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Development grants

Learn more about the Graduate Research Activities and Development Scheme (GRADS)

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GRADS is a funding scheme for Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students to deliver events that build personal and professional skills and/or promote engagement with the wider University community.

The scheme is facilitated by the HDR Development team within the Graduate Research School.

What's involved

Up to A$5,000 may be awarded to an eligible applicant to deliver an event for all HDR students or a nominated student group. The event must benefit HDR students by building personal and professional skills and/or promoting engagement with the wider University community. Examples might include:

  • inviting a guest speaker to talk about career development
  • organising a workshop with student/academic presenters to discuss research communication strategies
  • facilitating a discussion around equity and inclusion involving a designated student cohort
  • building connections between students in similar roles across schools and faculties (e.g. HDR representatives) to exchange experiences and find collaborators.

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Eligibility

All HDR students currently enrolled at the University of Sydney are eligible to apply. You can apply as an individual or as an organising committee comprised of HDR students.

Staff are not eligible to apply unless enrolled as an HDR student.

Value of award and inclusions

Funding amounts will vary depending on the scope and location of the event, with a maximum of A$5,000 being available per event.

  • keynote speaker fees and their travel costs
  • workshop facilitation
  • catering
  • AV support and venue hire
  • gifts or prizes

  • milestone presentation events
  • events for the members of your immediate research team
  • events aimed at personal development (skills building for one person)
  • events designed for entertainment only
  • existing seminar/workshop series or ongoing programs
  • co-funded events (internal or external)

 

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Core commitments

Funding recipients will be responsible for planning, organising, delivering and reporting on the event within agreed timelines.

  • attend training with HDR Development
  • plan, organise and deliver the event
  • develop marketing and communications material to promote the event
  • acknowledge funding and support from the HDR Development in all promotional material and during the event
  • monitor University email inbox for any communication from HDR Development and respond in a timely manner
  • inform HDR Development of any changes to approved budget and await approval before making any commitment with service providers or suppliers
  • inform HDR Development of the event details
  • disclose to HDR Development any potential or perceived conflict of interests
  • provide invoices to be paid by HDR Development by the deadline
  • collect attendee feedback at the event
  • submit post-event report including attendee feedback by the deadline
  • attend a debriefing meeting at the end of the funding round.

  • provide training for successful applicants around event management
  • provide advice upon request during implementation
  • assist with event promotion
  • attend events upon invitation
  • provide post-event report template
  • process payments upon receiving invoices
  • provide feedback during the debriefing meeting.

Selection process

Your application will be assessed by a selection committee and judged on:

  • scale of the event (events that bring students from across schools and faculties will be prioritised)
  • extent to which the proposed event benefits HDR student skill building and/or engagement with the wider University community
  • extent to which the proposed event considers equity and strategies for engaging diverse student groups
  • clearly articulated event logistics, including proposed dates and venues.

Alignment with HDR Capability Framework

In 2025, HDR Development introduced the HDR Capability Framework, a practical tool that supports HDR candidates in building the technical, professional and transferable skills that underpin impactful, high-quality research.

Events that align with one or more of the following capabilities will be prioritised in the selection process:

Tackles complex research challenges with fresh ideas and critical thinking.

Identifies opportunities and/or participates in interdisciplinary research to work across disciplines/research paradigms to solve complex problems.

Gains hands-on experience through internships, networking and industry collaboration.

Applies for early-stage research support to develop research and professional skills and experiences.

Key dates

Stage

Date

Applications open

Applications for the 2026 round are now closed.

Applications closed

27 April 2026

Assessment and selection

From 28 April 2026

Successful applicants notified

12 May 2026

Induction workshop for successful applicants

19 May 2026

Project Management workshop

21 May 2026

Event implementation period

1 June to 30 November 2026

Mid-term catch up

26 or 28 August 2026

Deadline for submitting invoices

1 November 2026

Debriefing meeting

1 December 2026

How to apply

Applications for the 2026 round are now closed. Successful applicants will be notified shortly.

The application form asks you to include:

  • event title, date, duration, venue, estimated number of attendees
  • event description, including how it plans to build skills/connections in the HDR community and how it considers equity and strategies for engaging diverse student groups (max 300 words)
  • a draft budget by completing and uploading the template provided in the application form
  • quotes to support the budget.

You may submit one application for each event; however, you can submit separate applications for additional events, provided they are significantly different.

Next steps

If your application is successful, we'll contact you by email and you'll be invited to attend the induction and project management workshop. You'll then hold your event during the implementation period. Your event must conclude in 2026.

Invoices

Once you've been invoiced for event costs, please send these invoices to the HDR Development team at hdr.development@sydney.edu.au. 

Other grant schemes

Check out the following grant schemes which are also available for the University of Sydney students:

GRADS events

Check out upcoming and past GRADS events.

Applicant's name Faculty/School  Event name
Aileen Zeng Medicine and Health Reskilling in the Age of AI Hackathon: A call for Cross-Disciplinary Collaborations
Andrea Xia Medicine and Health WELCOME BACK the NERDS
Bronte Cormican-Jones Arts and Social Sciences PaR – Practice as Research: Approaches to Practice as New Knowledge Production 
Daniela Ho Tan Science Cultural Safety in Research: Working Responsively with Communities, Researchers, and Context
Emily Boxall Business HDR Careers On Tour
Gauri Salunkhe Science Beyond the Paper: What if Research were a Relationship?
Haoyu Zhang Medicine and Health Medicine × Health: Collaboration Between Clinicians and Researchers
Jiayao Gao Arts and Social Sciences Unlearning Together: A Cross-Disciplinary Panel on Curatorial Practice, Artistic Research, and Cultural Identity
Rona Puntawe Business Flourishing Futures Lab: Using Play, Foresight and Creativity to Navigate Uncertainty
William Asquith Medicine and Health Copilot or Crutch? Navigating Critical Thinking in AI-Assisted Research
Yiyuan Xu Sydney Conservatorium of Music Beyond the Thesis: An Interdisciplinary HDR Networking and Career Development Forum
Yunuo Wu Medicine and Health Speak with Confidence: Empowering HDR Students from Non-English Backgrounds
Zhiyuan Chen Arts and Social Sciences Creative Careers at the Current Time: Bridging Creative Writing and the Creative Industries

Applicant's name Faculty/
School		 GRADS event name
Chuyang Zhou ENGI AI Across Faculties: A Student-led Forum for Interdisciplinary Exchange
Clare Meere SCM Listening and Storytelling as academic method
Jialing Xie ADP From Research to Impact: Building Cross-Sector Skills for Translational HDR Work
Rory Graham FASS Games beyond gaming: HDR symposium for interdisciplinary games research
Sibel Alca FMH Doughnuts & Drama - fill the hole in your presentation style
Sibel Alca FMH Money, money, money; it's a rich researcher's world
The organising committee ENGI&FMH HDR STEM Career Pathways Symposium
Wenhua Wu ENGI Future Ready: Academic Success, Industry Connections, and Career Development
Xuefei Li ADP Ethics Beyond the Form: Navigating Human Ethics in Cross-Disciplinary Research for HDR Students
Yining Luo FMH Beyond the Thesis
Zhiwei Yang FMH Networking 101 for Dummies

Applicant's name Faculty/
School		 GRADS event name
Andrew Gamble FMH Enhancing skills for visual engagement in research
Dan (Vivian) Zhu FASS HDR Reading Club for Team Reading and Interdisciplinary Insights
Eldrin Hermoso BUSS Spilling the Tea with Academics
Felicia Lie SCIE SUCS Symposium
Felicia Lie SCIE SUCS seminar series and LE FERVRE student lecture
Frank Fei ENGI Engineering HDR Conference 2024
Gemma Altinger FMH Consumer Involvement in Research Training 
Leila Vatandoustsardroud ENGI Integrated Photonics Workshop
Qian (Eileen) Yang FASS Panel Discussion for Supporting First-in-Family HDR Students
Sibel Alca FMH Doughnuts & Drama - fill the hole in your presentation style
Sulagna Basu FASS Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges
Thomas De Angelis FASS CREATE HDR Seminar Series 

Any questions?

Contact the HDR Development team at hdr.development@sydney.edu.au