Researcher Development Awards

The Researcher Development Awards competitive funding scheme offers four development awards. Applications are currently closed.

These funding opportunities are directed toward staff who are endeavouring to establish and/or expand their research profile, including considering grant funding from an external agency.

They are aimed at supporting staff who have experienced career interruption, or are early career researchers, with a particular focus on gender equity. These awards are not directed to staff with an established research profile (i.e. those who have previously been awarded external funding such as ARC and NHMRC grants). Awards are open to Level A, B or C academics (other eligibility criteria apply).

For further information, please email ResearcherDevelopment@westernsydney.edu.au

Awards

ACA or DAP Research Support

This funding supports academics who are currently employed in the role of Academic Course Advisor (ACA) or Director of Academic Programs (DAP). This award allows the academic to employ a Research Assistant to support their research.

Career Interruption

This funding supports academics who are either:

1. Returning to work after a period of personal leave or a career break; spent significant time on health or family responsibilities; transition to remote teaching and learning; experienced changes in workloads to focus on teaching and governance roles and additional pastoral care roles in response to COVID-19; or experienced a withdrawal of research funding. It is designed to help re-establish research relationships, partnerships and projects that may have lapsed or been put on hold due to a specific career break.

2. Currently on family or carers’ leave (for a period of more than three months), to access funds for research support staff to be employed and supervised to maintain time critical experiments or projects. (n.b. an alternative supervisor must be nominated for the research support staff, whist the awardee is on leave).

ECR Fellowships

The Early Career Researcher Fellowship supports ECRs in balancing teaching and administrative duties while establishing a research profile. The fellowship provides ECRs with funding to allow for teaching, marking or admin buy-out or RA assistance.

An Early Career Researcher is considered to be someone who has been awarded a PhD within the past 5 years (eligibility exemption applies for career interruptions) and who holds an academic appointment.

Indigenous Researcher Development Award

This identified award (Indigenous only) is part of the Researcher Development Awards scheme and is aimed to attract Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander academic staff at WSU who may have had limited opportunity and/or success at being awarded significant external funding (e.g., ARC and NHMRC grants). The application process will consider not only research opportunity and performance evidence (ROPE) complexities (e.g., career interruptions), but also cultural, community, and kinship obligations unique to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Women's Fellowships

The Women's Fellowship supports female academics employed at Western Sydney University as a Lecturer A, B or C. This funding can be used to support your research in a variety of ways including teaching or administration buy-outs, pilot studies, research translation and project costs.

Past Awardees

The following links provide details of past awardees and their relevant research projects. Please feel free to contact individual researchers for more information about their projects or for possible research collaboration opportunities.