Internal grants and fellowships

The University of Sydney funds three categories of Equity Prizes for employees of the University. They include:

• Thompson - aims to promote and enhance the careers of academic women. They are offered to academic and research-only women employed by the University of Sydney at levels C or D. 
• Brown - offered to researchers whose careers have been interrupted by the undertaking of sustained primary caring duties and provide relief from routine teaching and administrative responsibilities, and research-only staff with funding for technical assistance for up to two semesters
• Laffan - named in honour of Mr Matt Laffan, Sydney alumnus and colourful character in Sydney's legal fraternity who battled a rare genetic disorder and inspired Australians with his zest for life. These are offered to university researchers who have, or have experienced, a significant disability, and aims to assist recipients re-establish or enhance their academic research careers.

More detailed information, including key dates, will be provided on the intranet when the scheme is open.

Contact: Matthew Louie 

Offered to employees of the University of Sydney and funded by the University and the NHMRC, grants of up to $200,000 will be considered for funding. Where the application is for part funding of a purchase greater than $200,000, funding for the remainder must already have been secured and evidence for this funding must be supplied with the application.

Contact: Jack Ault

These prizes are awarded to early and mid career researchers and aim to recognise and develop our most talented researchers and to establish a cohort of future research leaders for Sydney. Applicants must be University of Sydney academic staff. See our most recent SOAR prize recipients.

Contact: Miriam-Rose Ash

Available to University of Sydney employees, the University of Sydney’s Commercial Development and Industry Partnerships (CDIP) Team offer the following opportunities:

• CDIP fund for research commercialisation - provides critical financial support for research projects with commercial potential

Contact: cdip@sydney.edu.au

The Office of Global Engagement (OGE) Global Development Awards is a research development program for early and mid-career researchers to engage with priority partners. The program offers a competitive development opportunity for continuing and fixed-term University of Sydney academics to build on the close links established with the University’s prestigious strategic partner universities in the last five years.

The primary aim of the scheme is to enable the development of new international projects. Selected participants will be individuals with promising research trajectories that could be accelerated with additional support.

The Global Development Awards include a structured training program, mentoring and where required, teaching relief, to provide focused time for international research development. 

Contact: Matthew Louie

The Robinson Fellowships create a pathway towards continuing teaching and research positions at the University for the most outstanding early-career researchers. The structured, four-year program includes salary, research costs, and mentoring support. Heads of School, Deans, Associate Deans (Research) and the Research Portfolio identify potential candidates (current employees only) based on merit and potential. Eligible candidates will likely hold an externally or internally funded fixed-term fellowship, and be less than 12 years post-PhD. Read more.

Contact: Lia Zambetti

Note: The Robinson Fellowships are under review.  An announcement for 2022 is forthcoming.

The Partnership Collaboration Awards (PCA) were established by the University of Sydney to facilitate and support joint research initiatives that strengthen the relationships with its strategic partner universities as well as develop multi-disciplinary cutting-edge research to create academic and societal impact. 

Each year proposals for collaborative research projects involving teams from the University of Sydney working with teams from its strategic partner universities are sought.

Proposals must include long-term plans for engagement which involve leveraging external funding and publication outputs. Proposals are open to all disciplines. Proposals which seek to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and are multidisciplinary in nature are highly encouraged. 

The number of projects selected and funding available varies between partnerships. Funds are available for 12 months, and the amounts awarded range between AUD 20,000 to AUD 40,000 per project. 

Contact: Office of Global Engagement (ip.ipdf@sydney.edu.au)

In April 2022, the University of Sydney (USyd) Sustainability Steering Committee approved a major research initiative around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the Sydney Future World project.

The Sydney Future World project is a university-led initiative to harness energy and knowledge from around the city of Sydney to work on specific projects related to the SDG and position Sydney as a world centre of SDG research and expertise. It brings together the city’s universities, government agencies and industry leaders, pooling their expertise and resources to translate research into action.

To build internal and external partnerships around the SDG which feed into the Sydney Future World project, the International SDG Collaboration Program has been established. This program will be managed by the Office of Global Engagement and aims to facilitate and support collaborative initiatives that develop multidisciplinary cutting-edge research to create academic and societal impact which addresses the SDG.

It is expected that selected proposals evolve into larger scale, externally funded research collaborations which also serve as beacons for attracting philanthropy.

Up to ten proposals will be funded. Each successful proposal may receive up to AUD 150,000.

Contact: Matthew Louie (ip.ipdf@sydney.edu.au)

The University of Sydney Fellowships are under review.