, timeframes, delivery risks and budget
• your access, or future access, to any required infrastructure, capital equipment, technology, commercial agreements, intellectual property, specialist skills or expertise, and regulatory or other approvals (specify any approval conditions on the project).

Slide 14: Assessment criteria 3

Financial capability and governance

You should demonstrate this through identifying:

• a detailed project budget that identifies the costs of the co-design process and estimated costs of the scholarship program including costs of promotional activities, the development of content, travel and financial audits, and demonstrates that costs are commensurate with the level of service to be provided
• your ability to fund the running costs of your organisation external to the project and any project costs that are not covered by the grant
• how your organisation and your partner organisation/s meet appropriate governance standards.

Slide 15: Step 2 (of 3): Co-design process

• The successful applicant will work with the department to design the program
• Consultation with key stakeholders including industry and universities
  • What characteristics of a scholarship program would meet the needs of participants?
  • What skills are needed in industry?
  • What sectors should be a focus?
  • How can networking and career development opportunities be leveraged?
  • What cohorts should be targeted?

Slide 16: Step 3 (of 3): Program delivery

• Early delivery milestones in the grant will be focused on the co-design process and implementation plan.
• Final details of the program will be informed in large part by the co-design process.
• This is to ensure the program will meet the needs of those who will use it.
• Expectation that Scholarships will start to be delivered in mid-2022.

Slide 17: What if.. I am a University?

• Universities are not eligible to apply on their own but can be members of a joint application where the lead applicant is eligible
• Views of Universities will be important during the co-design phase
• We want the program to meet your needs, and those of your students
• All universities will have the opportunity to participate in the program when it is implemented

Slide 18: What if.. I am a business?

• If you are an eligible organisation, we encourage you to consider applying.
• We also want to hear from you during the co-design process.
• It is important that the program identifies sectoral areas that will support current and future industry needs.

Slide 19: What if.. I want to apply for a scholarship?

• Stay tuned!
• Scholarships will become available mid 2022.
• We also want to hear from you during the co-design process.

Slide 20: Questions Submitted in Advance

No further text

Slide 21: Questions about scholarship funding

• Q: Are there restrictions on how the scholarship money can be used by recipients or is it untied?
• Q: Is there an intent in the program that the scholarship funds are to be used to cover course fees for non HECS courses? Or that the HECS exemptions will apply to the courses undertaken?
• A: The final details will be informed by the co-design process. We anticipate that items covered by the scholarship funding will include; stipend, training allowance, thesis allowance, travel allowance, other support.

Slide 22: Questions about the scholarship funding

• Q: Is it a mandatory requirement for the scholarships to be co-funded? What flexibility could be accommodated to support streams of scholarships without funding?
• A: Yes, co-funding of scholarships by industry is a required element of the program. The exact nature and scale of contribution will be informed by the co-design process.

Slide 23: Questions about the co-design process

• Q: Clarification please - the application should include a plan to co-design the program, however the exact details of the implementation of the program do not need to be included as these will depend on the co-design process.
• Q: Is it expected that a concept design, approach and action plan should be incorporated into the application?
• A: Yes this is correct. Your application should include a plan forco-design, and details of your capability and capacity to implement the program. However an implementation plan for the program itself will form an early milestone of the grant agreement.

Slide 24: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: Am I correct in thinking the scholarships are intended to be more like ‘Industry PhDs’ or HDRs where the project is jointly designed by academia/industry or industry/led?
• Q: Please provide more information on ‘collaborative industry projects in priority areas”.
• A: It is the broad policy intent that industry will play a role in the design of projects. How this works in practice will be informed by the co-design process.

Slide 25: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: With respect to the aim to fund women in STEM tertiary education, is this restricted to PhDs in research or in a specific discipline? Could scholarships include a proportion of STEM graduates who pursue other qualifications?
• A: These are details that will be informed by the co-design process, in order to ensure that the program meets the needs of industry, universities and scholarship recipients.

Slide 26: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: It would be good to get some hard numbers to get a sense of market size. Do you have data on how many women would be keen to do further study, return to work/research?
• A: We don’t currently have this data. This could be considered a topic for consultation in the co-design process.

Slide 27: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: Is there the additional objective of fostering diverse STEM careers or is the focus entirely on industry-academia collaborations?
• A: The program is focussed on industry-academia collaborations. This may lead to diversified STEM career options but is not the primary focus of the program.

Slide 28: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: Is 500 a firm number or could there be less (with a better supported, higher quality training experience)?
• A: This program is to support 500 women over the life of the program.

Slide 29: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: At what level of seniority/experience are the scholarships expected to be pitched.
• A: This will be informed in part by the co-design process, however we anticipate both undergraduate and post-graduate degrees will be offered to women of all ages, including those who are retraining, seeking higher qualifications, or undertaking study (either for the first time, or to extend and broaden their qualifications) after a break from either study or the workforce.

Slide 30: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: Does this only include further study at Universities or could students attend the Australian Institute of Company Directors and INSEAD-type leadership courses? Could they be made available to the VET sector?
• A: The scholarships are to support study at Universities only. Additional professional development could be considered as part of the program. This will be informed by the co-design process.

Slide 31: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: Boosting the next generation means ensuring we have inspiring senior-level teachers confident to expose students to applied research that aims to have impact. Can this be an element of this initiative?
• A: This is out of scope.

Slide 32: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: What is envisaged by ‘foster the next wave of mentors and role models’?
• A: This means that the program will support women to gain the skills that are needed for STEM industry jobs of the future, giving them tools to help them succeed in their studies and careers going forward. This builds the pool of women who can then be positive role models and mentors.

Slide 33: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: What expectations and limitations are being considered in respect of the target sector? For example, lead to employment, promotion, certification, reskilling? How would these be rated/ranked?
• Q: What are the measures of success – not just awarding scholarships
• A: This will largely be informed by the co-design process, however the intent is that the program will lead to an increase in representation of women in the STEM workforce, and deeper and new connections and collaborations on industry-relevant problems.

Slide 34: Questions about the policy intent

• Q: What is the focus on getting women into jobs versus qualifications, and is there an expectation of an academic qualification at the end of the scholarship?
• A: It is expected that through the scholarship the participants obtain an academic qualification, and that the experience and connections provided through industry involvement provide increased opportunities for employment.

Slide 35: Additional Questions

No further text

Slide 36: Thank you

• Shanan Gillies
• Science and Commercialisation Division
• Industry House, 10 Binara Street
• Canberra ACT 2601
• GPO Box 2013 Canberra ACT 2601
• industry.gov.au

Does this mean that Publicly Funded Research Organisations (PFROs) can apply as a partner but not as lead?

Yes this is correct.

Does the project have to meet all three objectives listed in the guidelines, or can it meet just one?

The project needs to meet all three objectives listed in the guidelines.

Can the scholarships be for education other than University e.g. training courses or conferences?

The scholarships are to support study at Universities only. Additional professional development could be considered as part of the program. This will be informed by the co-design process.

Requiring an industry-specific project was a hindrance on past similar programs. Has the 500 strong goal been cross referenced against similar programs funded by the Australian Government and their success?

The department will be seeking input and lessons learned from other programs during the co‑design process to help inform the final design of the program, This will also build on our initial engagement with relevant government departments‑.‑ We welcome the views of participants from other programs and will ‑actively‑ seek this input in co-design.

Can you provide examples of collaborative industry projects?

An example: projects where the industry partner identifies a problem faced in their sector, and works with the university to design a research project or coursework that can help solve it. Please note this is an indicative example only. The final details of the program will be informed by the co-design process.

Does the lead applicant need to meet all the assessment criteria or can the collective applicants demonstrate this?

The application can reflect contributions of the collective partners in meeting the assessment criteria. The lead applicant does not need to meet them all. If the application is from a single organisation, this organisation should demonstrate how they can meet the criteria. Please note the lead applicant needs to meet all the eligibility criteria.

Are scholarships limited to Australian Universities?

Yes, this is correct.

Are there any age limits for scholarship applicants?

While the final details of the program will be informed by the co-design process, there will be no age limits placed on scholarship applicants.

You are not eligible to apply if you are:

• an organisation, or your project partner is an organisation, included on the National Redress Scheme’s list of Institutions that have not joined or signified their intent to join the Scheme.
• an organisation or your project partner is an organisation that has been named by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency as not complying with Workplace Gender Equality Act (2012).
• a publicly funded research organisation (PFRO), however PFROs may participate as part of a joint application
• an individual
• partnership
• unincorporated association
• any organisation not included in section 4.1 of the guidelines
• trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
• a Commonwealth, state and local government agency or body (including government business enterprises other than eligible PFRAs)
• a non-corporate Commonwealth entity.

We review your application against the eligibility criteria. Only eligible applications will proceed to the assessment stage.

If eligible, we refer your application to a committee of experts for assessment against the assessment criteria.

The amount of detail and supporting evidence you provide in your application should be relative to the project size, complexity and grant amount requested. You should define, quantify and provide evidence to support your answers. The sample application form displays size limits for answers.

The program delegate decides which grants to approve taking into account the advice of the committee and the availability of grant funds.

To be competitive you must score highly against all of the assessment criteria.

• Assessment criterion 1: Alignment with policy intent (50 points)
• Assessment criterion 2: Capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project (30 points)
• Assessment criterion 3: Financial capability and governance (20 points)

If your application is successful, you’ll receive a written offer. If you are unsuccessful, we’ll notify you in writing and give you the chance to discuss the outcome with us.

Successful applicants must enter into a legally binding grant agreement with the Commonwealth. The grant agreement will specify the reporting requirements, payment schedule and milestones schedule.

We’ll make the first payment when the grant agreement is executed. We’ll make subsequent payments upon receipt of progress reports detailing satisfactory progress on the project.

Payments will be made directly into a nominated bank account.

Recipient organisation: Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Limited

Project description: The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) has been granted $41.2 million under the Boosting the Next Generation of Women in STEM program, to offer up to 500 women with university scholarships to retrain and bolster their STEM qualifications.

ATSE will deliver the scholarships over seven years, with the scholarships available from July 2022.

Grant (GST exc.): $41,200,000.