Grants to sponsor students to take part in STEM events, activities and competitions

To be eligible you must:

• have an Australian business number (ABN)
• be one of the following entities:
  • a primary or secondary school that is registered with the relevant authority
  • an incorporated not-for-profit organisation
  • an entity incorporated in Australia
• be able to enter into a grant agreement in your own right or through an affiliated entity.

Government Schools in NSW, SA, TAS and WA

Government schools in New South Wales (NSW), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS) and Western Australia (WA) are not legal entities in their own right. You must include your relevant state or territory education department's ABN as a Collaborator in your application in order to enter into a grant agreement.

Unincorporated Associations and Entities

Non-government schools, including catholic organisations, that are unincorporated entities must apply through a related incorporated entity in order to enter into a grant agreement.

Additional eligibility requirements

We will only accept applications where you:

• apply on behalf of a student or group of students under the age of 18 (at the time of application) to participate in a specific STEM events, activities or competitions that meets the requirements under the grant opportunity guidelines and any qualification or acceptance requirements have been met
• declare the group of students participating at the STEM event, activity or competition are supported by their school or organisation
• declare that you have the capacity to meet any costs of participation at the STEM event, activity or competition not covered by grant funding
• declare that the event, activity or competition is not being run by the applicant
• declare that you have not already received funding to attend this event, competition or undertake this activity either under this program or through other sources of Australian government funding.

We cannot waive the eligibility criteria under any circumstances.

You can’t 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 employer of 100 or more employees that has not complied with the Workplace Gender Equality Act (2012)
• income tax exempt
• an individual
• a partnership
• an unincorporated association
• a trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
• a non-corporate Commonwealth entity.

To be eligible your project must:

• be held within 12 months after submitting your application
• involve the participation of a student or group of students at eligible in-person and virtual STEM engagement events, activities or competitions hosted in Australia or overseas
• have at least $1,500 in eligible expenditure, as per section 5.2 of the grant opportunity guidelines
• be related to the pursuit of a STEM field that promotes student engagement in STEM-related disciplines, or participation in STEM-based competitions.

Examples of eligible events include:

• STEM challenges and competitions
• STEM experience programs
• STEM conference and festivals
• residential STEM programs
• excursions to STEM venues.

We may also approve other activities.

The Program Delegate will make a final decision on the events that are eligible and may issue additional guidance on eligible events if required.

You can only spend grant funds on eligible expenditure you have incurred on an agreed project as defined in your grant agreement.

You can use this grant funding for:

• reasonable domestic and international travel expenses (including accommodation, meals, airfares and ground transport) using economy class (except in extraordinary circumstances) for the student or group of students attending the event, activity or competition and, where needed, a chaperone
• the cost of registration or tickets for the event, activity or competition
• the cost of materials necessary to participate in competitions (such as equipment required for the competition or team uniforms).

To be eligible, expenditure must:

• be a direct cost of the project that occurs before the project end date
• be incurred by you for required project audit activities.

Not all expenditure on your project may be eligible for grant funding. The Program Delegate makes the final decision on what is eligible expenditure and may give additional guidance on eligible expenditure if required.

Ineligible Expenditure

Expenditure items that are not eligible are:

• expenditure incurred on past events
• business as usual events, including incursions or franchised in-house events
• exchanges or visits to other schools
• salaries for the sponsor organisation or chaperone
• administration costs incurred by the sponsor organisation or chaperone
• cost of applying for the grant
• cost of travel insurance
• costs incurred prior to submission of your application
• cost of materials for non-STEM activities or events
• gifts.