The Indigenous Graduate Research Support Grant is available to all Indigenous graduate researchers who are enrolled in a graduate research degree and undertaking activities relating to completion of their research project or their career development.
Table of Content
Summary
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Benefits
This grant provides up to $10,000 for candidates enrolled in a doctoral degree and up to $5,000 for candidates enrolled in Master by Research.
Funding can be accessed for activities that fall within one or more of the following categories:
- Academic networking and collaboration
- Activities that are related to your research, such as attending or presenting at a conference, building community partnerships, or undertaking cross-institutional engagement that builds national networks and peer connections between Indigenous graduate researchers at other research institutions.
- The grant can cover expenses such as travel, accommodation, registration fees.
- Professional development
- Activities that enhance your research training skills or improve connections to culture, such as leadership programs or language learning.
- The grant can cover expenses such as course or program fees, learning materials or equipment, travel and accommodation costs.
- Cultural or family obligations
- Support for maintaining cultural or family links
- The grant covers travel costs and/or a period of paid leave from your graduate research course. Additional special leave of up to 20 days (doctoral) or 10 days (masters research) across candidature is available
- Research translation and community engagement activities
- Assistance for planned impact and engagement activities that are noted in the research plan.
- The grant covers cost related to holding community meetings, developing or editing resources, publications.
- Honoraria for advisors on research
- Payment to an Elder or senior knowledge holder who has supported your research project and/or thesis.
- An honorarium is a token of appreciation to an Elder or senior knowledge holder. It is not a payment for services. Honorarium payments can only be made for support or advice that has already been contributed by an Elder or senior knowledge holder to your research project and/or thesis, not in expectation of future contribution.
- There is a limit of $3,000 for Honorarium payments across candidature, with a maximum of $1,500 per person.
What the grant cannot be used for
- The grant will not cover expenses that are not research training related, including but not limited to: holidays, repayment of bills or debts including credit cards or loan debts, purchasing vehicles, housing bonds, rent or residential college fees, fines or penalties, clothing or apparel, or medical expenses.
Requirements
To be eligible for this grant, you must:
- Be an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person, identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person, and be accepted as such by the community in which you live or have lived
- Be enrolled in a Masters by Research, Master of Philosophy or Doctor of Philosophy
Selection Process
All eligible graduate researchers can access the grant.
Conditions
Students must:
- Affirm and maintain their eligibility for support for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. See: Establishing your eligibility
- Be enrolled in a graduate research course at the University of Melbourne in order to receive grant payments
- Provide a short report on the how the grant supported your research project and/or career development and how you have spent the funding. You may be required to return unspent funds.
- Acknowledge the support of the grant in any publication, advertisement, lecture, seminar, workshop, performance or exhibition issuing from the grant.
For the Honorarium Payment, you must transfer the payment to the Elder or senior knowledge holder for which the grant was awarded, and submit the Honorarium Declaration signed the Elder or senior knowledge holders, when requested.
Application Deadline
December 31, 2026How To Apply
Are you qualified and interested in this opportunity? Kindly go to
University of Melbourne on unimelb-scholarships.smartygrants.com.au to apply
- You must complete the Indigenous Graduate Research Support Grant (IGRSG) Application Form to access the grant. You will be asked to provide a brief outline of how you intend to use the funds.
- Each request for funding should be for a minimum of $1000, except in the case of an honorarium payment, which does not require a minimum amount. You will be able to access the grant multiple times during your candidature until you have used your grant allocation.
- To request the honorarium payment, you will need to complete the IGRSG Honorarium Request Form, which must be signed by your Advisory Committee Chair and attached with your IGRSG Application Form.
