Closed Grant Opportunity View - GO7134

The Australian Research Council (ARC), on behalf of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI), is conducting an Expression of Interest (EOI) grant opportunity for the National Intelligence Discovery Grants (NIDG) program. 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 and national security interests. The grant program will facilitate innovation and develop national security and 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 EOI 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, refer 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.

An EOI application may only be submitted through the Research Office of an Eligible Organisation listed in the relevant grant guidelines.

All individuals named in an EOI 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.

EOI applications under this grant opportunity must have:

• one Chief Investigator (CI)
• one Eligible Organisation (that is the Administering Organisation).

Roles that named participants may be nominated for under EIID25 are:

• Chief Investigator.

Applications must nominate the following named participants to be eligible:

• One eligible CI from the Administering Organisation.

Chief 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 EOI 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 and assessments 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.