Funding and opportunities – 15 September 2020
Changes to MRO’s Medical & Health Sciences (MHS) Team Services
In light of challenging current circumstances, budgetary constraints and an inability to recruit to backfill vacant positions within the Medical & Health Sciences (MHS) Team at the MRO, they have had to reconsider how best to provide the most meaningful service offering to researchers and faculties, with the resources they currently have.
Please refer to the message below for further details.
For questions, please contact Tania Genge, Manager, MHS Team (tania.genge@monash.edu).
Compliance & Eligibility Checking During NHMRC Major Rounds
Monash University submits hundreds of applications collectively across the Investigator, Ideas, Synergy and Clinical Trials & Cohort Studies (CTCS) schemes annually.
In past years we have recruited a group of casual staff to assist us with compliance & eligibility checking, certifying and submitting such a large volume of applications. Unfortunately this will not be possible for the remainder of 2020, nor for the foreseeable future.
As such, we will no longer be able to facilitate full compliance checks of applications to these schemes. Instead, we will be providing ‘final checks only’ of all applications 2 weeks out from the funder deadline (ahead of certification and submission). A final check will ensure that there are no major eligibility issues, but will not provide a comprehensive look over the application in detail.
This change will ensure that researchers are able to maximise writing time ahead of the deadline, and also afford our team the capacity to answer the many compliance and eligibility questions in the lead up to submission.
Scheme Reference Materials
Over the next couple of weeks our team will be creating and making available, reference materials for our researchers for the upcoming CTCS round (funder deadline 25 November 2020).
These materials will provide a summary of the scheme, and a checklist of the all the key eligibility and compliance aspects researchers will need to be mindful of whilst preparing their applications for this opportunity.
Our team intend to provide these reference documents for all NHMRC major round opportunities going forward, and will of course, be available via phone or email for any questions along the way.
MRO Compliance Deadline (still 2 weeks for non-major round NHMRC schemes, and non-NHMRC schemes)
For all non-major round NHMRC schemes and non-NHMRC schemes, our internal deadline for a compliance and eligibility review will continue to be 2 weeks ahead of the funder deadline.
Applications that meet our MRO internal deadline will be guaranteed a full eligibility and compliance check of their application.
Applications that come to our team after our internal deadline (that is, within 2 weeks of the funder deadline) will receive a compliance and eligibility check only if team capacity allows. We will continue to encourage researchers to meet our MRO compliance deadline for these schemes to reduce the risk of an application being ruled ineligible.
US Department of Defense (DoD) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Applications & Awards moving to our AGC Team
In order to deliver our new service model without any additional staff, the MHS Team will no longer be providing eligibility and compliance support for Department of Defense (DoD) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Applications and Awards.
From 1 October 2020 these funders will be handled by MRO’s AGC team until further notice.
Assistance from the AGC team can be reached at the following addresses: mro-applications@monash.edu (for Applications) and mro-awards@monash.edu (for Awards).
Should you have any questions or queries regarding any of the above, please contact us.
Thank you in advance for your understanding,
The MHS Team
Summary of Key Changes
NHMRC Major Round Schemes:
Investigators, Ideas, Synergy, and Clinical Trials & Cohort Studies
- No full eligibility & compliance checks of applications. All applications will receive a ‘final check’ only prior to certification and submission to NHMRC
- MRO compliance deadline for a ‘final check’ of applications will be 2 weeks from Funder Deadline
- Scheme reference materials will be provided to researchers including a checklist of key eligibility & compliance criteria to assist with application preparation
- MHS Team available for scheme questions and queries in the lead up to application submission to funder
Non-Major round NHMRC schemes, and non-NHMRC schemes
- Full eligibility & compliance review guaranteed of all applications if received by MRO compliance deadline (i.e., 2 weeks from the funder deadline)
- Applications received after the MRO compliance deadline (within 2 weeks of the funder deadline) will receive a compliance and eligibility review only if team capacity allows
US Department of Defense (DoD) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Applications & Awards
- All DoD and NIH Applications and Awards will be managed by the AGC team from 1 October 2020. Please contact mro-applications@monash.edu and / or mro-awards@monash.edu for assistance with these funders
