Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund

The VMRAF offers a total of $3 million (GST exclusive) of grants:

• Tier 1: Early-stage

Early-stage innovative research proposals for projects that demonstrate potential for translation at a later stage

Up to $100,000 (GST exclusive)

• Tier 2: Fast track

Fast track translation of research to products or practices into clinical or health practice

Up to $500,000 (GST exclusive)

Collaborative Partner requirement

To apply for the VMRAF, an applicant is required to collaborate with at least one other organisation (Collaborative Partner). Ideally the Collaborative Partner is an end user that can support the translation and/or commercialisation of research.

Applications must identify the Collaborative Partner and must attach relevant proof of collaboration as an attachment to their application in accordance with the requirements set out in the ‘Documentation and Information Requirements’ at section 9 of these guidelines.

The application and supporting evidence should demonstrate how the applicant and Collaborative Partner organisations will work together under the collaborative partner arrangements to maximise research impact, innovation, and overall quality of research, and how this will lead to effective translation and/or commercialisation of research.

Collaborative Partner eligibility

Applicants and their Collaborative Partners must be entirely separate entities. They must not be owned by the same parent company, share governance, or have common directors.

In the application, applicants are required to declare there are no existing governance relationships between themselves and the nominated Collaborative Partner, including that they:

• are not subsidiaries or related bodies corporate within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and
• do not share common directors, officers, or senior managers.

Grant funding under the VMRAF will be provided on the basis that applicants provide 1:1 matched cash co-contribution (Co-Contribution Funding).

Co-Contribution Funding can be provided by the lead organisation, the collaborative partner, or another source.

Applicants must provide the department with evidence to the department’s satisfaction of Co-Contribution Funding in their application, which must meet the requirements of section 9 of these guidelines.

Applicants must provide the department with evidence, to the department’s satisfaction, that any required Co-Contribution Funding has been used for the purposes of the Applicant’s project.

In-kind contributions cannot form part of an applicant’s required Co-Contribution Funding.

Grant funding from other State or Commonwealth Government programs awarded to the Applicant specifically for the purposes of supporting a project to be submitted under this VMRAF cannot form part of the Applicant’s required Co-Contribution Funding. General Applicant organisational funding from State or Commonwealth Government sources may form part of the required Co-Contribution Funding.

Examples of co-contribution amounts

Tier 1

If the total project cost is $320,000 (excluding GST), the maximum Grant contribution will be $100,000 (excluding GST). The remaining $220,000 (excluding GST) must be covered by the Applicant.

If the total project cost is $82,000 (excluding GST), the Grant will cover up to $41,000 (excluding GST). The remaining $41,000 (excluding GST) must be covered by the Applicant.

Tier 2

If the total project cost is $1.2 million (excluding GST), the maximum Grant contribution will be $500,000 (excluding GST). The remaining $700,000 (excluding GST) must be covered by the Applicant.

If the total project cost is $780,000 (excluding GST), the Grant will cover up to $390,000 (excluding GST). The remaining $390,000 (excluding GST) must be covered by the Applicant.

General project eligibility

Projects should meet a current need or gap in a field of medical research. This could be, but is not limited to:

• innovative approaches to treatment and/or prevention of disease
• development of new pharmaceuticals, diagnostics or devices or
• studies into current health practices to guide future research targeted at solving weaknesses in current practice.

Eligibility of projects will be determined at the sole discretion of the department.

Applicants are only able to submit a project to one tier of the VMRAF, and the same project will not be eligible to be submitted to the other tier of the VMRAF or Round Three of the mRNA Victoria Research Acceleration Fund.

Eligible projects under the two tiers of the VMRAF should be as follows (to be used as a guide only):

Tier 1

• Early-stage innovative health and medical research projects, including discovery research, clinical research and/or health service research.

Tier 2

• Health and medical research projects that can demonstrate a clear pathway to translation and can secure development and commercialisation opportunities.

Eligible project expenditure

Eligible expenditure items are:

• regulatory and intellectual property fees and charges associated with registering domestic or international patents or other intellectual property enforcement expenses
• equipment, consumables and services required for the research activity as outlined in the project description provided that such equipment, consumable or service is not listed as an ineligible expense in section 6.3 and
• staffing costs that relate solely to either:
  • new employees or
  • the expansion of hours for current part-time employees, provided these employees are working on the funded projects or
  • the extension of contracts for staff whose contracts would otherwise end within the period of the agreement.

Ineligible activities/expenditure

Grant funding received from the VMRAF must not support the following expenditure items:

• usual operational expenditure, including existing staff costs, communications, travel entertainment, vehicles, accommodation, and office computing equipment
• routine replacement or minor upgrade of plant and equipment
• printing, stationery, postage, and bank charges
• basic and routine professional services including legal and accounting fees
• any amount paid on account of goods and services tax
• costs related to preparing the grant application, preparing any project reports and preparing any project variation requests
• building routine websites, sales and promotional activities, marketing or communications campaigns
• retrospective funding of projects that have already:
  • been completed prior to receiving an offer of grant funding under this VMRAF round; or
  • commenced prior to receiving an offer of grant funding under this VMRAF round, except in circumstances where the application of the grant funding can be demonstrated to effect a change of scope or acceleration of a project commenced prior to any funding approval and
• any other expenditure as determined by the department in its sole and absolute discretion.

Project budget

Applicants are required to submit a project budget summary detailing how the VMRAF grant funds and the applicant’s required Co-Contribution Funding will be spent.

Grant funds provided to the applicant under the VMRAF need to meet the eligible project expense criteria outlined in section 6.2 of these guidelines. Co-Contribution Funding is not subject to eligibility criteria. However, the applicant must demonstrate that all Co-Contribution Funding will be applied to the applicant’s project.

Where the eligibility of an expense included in the project budget is uncertain, the department may seek further information from an applicant.

Program timeline

To assist applicants, the department is targeting the following indicative timeline for the VMRAF:

To assist applicants, the department is targeting the following indicative timeline for the VMRAF:

• March 2024 - Notification provided to successful applicants.
• March 2024 - April 2024 - Letters of offer issued to successful applicants followed by, subject to acceptance by relevant applicants, the issuing of draft agreements.
• May 2024 - Earliest date by which applicants can expect agreements to be executed.

The timeline is subject to change at the sole discretion of the department. applicants are not to rely on this indicative timeline and the department accepts no liability in relation to any consequences attributable to reliance on this indicative timeline.

Projects funded by a grant under the VMRAF must be commenced by the applicant following execution by the applicant and the department of an agreement and completed within two years of the commencement date recorded in that grant agreement.

Projects initiated or completed beyond the timeframe of this VMRAF round may still be eligible if the proposed activities supported by funding are completed within two years in accordance with the conditions of the applicant’s agreement.

This is a competitive program and successful applications will be required to rate highly against the assessment criteria compared to other eligible applications. Eligible applications will be assessed by an expert panel external to the department. The panel will sign confidentiality agreements and a Conflict of Interest declaration.

Assessment criteria

Eligible applications will be assessed on how well they meet the assessment criteria as outlined below with reference to the relevant stream and tier of the program applied for by the applicant. All supplementary attachments and information provided as part of the application will be taken into consideration during the assessment and scoring process.

Due diligence assessments

Where required, applicants are subject to a risk assessment which verifies business details provided with the Australian Business Register, Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commissioner, Consumer Affairs Victoria and/or other applicable regulator.

Any of the following circumstances may be taken into consideration in any decision whether to award a grant:

• any adverse findings by a regulator regarding an applicant
• if an applicant is placed under external or voluntary administration or is subject to receivership
• there is a petition to wind up or deregister the applicant
• if an Applicant is or becomes deregistered or unregistered in respect of its registration regulatory body (including cancellation or lapse in registration) and
• whether the applicant has failed to meet key contractual obligations for previous grant agreements with the State. Note: as appropriate, delays due to COVID-19 restrictions and responses will be taken into consideration at the department’s discretion.
• For Applicants that don’t hold an existing service agreement with the department, and are eligible for a Service Agreement, the department may request the organisation’s last two financial statements or annual reports for the purposes of financial accountability requirements.[1]

[1] Organisations funded through the departments Modelling and Payment Systems (MAPS) are exempt from this requirement

Applicants must undertake the following steps to apply:

1. Carefully read these guidelines and ensure they meet all eligibility requirements.

   Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund: round 7 guidelines

   docx 356.9 KB | Updated: 18 October 2023

2. Compile all necessary supporting documents and complete all required attestations as detailed in the ‘Documentation and Information Requirements’ section of these guidelines.
3. Prepare an application and apply online via the Business Victoria application portal.
4. Await email confirmation of application submission. Please check spam/junk mail if confirmation email cannot be seen in your inbox.

Open and close dates

Applications will open on Friday 20 October 2023 and remain open for 6 weeks

Applications will close on Friday 1 December 2023 at 4pm.

Applications must be submitted by 4pm on the closing date. No late applications will be accepted.

All applicants will be advised via email of the outcome of their application approximately 12 weeks after the closing date.