Archived Grant Opportunity View - GO4146

The National Blood Sector Research and Development Program (Program) forms an important component of the National Blood Authority’s (NBA) blood sector research and development framework and aims to facilitate world-class research and development in Australia that contributes to optimising the use, management and administration of blood products, and improve patient outcomes.

The Program is focussed on the following research areas:

• Patient Blood Management (PBM) evidence gaps.

• Efficient and effective use of immunoglobulin (Ig) products. 

Up to $1.275 million is available under Round 5 of the Program for single or multiple year projects.

Grants are offered under 3 categories:

Project Grants, typically $30,000 to $150,000 per year to be expended over a period of up to 3 years. Applications should be for an entire, discrete research project proposal.

Seed Grants, typically under $50,000 to be expended over 1 year. Applications for seed funding should be for early stages of innovative new research, or for effort generation of preliminary data needed to support future grant applications.

Scholarships, typically $25,000 to $30,000 to be expended over 1 year. Scholarship grants are intended to support medical researchers in the attainment of a PhD or Master’s degree or postdoctoral research fellow research.

Application forms are available on the NBA Website at

  https://www.blood.gov.au/research-and-development

Applications will be assessed based on:

• Research scope, focus and potential value

• Quality

• Governance and ethics

• Efficient and effective use of funds.

Grant Recipients must be a legal entity and have an Australian Business Number (ABN) or an Australian Company Number (ACN) to receive funding under the program.

Grant Recipients must be listed on the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) as an Administering Institution.  This policy is available at:

https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/funding/manage-your-funding/nhmrcs-administering-institutions. The list of NHMRC registered Administering Institutions can be found at the above page.

At the time of submitting an application and for the duration of a grant, the Principal Chief Investigator and Chief Investigators (for Project and Seed Grants) and Scholars (for Scholarships) must be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident of Australia, or a New Zealand citizen with Special Category Visa (subclass 444) status.

The NBA may waive this requirement where it can be demonstrated that the research is based in Australia and will benefit health and medical research in Australia. Additional information about the waiver requirements can be found in the Grant Opportunity Guidelines.

Anticipated timeline:

July 2020 – September 2020  - Call for applications for Round 5

October 2020 – December 2020 - Evaluation of applications

January 2021 – March 2021- Approval of grant funding recommendations, Grant Offers, and commencement of Grant Funding Agreement negotiations.

$1,275,000.00

From $25,000.00 to $150,000.00

Applications must be submitted using the specific form relevant to the application and in accordance with the response lodgement procedures set out in the relevant form.

Applications must be lodged electronically before 11:59pm, 28 September 2020 (Australian Eastern Standard Time).

Applications should be emailed to R&D@blood.gov.au, marked for the attention of the Program Director.

In early August the NBA will contact entities which have downloaded the Grant Opportunity documents to obtain an indication of potential submission of grant applications, for NBA planning purposes only.  Response to this query will be voluntary and non-binding, and will not comprise a mandatory precondition for submission of a grant application.

A compliance check will be undertaken by NBA officers on all grant applications to ensure all key information is present.

The NBA will undertake a value-for-money assessment of proposals against the appraisal criteria outlined below. The assessment will be undertaken by a panel of expert advisors. The Expert Panel is comprised of members of the Patient Blood Management Steering Committee, Expert Working Group or Clinical Reference Groups (or referred nominees), and members of the Immunoglobulin Governance groups (National Immunoglobulin Governance Committee or Specialist Working Groups).