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Grants to sponsor students to take part in STEM engagement events, activities and competitions
Sponsorship Grants for Student Science Engagement and International Competitions 2026
This grant opportunity provides eligible schools and organisations funding for students to participate in virtual or in-person domestic and international STEM events, including travel, registration and required materials.
Closing date: Wednesday 8 April 2026 5:00pm AEST Wed 8 Apr 2026 5:00pm AEST
What do you get?
Grants from $1,500 and up to $15,000 or $25,000 depending on the stream to sponsor eligible Australian students to participate in STEM engagement events, activities and competitions.
The maximum grant amount per student for Australian hosted events is $2,000 and $7,500 for events requiring international travel.
Who is this for?
Eligible incorporated organisations including Australian primary and secondary schools on the Australian Schools List can apply on behalf of enrolled students under 18 years.
About the program
This grant opportunity provides funding to eligible entities to facilitate student participation in a project involving in-person or virtual STEM events, activities, or competitions hosted in Australia or overseas.
The intended outcomes of the opportunity are to:
- support Australian students to develop STEM skills
- increase the number of students applying to participate in domestic and international STEM competitions and events
- increase the number of students participating in STEM education and going on to a career in STEM
- increase engagement and participation in groups underrepresented in STEM.
This grant opportunity aims to increase STEM participation among students from schools with lower Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage (ICSEA) values.
Up to $1.6 million is available for this grant opportunity for the 2025-26 financial year.
- Stream 1: At least $1 million in funding is available for applications on behalf of Australian student(s) enrolled in a school with an ICSEA value of 1000 or below. Funding under this stream does not cover participation in international competitions held overseas.
- Stream 2: Up to $600,000 in funding is available for applications on behalf of Australian student(s) enrolled in schools with any ICSEA value. Funding under this stream is intended for participation in in-person or virtual international STEM competitions held overseas.
Multiple applications can be made from a single applicant for different STEM events, activities or competitions. However, when totalled, the funding requested across all applications cannot exceed $15,000 for Stream 1 and $25,000 for Stream 2. The maximum funding that may be requested across both streams is $40,000.
For more information about the minimum and maximum amounts of funding available per applicant and per student by each stream, please refer to section 3.1 of the grant opportunity guidelines.
Check if you can apply
You can apply if you meet the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria are a set of rules that describe who we can consider for this grant. You can apply if you:
- are an eligible entity
- have an eligible project
- have eligible expenditure.
The rules are in the grant opportunity guidelines.
You can apply if:
- you are applying on behalf of an Australian student(s) enrolled in a school and under the age of 18 (at the time of the application), to participate in a single specific STEM event, activity or competition
- you or your collaborator have an Australian Business Number (ABN)
- you are able to enter into a grant agreement in your own right or through an affiliated entity (i.e. your collaborator)
- you are one of the following entities:
- an Australian primary or secondary school that is on the Australian Schools List
- an entity incorporated in Australia.
Government Schools in NSW, SA, TAS and WA
Government schools in New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia are not legal entities in their own right. You must include your relevant state education department’s ABN as a collaborator in your application in order to enter into a grant agreement.
Unincorporated 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 can only accept applications where you:
- declare your application is supported by your school(s) or organisation(s)
- declare that you have the capacity to meet any costs of participating in the STEM events, activities or competitions not covered by grant funding
- declare that the events, activities or competitions are not being run by the applicant exclusively for their own students
- declare that you have not received any Australian Government funding, including funding from this program, to participate in these events or competitions, or to undertake these activities
- declare that the student(s) you are applying on the behalf of each have an ICSEA value(s) of 1000 or below, or do not have an ICSEA value, if you are applying for Stream 1.
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 website on the 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 individual, including parents/guardians
- a partnership
- an unincorporated association
- any organisation not included in section 4.1 of the grant guidelines
- a trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
- a non-corporate Commonwealth entity.
You must complete your project within 1 year of submitting an application and within 4 weeks following the STEM events, activities or competitions that your student(s) are participating in.
Your project must:
- for Stream 1, involve the participation of a student(s) at eligible domestic in-person or virtual STEM engagement events, activities and competitions hosted in Australia, or in-person or virtual international STEM engagement events held in Australia or overseas.
- for Stream 2, involve the participation of a student(s) at eligible in-person or virtual international STEM competitions held overseas. The primary purpose of the events must be competition-based
- promote student engagement in STEM-related disciplines, or participation in STEM-based competitions.
Eligible activities must directly relate to the project. Examples include:
- STEM challenges and competitions
- STEM experience programs
- STEM conferences and festivals
- residential STEM programs
- excursions to STEM venues
- incursions or franchised in-house events hosted at your school, where your school is not the organiser and participants include students from other schools.
We may also approve other activities.
You can apply for a grant amount per applicant between $1,500 and $15,000 under Stream 1, or between $1,500 and $25,000 under Stream 2.
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(s) participating in the events, activities or competitions and, where needed, a chaperone
- the cost of registration or tickets for the events, activities or competitions
- the cost of materials necessary to participate in competitions (such as equipment required for the competition or team uniforms)
- STEM-related activities to support participation in competitions.
How to apply
Check if you’re ready to apply for a grant
Finding a suitable grant opportunity is just the start of the process to get funding. The application process can take time and effort. Understanding the entire process will help you be grant ready and may improve your chances of getting funding.
Use our checklist to find out what it takes to apply for a grant.
When you're ready to apply
When the online form is available, you'll need to apply using our online portal:
- Create or log into your portal account.
- Follow the instructions to complete your application.
- Submit your application before the close date.
Make sure you include enough detail and supporting evidence in your application to help us decide whether to award you the grant.
Don’t submit the application until it’s complete. You can’t correct a mistake.
We assess grant applications against the eligibility criteria in order of lowest ICSEA value to highest ICSEA value until the available funding is exhausted. As a result, not all applications may be assessed. We can only recommend applications for funding that meet all eligibility requirements. The ICSEA value applied to a school is the school’s ICSEA value at the time of application.
The ICSEA value for schools without an ICSEA value is taken to be 1000.
For joint applications involving multiple students with varying ICSEA values, the ICSEA value for the application will be the average of the ICSEA value of all students. For Stream 1, each student in the joint application must have an ICSEA value of 1000 or below for the application to be eligible.
If, following eligibility assessment, funding cannot be fully subscribed within Stream 2, any remaining funds will be allocated to eligible Stream 1 applications, in order of lowest to highest ICSEA value, until the total funding available for the grant opportunity is exhausted.
If multiple eligible applications have the same ICSEA value and there is insufficient funding to support all applications, applications will be prioritised based on the date and time they were received.
The Program Delegate decides which grants to approve taking into account the application eligibility and the availability of grant funds.
Apply now
Apply for the Sponsorship Grants for Student Science Engagement and International Competitions 2026 now
Before you apply, make sure you:
- read and understand the grant opportunity guidelines
- read and understand the sample application form
- read and understand the sample grant agreement.
Sample applications
The best way to understand what information you need to provide is to start an application. We have also provided a version to download at the bottom of this page.
Technical help
See our customer portal's frequently asked questions to help with your queries. If you can't find your answer, contact us for assistance.
If you submit your application before the close date you can’t retrieve it to make changes.
If you find an error in your application after submitting it, you should call us immediately on 13 28 46.
You can only submit an application between the published opening and closing dates. We cannot accept late applications.
Past and future rounds
This opportunity is part of the Inspiring Australia – Science Engagement Program.
Contact
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