Funding for discovering, naming and classifying Australia’s living organisms

You can apply if you:

• have an Australian business number (ABN)
• are an appropriate host institution (see section 14 of the grant opportunity guidelines) submitting an application on behalf of a Principal Investigator, scholarship student, or Non-salaried Researcher Grant

And are one of the following entities:

• an entity, incorporated in Australia (this includes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth))
• a co-operative
• a publicly funded research organisation (PFRO)
• an Australian local government agency or body
• an Australian State/Territory government agency or body
• an Australian Commonwealth government agency or body (excluding non-Corporate Commonwealth Entities)
• an incorporated association or not for profit organisation and you do not have an active state or territory incorporated association registration or ACNC registration at the time of application, provide the Constitutional documents and/or Articles of Association that demonstrate the character of the organisation
• a partnership, provide a copy of your partnership agreement

You can’t apply if you are:

• any organisation not included in section 4.1 of the grant opportunity guidelines
• 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 employer of 100 or more employees that has not complied with the Workplace Gender Equality Act (2012)
• an international entity (overseas institutions are not eligible, but they can become Joint Investigators through an appropriate Australian host institution or other collaborators on the application, or through co-funding contributions)
• an unincorporated association
• an applicant that provides a CV of more than 4 pages (per CV) for a Principal Investigator, Joint Investigator or Student Supervisor
• a non-Corporate Commonwealth entity
• any applications from individuals and/or institutions that have outstanding reports or material owed from other existing or completed NTRGP grants.

You must complete your project by 30 June 2028.

Your project must be aimed at undertaking research into at least one of the three Priority Areas for Research (Appendix A of the grant opportunity) listed in the Australian Biological Resources Study.

You can apply for a grant between 9 January 2025 – 12 March 2025.

You can use this grant funding on:

• direct costs of the project for conducting the research activity
• costs incurred for required project audit activities.

You must incur expenditure between the start and end or completion date of your project for it to be eligible. You can only spend grant funds on eligible expenditure you have incurred on an agreed project as defined in your grant agreement. This includes:

• travel costs, both domestic and international, limited to the reasonable cost of accommodation and transportation required to conduct agreed project activities (i.e., ensuring optimal value for money)
• stipends and other support such as fieldwork expenses and miscellaneous consumables for Postgraduate students in the Research Grant stream
• direct labour costs of employees you directly employ on the core elements of the project. We consider a person an employee when you pay them a regular salary or wage, out of which you make regular tax instalment deductions. When completing the application budget, salary (plus salary on-costs) may be included as co-funding
• up to 28 per cent labour on costs to cover employer paid superannuation, payroll tax, workers compensation insurance, and overheads such as office rent and the provision of computers for staff directly working on the project
• contract expenditure, defined as the cost of any agreed project activities that you contract to others
• equipment purchased directly for the completion of the project
• costs associated with loans of genetic material from Museums
• staff training that directly supports the achievement of project outcomes
• costs you incur in order to obtain planning, environmental or other regulatory approvals during the project period, excluding any fees paid to Commonwealth, state, territory and local governments
• contingency costs up to a maximum of 10 per cent of the eligible project costs. Note that we make payments based on actual costs incurred
• salary for Postdoctoral Fellowship or Researcher grantees if the institution is not already paying their salary. Rates will vary from institution to institution and the appropriate rate is that which is designated by the administering institution
• the cost of an independent audit of project expenditure (where we request one) up to a maximum of 1 per cent of total eligible project expenditure.