Queensland-Chinese Academy of Sciences Collaborative Science Fund frequently asked questions 2020
How to apply
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Read Guidelines and application requirements at the Queensland Government website for the Queensland-Chinese Academy of Sciences (Q-CAS) Collaborative Science Fund 2020 program. Complete an online application form and submit required documentation via the secure SmartyGrants website.
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Applications for 2020 close Tuesday, 16 June 2020 at 1:00pm AEST.
Late applications will not be accepted.
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No. Your application will be deemed ineligible if it does not address one or more of the following identified priorities:
- agricultural biotechnology and food research (including food safety)
- human health and medical research
- environmental sciences
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Yes an equivalent application must be submitted by the China-based participant to CAS.
For further information on CAS requirements contact Chinese Academy of Sciences:
- Telephone: +8610 6859 7506
- Email: crchen@cashq.ac.cn (mailto:crchen@cashq.ac.cn)
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The text fields contained in the Application Form have been restricted to the word limits considered appropriate for each question and these limits cannot be extended.
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Information provided in this section of the Application Form will be used to inform a wide range of people about the proposed project. It is therefore important that it is clear and easy to understand by a person with a limited scientific background. Do not use scientific jargon or technical terms.
The overview of the project should include simple statements outlining: what the project aims to do and how it will be done; how the project will address the identified challenge/opportunity; the significance of the collaboration between the project partners; and, a summary of the key outcomes for Queenslanders.
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Multiple documents (letters of support or resumes) should be combined into one PDF file before uploading.
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In demonstrating this you should detail your awareness of similar/comparable research undertaken by academia and industry, including the undertaking of patent searches, as appropriate.
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Detail the key project activities to be completed, split into six-monthly reporting periods. You also need to detail the expected outcomes of these activities (i.e. how you will measure the success of the project at the end of each six-monthly reporting period).
While it is appreciated that scientific milestones are usually highly technical in nature, they should, as far as possible, be described in clear, non-technical language that will enable understanding and meaningful verification by non-scientific personnel. As a guideline, each milestone should be three to five dot points describing the key activities and outcomes for the particular stage of the project with numbers, targets or rates of completion, where possible.
Should your application for funding be successful this milestone table will form the basis of your progress reporting.
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The online lodgement process is hosted via a secure site and application documentation will remain strictly confidential.
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All applications will be assessed by a panel of independent assessors that will assess the applications against the assessment criteria, and rank applications in order of merit.
The Queensland Government will then consider this order of merit along with a range of variables including value for money and balancing the portfolio of investment in order to make the final recommendations for funding to the Minister for Science.
Funding
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Grants of $125,000 (over a maximum of two years) are available from the Queensland Government under this Fund. Successful applicants will also receive AUD$125,000 from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
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The number of projects to be funded in future rounds is to be agreed between upon the Queensland Government and the CAS.
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Whilst an allocation of funding to each priority area is preferable, the actual award of funding will be based on the volume and quality of applications received.
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For the purpose of this funding program organisational overheads are the institutional and administrative overhead costs attributed to a position, such as facilities and accommodation-related costs, ICT costs, general administrative support costs. In some organisations this is calculated as a percentage of the salary costs. These on-costs are not eligible for Queensland Government funding.
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Costs directly associated with the employment of an individual, such as superannuation, workers compensation, payroll tax and leave loading are eligible.
Organisational eligibility
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The organisation must be operating its business in a physical location in Queensland which must be maintained for the duration of the project.
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The organisation must conduct research as its primary business. Research organisations include: higher education institutions, cooperative research centres, research institutes and relevant government agencies.
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A partner is an organisation that is materially contributing to the project and its outcomes, as demonstrated by a cash contribution.
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No, private businesses/companies are not eligible to apply for funding from the program. They are eligible to participate in the project as partner organisations.
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Yes, however, applicants would need to demonstrate the value for money in a project application that cites Queensland Government as the major funder.
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No. To be eligible, projects must include a China-based lead participant that will be a CAS-affiliated institute for the duration of the project. Further information on CAS institutes can be found on the CAS website.
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The Queensland-based applicant organisation must contribute at least AUD$75,000 in cash to the project.
The CAS-affiliated institute (and any China-based partner/s) must contribute at least AUD$75,000 to match the Queensland applicant (and any partner/s) contribution.
(Total project value will be a minimum of AUD$400,000 comprising AUD$125,000 each from Department of Science (DES) and CAS and AUD$75,000 each from the Queensland applicant and CAS lead participant.)
You are not required to detail any in-kind contributions to the project.
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For the purposes of this funding program cash is either, or a combination of:
- cash as raised directly by the applicant organisation and/or leveraged from project partners
- salary* costs attributed to the project of dedicated researchers who are employed by the applicant organisation and/or the project partners, and who are assigned directly to the core business of the project.
*In relation to salary costs, by definition:
- researchers must have at least 20% of their work responsibilities assigned directly to the core business of the project
- researchers can be full-time or part-time
- if it transpires that a researcher’s time has been charged or allocated to more than one project (that is, where a researcher’s time has been double counted) DES will withdraw funding for the project.
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Yes—if the researcher is spending at least 20% of his/her time working on the project.
Conditions of Award
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Successful projects must commence within six months of being advised that funding has been approved.
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No. If you are offered funding from the Q-CAS Collaborative Science Fund, you will be required to execute the standard financial incentive agreement within 15 business days of receipt, or the offer of funding will lapse
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Funding recipients will be required to proactively communicate the research project’s aims, progress and outcomes through activities such as publications, conferences, the media and science education activities. The support of Queensland Government should be acknowledged in all public communications. Recipients will be required to evidence these communications throughout the lifetime of the project.
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Funding is paid in instalments throughout the lifetime of the project. Generally, payments are made following the submission of satisfactory reports detailing the progress and outcomes of the project against the research plan.
Further information
Email: science.grants@des.qld.gov.au
Facebook: Queensland Science
Twitter: @qldscience
Phone: 13 QGOV (13 74 68)
Chinese partners can obtain more information from the Chinese Academy of Sciences:
Email: crchen@cashq.ac.cn
Phone: +8610 6859 7506
