DECRA

1. DECRA Georgie Kelly

2. Checklist before writing application • Are you eligible? • Is your track record competitive? (30%) • Is your project novel and significant? (50%) • Is this the right round to apply or should you wait? • Have you got time to spend 200+ hours on an application?

3. How to measure your track record • Criteria for track record vary significantly from field to field e.g. publication rates. Need to know what is required in your general field. • Elements of track record: • Publications – quality, number, citations • Grants/funding • Awards/prizes/measures of peer esteem • Assessed relative to opportunity

4. Track record • ARC, NHMRC outcomes are published. • Look at the people winning in your field with your level of experience (Fellowship winners, grant teams without a Prof.) • Often Uni web pages will have detailed career info (personal pages or the equivalent of Deakin’s “research performance” pages), otherwise a lit. search for the author will show most journal publications and types of journals. • Who are the ECRs in your research area with growing reputations? • If you know a panel member (present or recent) or regular assessor for the scheme you are interested in, ask for some feedback about whether your CV is competitive

5. Project Quality • Know what is happening in your field • Ensure that your project is at or near the cutting edge • Run your project idea past colleagues • Do they think it’s exciting? • Does it need some tweaking? • Is the scope appropriate for this scheme?

6. Write for the reviewers • Panel will include people from your broad discipline • Grants sent out to external reviewers who will be more familiar with your field • Need to make sure that all readers will understand terminology, be able to follow approach etc. • No abbreviations or jargon • Think carefully about assumed knowledge • Good idea to have grant read by someone outside your field for feedback

7. “Sell” the idea and the team • Weave significance/innovation/expertise throughout whole grant • Sections all need to tie together – aims, methodology, budget • Reviewer will also be looking for evidence that you will be working in an appropriate environment (including people) with good facilities – you need to make this clear.

8. Track record • Include all information that a reviewer needs to assess your track record (few/none of the reviewers will be directly in your field). • Keep it focussed, positive, matter-of-fact • Publications • include information about ERA ranking, citations, your role in the work (especially if you were one of many authors) • Track record relative to opportunity • How much of your time has been available for research? • What have your key research contributions to field been? (probably 1-3 for most ECRs) • Other evidence of standing in field – awards, patents, roles in publications, conferences, professional organisations

9. Project description • Reviewers may be outside your field and may read and score 40+ applications • Consider making first page an executive summary or overview • Keep writing very clear and focussed. • Avoid overly technical language, jargon, especially on the first page (get someone outside your field to read and check for this). No abbreviations/acronyms unless very widely known. Reviewers don’t have time to hunt for definitions or remember a lot of new jargon • Make your application easy to read (short paragraphs, white space on page) • Use headings, dot points, bold, italics etc. to help reviewers find key information)

10. Project • Project Title • Project • Institutional Support • References • No more than 6 pages • This is a new format and reduction in pages allowed.

11. Project • does the research address a significant problem? • is the conceptual/theoretical framework innovative and original? • will the aims, concepts, methods and results advance knowledge? • are the project design and methods appropriate? • will the proposed research provide economic, environmental, cultural and/or social benefit to Australia? • does the project address a National Research Priority area?

12. Does the research address a significant problem? (Aims and background) • Introduce problem and explain why it is important • State the aims of the project • Establish expertise of team (mention relevant work, reference team members) • State the project outcomes (how the work will be used to contribute to solving the problem) • Background should illustrate that the problem is important, urgent and that the project will make a significant contribution to knowledge

13. Suggested format for first page Big picture, problem to be solved,……… …………..reference to your own recent breakthroughs in this field……………… ……………..General aim for this project • Three or four specific aims Impact …………………………………… …………difference the project will make …………team…………………………………. • Specific outcomes and uptake • Talk up partnership and interaction • Give some facts to enhance your credibility

14. Is the conceptual/theoretical framework innovative and original?Will the aims, concepts, methods and results advance knowledge? (Significance and Innovation) • Significance • Problem is important • Work will make a new contribution to field • Work will advance field, possibly open up new areas • Innovation • New approaches, methodologies • Novelty of concepts/aims

15. Are the project design and methods appropriate? (Approach/Methodology) • Divide project up into tasks • Describe how you will carry out each task • Make it clear how tasks relate back to aims of project • Should be clear how people and resources will be used (needs to correlate with budget) • Gantt charts and timelines are often used to show how the tasks will be completed within the time constraints • A well written approach will give an assessor confidence in your ability to carry out the project. A poor methodology or approach will make assessors question your expertise and/or project planning skills

16. Suggested format for Approach Brief introductory paragraph. Describe research environment (facilities, people) and general plan. Task 1 Name of task CI Smith, RA Jan 2011-April 2011 Aim: Description Outcome: Task 2.... Timeline/Gantt chart

17. Will the proposed research provide economic, environmental, cultural and/or social benefit to Australia? Does the project address a National Research Priority area? (National benefit/strategic alignment) • Try to avoid generic statements, use specific examples. Find relevant statistics – how many people/animals/hectares etc. are affected by problem, what is the cost, what is the scale of the potential improvements/savings? • If you nominate a National Priority Area, explain how the project will contribute to that area • Social – how will this project improve people’s lives? How many people? • Economic – will this project help Australian industries and businesses? How many people are involved in the industry? What is the turnover? • Environmental – will this project contribute to the environment? Scale of impact? • Health – will this project have an impact on the health of Australians? How many? What is the cost of the problem? • Cultural – how will this project contribute?

18. Institutional Support • is there an existing, or developing, supportive and high quality research environment? • Be specific about the quality of facilities and people, size of group, research income, growth • Think about how you’ll convey the sense that your area is dynamic, innovative, inspiring • Will you be working in a priority area/SRC? • are the necessary facilities available to complete the project? • This should correlate with methodology and expand on detail as appropriate • Highlight quality of resources and facilities, appropriate access • are there adequate strategies to encourage dissemination, commercialisation, if appropriate, and promotion of research outcomes? • Don’t be generic, write about what your group does and what strategies are used • Internal/external workshops/conferences • Mechanisms to liaise with appropriate industry • Publish in forums targeted at those who can utilise outcomes of research (think beyond “publishing in A/A* journals”, how will you reach the end users?)

19. Budget • Be realistic about what you need to get the work done (important to establish credibility) • Only include essential items • Make sure the Approach/Methodology mentions how you will use the budget items • Include enough detail for an assessor to see how you arrived at each amount (they need to be confident that you are not just guessing costs) • Can be very useful to find some examples of similar projects