Conditions

The International Science Linkages (ISL) programme, which is a part of Government's Innovation Statement: Backing Australia's Ability - Building Our Future through Science and Innovation, provides support for Australian researchers from industry, private or public research organisations and universities to travel to:

1. Access major research facilities not available in Australia; and

2. Attend strategic planning meetings where this can be clearly demonstrated to be essential to Australia's participation in projects using major international research facilities not available in Australia.

For the purpose of the AMRF Programme, the term 'major research facilities (MRF)' is defined as referring to very large research facilities valued over $100m and not available in Australia.

Outcomes anticipated from these visits must contribute to the objectives of the International Science Linkages programme and where possible to Government's industry development and economic growth objectives. These objectives are:

• To increase uptake of leading edge science and technology, through increased participation by Australian researchers and industry in strategically focused international science and technology and increased strategic alliances between Australian and overseas researchers and industry. This could be demonstrated by:
   

- Number of researchers accessing major research facilities;
 

- Number of overseas science, technology and industry contacts/projects established or maintained through the visits;
 

- Number of papers and conference presentations resulting from the visits;
 

- The extent to which strategic planning meetings secured access to major research facilities for Australian researchers; and
 

- The extent to which AMRF Programme facilitates the development of long and short term international collaboration.
 

• To contribute to the Government's industry development and economic growth objectives through Australian researcher participation in global science and research. This could be demonstrated by:

- The attraction of inwards research and development investment;

- Improvement of productivity;

- Extent, and nature of industry participation in the research activity generating the need for visits to major research facilities overseas;
 

- Value of exports resulting from activities funded by AMRF Programme; and

- Access to new research and technologies.

Application Conditions

1. Applicants must satisfy the following criteria to be eligible for funding under the AMRF Programme. An Applicant must be:
 

a. An Australian citizen or holds permanent resident status;

b. Currently resides in Australia; and

c. Is employed by an Australian education institution, government or the private sector in a research capacity in scientific and technological disciplines.

2. Applicants which require the use of a major research facility must be engaged in research and supported by:

either a grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) or any other funding body;

or internal funding in the case of university funded researchers and applicants from industry, CSIRO and other government research organisations. Applicants in receipt of ARC or NHMRC grants should submit a copy of their original grant application, with notification of funding approval and any imposed conditions, to demonstrate that access to a major research facility overseas is necessary in relation to the objectives of the research. University funded researchers and applicants from industry, CSIRO and other government research laboratories should submit evidence that the research requiring the use of a major research facility overseas is supported by funds from their organisation.

3. Applicants that wish to travel to undertake research at an advanced research facility overseas must provide evidence that access has been granted by the body controlling that facility following peer review of a proposed experiment. Alternatively, a full proposal must be submitted for peer review in Australia. Applicants must also supply evidence of the scheduled experiment. However this is not initially required when submitting an ARMFP Application.

4. The support available is intended to enable Australian investigators to access specific research facilities. However, in some instances funding may be provided to support travel to attend strategic planning meetings to:

a. Secure access by Australian researchers to major research facilities; or

b. Where a research project has been provided support under the AMRF Programme, to meet with other registered members of an international consortium to discuss the outcomes from that experiment and agree upon future activities and milestones.
 

Support will only be provided for one strategic planning meeting prior to or between accessing a major research facility.
 

5. When applying for funding to attend a strategic planning meeting, applicants must provide a detailed description of the reasons why the meeting is necessary, the specific outcomes expected from the meeting and how these outcomes are essential to either obtaining access to a MRF or to furthering the experiment for which access to the MRF was first granted. It should be clearly indicated that all alternatives to undertaking travel to the meeting have been explored and would not be effective. These alternatives could include: having the meeting in conjunction with a visit to the facility; having the meeting in Australia; or using the Internet or teleconferencing. Funding will not be provided when travel is solely for design of future experiments.

6. Travel to undertake data analysis will not be supported except in the case of access to space-based observatories, eg. the Hubble Telescope, where access is required to make use of the specialist software at the headquarters of the facility. A single trip per successful proposal of observation time will be supported.

7. The funding provided under this scheme may be used to support:

- Lowest available, fully flexible, return international economy airfare for the Chief Investigator;

- Lowest available, fully flexible, return international economy airfares for up to two other persons who will be actively involved in the research at the major research facility;

- Lowest available, fully flexible, return international economy airfare to attend strategic planning meetings;

- Local travel expenses at destination (not within Australia); and

- Accommodation and subsistence expenses.

8. The maximum fundable period per visit to a facility is 14 days.

9. The maximum fundable period per strategic planning meeting is 5 days.

10. An upper limit of $12,000 per visit to a major research facility will apply.

11. An upper limit of 50% of eligible travel and accommodation expenses will be provided per strategic planning meeting.

12. Applicants are only permitted two applications in a financial year (July-June).

13. A researcher may only participate in a maximum of 2 trips per financial year (July-June).

14. AMRFP support is limited to the facilities listed in Table 1. For access to facilities not listed in Table 1 please supply the following information prior to AMRFP application submission:

a. Details of Facility (Name, Country, Web site etc)

b. Justification why access to the facility should be supported.

15. Applications for support to travel to undertake research at an advanced research facility overseas will not be processed until:
 

a. Evidence that access has been granted by the body controlling that facility following peer review of a proposed experiment has been supplied. Alternatively, a full proposal must be submitted for peer review in Australia.

b. All outstanding acquittals and reports for any researcher listed on the AMRFP application have been provided. Specifically if:

    i. Acquittals from previous applications are outstanding by more than 6 months

    ii. 30 day or 12 month reports that are outstanding by more than 2 months.

16. Successful AMRFP applications budgets are allocated to three line items; airfare, accommodation/meals and local travel at destination. Acquittal claims can only be made up to the maximum of each line item as approved and expenses may not be moved from one line item to another.

17. The AMRF Programme does not request receipts for grant acquittals. However, grants are randomly audited to ensure that the claimed expenses are true and correct. Applicants should maintain adequate records of all expenditure to expedite this process if an audit is requested.

18. Applicants must immediately notify AMRFP of any changes in the date of experiments (eg rescheduling, postponing or cancellation) and if there are any changes in researchers attending the experiment at the MRF.

19. All publications and presentations containing data arising from AMRFP funded trips must contain the following acknowledgement: The access to major research facilities program is supported by the Commonwealth of Australia under the International Science Linkages program.'