Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program

What is the Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program?

The Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program is an investment by the NSW Government in high quality cardiovascular research of $150 million over 10 years. The program aims to drive scientific discoveries, develop new and innovative treatments, fund research with the potential to prevent cardiovascular disease and improve health and wellbeing outcomes for people with disease.

What type of research is eligible for Senior and Early-Mid Career Researcher grants?

The program funds cardiovascular research which encompasses all diseases and conditions of the heart and blood vessels. Funding will support researchers working in cardiovascular research across basic science, biomedical, clinical medicine and health services research, data science, and population health research. Grants also support research towards the development of novel therapeutics.

Approximately 60% of total funding will be allocated to basic science research and 40% to clinical medicine and science research, health services research, data science, and population health research.

How long is the grant period and how much funding is awarded?

Senior and Early-Mid Career Researcher Grants have a 3-year duration.
• Senior Researcher Grants will be awarded a maximum of $750,000.
• Early-Mid Career Researcher Grants will be awarded a maximum of $450,000*.

*A small number of outstanding Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant applicants may be awarded an additional $300,000 ($100,000 per year for the 3-year duration of the grant to enhance the proposed project). Applicants wishing to be considered for this additional funding are required to provide a separate additional budget and justification for this. The proposed research project should be structured to ensure that the main $450,000 component of the research is able to be completed as a standalone project without the requested additional funding, as requests for additional funding will be considered separately based on merit and the availability of funds.

How can the funding be spent?

Grants are for research projects or programs and can cover a combination of salaries of the research team (clinical and/or non-clinical), backfill for clinicians to quarantine research time, consumables and equipment.

Grants may not be spent on capital works, maintenance, organisational overheads, basic office equipment, rent or utilities. The Host Organisation is required to provide appropriate infrastructure support.

Who can apply for Early-Mid Career and Senior Researcher grants?

All researchers are encouraged to apply, including clinician researchers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, researchers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and primary carers who have experienced career disruptions.

For the purpose of these Grants:
• an Early-Mid Career Researcher is defined as a researcher who is within 15 years of the conferral of their PhD (or equivalent) on the date on which applications close and has not reached full professorial level. PhD students who expect to have their PhD conferred by 15 May 2024 are eligible to apply. Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant applicants will be assessed in three categories: 0-2 years post-PhD, 3-7 years post-PhD and 8-15 years post PhD.
• a Senior Researcher is defined as a researcher who is 15 years or more postdoctoral OR a researcher who is less than 15 years postdoctoral, but who has reached full Professor level. Note: Associate Professors may apply as Early-Mid Career researchers if they are less than 15 years post-doctoral.

Which organisations can host Early-Mid Career and Senior Researcher grants?

The host organisation must conduct health and medical research in NSW and must be a NSW-based university, medical research institute, not-for-profit organisation or a local health district or other NSW public health organisation. The host organisation must agree to employ the researcher and to provide appropriate infrastructure support for the duration of the grant.

Funds will not be paid to Local Health Districts. Host organisations may choose to use a separate organisation to administer the funding, referred to in the Guidelines as an administering organisation.

Can I apply for multiple grants from the NSW Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program?

Only one Senior Researcher OR Early-Mid Career Researcher grant application will be accepted per applicant for each round.

Past recipients of a NSW Health Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program EMC or Senior Researcher grant may apply for funding in this round if their final report will be delivered to OHMR by December 2024. Applications will be awarded according to merit based on the selection criteria, with two caveats:
a. If two applications are of equal merit, preference will be given to applicants that have not previously received a NSW Health grant.
b. In the event that two applications are of similar merit and one applicant has a more developed track record, in part due to holding one or more current national grants in areas of related research, AND that applicant has also previously been awarded a NSW Health grant, the review panel may choose to recommend funding the applicant with the less developed track record, in line with the Program’s focus on building research capacity and capability in NSW.
Applicants who have received a previous NSW Health grant under any program must justify further funding according to productivity and impact specifically related to the previous grant in their application, including:
• publications arising from the grant
• advances arising from the research, including any translation that has occurred
• external funding applications and funding received
• capacity building, including students, trainees and fellows arising from the grant.

What are the selection criteria?

Applicants should refer to the full selection criteria in the Guidelines. These include:
• Chief Investigator (40%)
• Research project (40%)
• Skill development, leadership and capacity building (20%).

What is the selection process?

There are five steps to the selection process:

Step 1: Eligibility check
Following the closing date for applications, NSW Health will determine if each application has satisfied the eligibility criteria.
Step 2: Review by independent expert panel
An independent panel of expert reviewers will assess each eligible application against the selection criteria.
Step 3: Funding recommendation
The independent panel will agree on the final ranking of all eligible applications and will make a recommendation for funding to NSW Health.
Step 4: Decision and notification
NSW Health will determine grant recipients and amounts. All applicants will be informed as to whether they have been awarded funding.
Step 5: Grant Agreements
NSW Health will contact host/ administering organisations for successful projects to execute a funding agreement. A standard, non-negotiable funding agreement will be used.

Do I need to submit an expression of interest as well as a full application?

No. There is only one stage in this grant round - a full application is submitted.

Who owns the intellectual property (IP) rights for the project?

To maximise benefits arising from the public funding of research, all recipients of Senior and Early-Mid Career Researcher Grants must comply with the National Principles of Intellectual Property Management for Publicly Funded Research as a condition of funding.

In addition, intellectual property (IP) arrangements should be agreed between all research partners and organisations. IP arrangements must cover both background IP and IP that is developed during the project. IP arrangements should consider the contributions of all parties. The arrangements should be detailed in the application.

Please see NSW Health's Policy Directive Intellectual Property arising from Health Research which provides a clear and consistent guide for public health organisations to protect their intellectual property arising from research. NSW Health has also released a Commercialisation Framework.

Both documents are available at https://www.medicalresearch.nsw.gov.au/intellectual-property-and-commercialisation-framework