Current Grant Opportunity View - GO7246

The Australian Research Council (ARC), on behalf of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI), is conducting a grant opportunity for the National Intelligence Discovery Grants (NIDG) program (Full Application). The NIDG Program was formerly known as the National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grants (NISDRG) Program.

The NIDG Program supports excellent innovative research that deepens understanding of emerging science and technology that addresses intelligence interests. The grant program will facilitate innovation and develop national intelligence capacity. It will also enable Australia’s National Intelligence Community (NIC) to systematically engage with Australia’s research and technology community.

The NIDG Program - Intelligence Challenges Grant Opportunity provides support to research that aligns with the priority research areas identified by the Australian Government. These research areas are outlined in the Intelligence Challenges developed under the National Security Science and Technology Priorities.

The Intelligence Challenges have been updated in 2024 and applicable research fields within each Challenge have also been revised or expanded. For more information, please refer to attached documents.

The objectives of the NIDG Grant Opportunity are to:

• support excellent fundamental research (discovery, basic or blue-sky research) in areas identified in the Intelligence Challenges;
• build Australia’s research capacity and capability in these areas by supporting researchers, fostering research trainees, and contributing to a greater body of open source research;
• enhance collaboration in the research, science and technology community that supports Australia’s National Intelligence Community; and
• support systematic and coordinated engagement between the research, science and technology community and Australia’s National Intelligence Community.

Only the successful EOI (EIID25) applicants will be invited to submit a Full Application form for ID25.

An application may only be submitted through the Research Office of an Eligible Organisation listed in the scheme Grant Guidelines.

All individuals named in the Full Application must satisfy the eligibility criteria for the role they are to perform as at the Commencement Date and for the duration of the Project.

Roles that named participants may be nominated for under ID25 are:

• Chief Investigator
• NIDG Fellowship
• Partner Investigator

Applications must nominate the following named participants to be eligible:

• At least one eligible CI or NIDG Fellowship from the Administering Organisation.

An application may also include additional Other Eligible Organisations and Other Organisations.

All organisations participating in the application must be Australian organisations.

If an organisation is named on the application, a person representing that organisation must also be named on the application.  

An Other Organisation named on an application must have a Partner Investigator (PI) listed.

Chief Investigators, NIDG Fellowship and Partner Investigators must be Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents or holders of a New Zealand Special Category Visa.

Funding may be sought for up to three years.

$8,000,000.00

From $400,000.00 to $800,000.00

The Full Application must be submitted as a mature research plan presenting the proposed Project ready for implementation and must contain all the information necessary for its assessment without the need for further written or oral explanation, or reference to additional documentation, unless requested by the ONI.

Administering Organisations must submit applications through the specific ONI portal of RMS (RMS-ONI) unless otherwise advised by the ONI.

All applications must meet the format and content requirements, including certification, as set out in the RMS-ONI online form and the relevant scheme Instructions to Applicants.

The ONI portal of the Research Management System (RMS) is a web-based system used to prepare and submit research proposals, assessments and rejoinders for the Australian Research Council (ARC) on behalf of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI)

Registered users can login using your email address and password at https://rmsoni.researchgrants.gov.au/

To request a new account, go to https://rmsoni.researchgrants.gov.au/and click on the Request New Account link.