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SCS research and awards news

For all our research and awards news, please visit our news page.

Friday 18 September 2020

Update to Australian Research Council (ARC) Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy

The ARC Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy has been updated to clarify the types of personal interests that researchers are required to identify and disclose.  Researchers will need to provide this information when they are on an application for ARC research funding, or on the ARC's College of Experts.

ARC - Australian Laureate Fellowships (FL21) Now Open

The Australian Laureate Fellowships (including Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship) scheme encourages applications from the highest-quality researchers by providing eligible Australian Laureate Fellows with project funding in addition to a salary supplement and salary-related (on-cost) support.    

A Call for Collaborative Medicinal Chemistry Projects 2020-2021

The Australian Translational Medicinal Chemistry Facility (ATMCF) provides Australian researchers with an opportunity to:

  • access subsidised medicinal chemistry
  • access the Therapeutic Innovation Australia (TIA) Pipeline Accelerator for further cost reductions
  • work with a team of medicinal chemists who have a proven track record in drug discovery and commercialisation outcomes

MONASH UNIVERSITY - BAKER INSTITUTE SEED FUNDING FOR COLLABORATIONS IN CARDIOVASCULAR RESEARCH

Monash University's Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (MNHS) and the Baker Institute are jointly funding a seed grant scheme, to further enhance collaborative cardiovascular research. Researchers are invited to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for funding up to $100,000 for collaborative projects.

Wednesday 16 September 2020

WiSDoM Tea & Stories

The School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) Women in Science, Discovery and Medicine (WiSDoM) Committee cordially invite you to an afternoon of Tea and Stories on Leveraging gains from COVID-19 and its lesson

Date: Wednesday 23 September 2020 3:30 pm – 4:30pm via Zoom HERE

Torque 'Covid-19: The New Normal' Event

Date/Time:

  • Tuesday  6 October 2020 6:00 – 7:30 PM

The module will feature four experts in health and higher education who will sift through all the data and jargon to:

COVID-19: The steroids that are helping seriously ill patients survive


Recently, we learnt that COVID-19 can be beaten. For the first time there is an evidence-based treatment for this disease, and it’s a low cost medicine that can be accessed in most places on the planet.  Read full story here.

Halting the Oxford vaccine trial doesn’t mean it’s not safe – it shows they’re following the right process


Only days after the federal government announced a A$1.7 billion vaccine deal to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to Australians in 2021, one of the two candidates has halted its phase 3 trials after a participant became ill. Read full story here

SCS & Hudson ARC Fellowship Support Program 2020 - Call for submissions

 ARC Fellowship Applicants are invited to be part of the Hudson & SCS Grant Review process of ARC Fellowship Schemes. Through this process you will be allocated reviewers to assist with writing your grant.

Tuesday 15 September 2020

Major gift to Neonatal Paediatrics

A new Chair in Neonatal Paediatrics will fast-track Monash University, Monash Health and Hudson Institute’s joint vision for newborn medicine and serve the community through advanced treatments and interventions and education programs.  Read full story here

MMC/MCH Site Alert: Cashier's Office Relocation

The Cashier’s office in Monash Medical Centre (MMC) is being relocated.  Cash Office services will commence at the new location on Wednesday September 16, 2020.

The new location for the Cashier’s office is adjacent to the Orange lifts on level 2

For further information, contact David Moyle, Site Liaison Officer Telephone: 03 959 44727 Email: MMCSiteManagement@monashhealth.org 

FMNHS Bridging Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (Round 1)

 The Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (FMNHS) will provide competitive funding in 2021 to support the career development of promising newly-qualified postdoctoral researchers and final year PhD students.

FMNHS Senior Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021

The Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (FMNHS) will provide competitive funding for researchers who have applied for fellowship support in 2020 but have been unsuccessful in obtaining salary support.

MRFF Consultation - Medical Research and Innovation Priorities 2020-2022

A national consultation process is now underway to guide the third set of the MRFF- Australian Medical Research and Innovation Priorities for 2020–2022. 

Monday 14 September 2020

Changes to MRO's Medical & Health Sciences (MHS) Team Services

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 mhs@monash.edu.

Thank you in advance for your understanding,

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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


New Opportunities: MRFF Grants due 11 November

Six new funding opportunities were announced yesterday from the Medical Research Future Fund, supporting a variety of research.

Applications are now open for all schemes, and will be administered by the NHMRC through their Sapphire system.  All have the same deadlines, and all require minimum data. Guidelines are available via Grant Connect. 

*Please note that a 2nd round of the 2020 International Clinical Trial Collaborations is also planned, to close 3 Mar 2021.

The GrantEd Group - Free Trial for two grant writing guides

The GrantED Group is offering two free trials to training sessions to assist researchers in writing grant applications, including step-by-step advice for tackling all the main written sections of your application.

ACADEMIC PROMOTION 2020/2021: MNHS Internal Processes

The 2020/2021 Academic Promotions round will be open for applications between 5 October - 13 November 2020.  If you are planning on applying for promotion this year, it is time to begin the pre-promotion process.  Please follow the instructions below to get started:

Research Australia Report - The impact of COVID-19 on health and medical researchers

The report from Research Australia on The impact of COVID-19 on health and medical researchers was officially launched yesterday. This report is a compilation and analysis from their national survey of over 1200 researchers. Further information are available at the Research Australia website

Webinar: Update on MARP Activities & COVID-19 Preparedness at Clayton and MHTP

The Faculty has organised a webinar to update stakeholders on MARP activities and COVID-19 preparedness at the Clayton and MHTP precincts next week:

IMPORTANT: New requirement for working on-site at MMC - Attestations

The Victorian Government now requires that all staff and students entering healthcare services make a daily attestation about their health status with respect to COVID-19.

Dean's Awards for Excellence Awards 2020, Thursday 17 September

We encourage you to tune in to the Dean’s Awards for Excellence town hall. The event will include a Faculty update from the Dean, Professor Christina Mitchell, followed by the awards presentation.