External grants & opportunities
Researchers can access research funding support via external grants and schemes across a breadth of disciplines.
External funding opportunities
Register and sign-in with your Victoria University email to the resources listed below and access opportunities tailored to your research focus.
Philanthropic funding opportunities are circulated and managed by the Advancement Office.
Research Funding circulates a monthly newsletter listing various opportunities to all Victoria University researchers can also be accessed on the Research Funding SharePoint site.
Understanding research income
Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) is an annual collection of research income data from higher education providers (HEPs), managed through the Australian Department of Education. HERDC facilitates the calculation of annual Research Block Grants.
Research income falls under the following broad categories:
- Category 1 - Australian competitive grant research and experimental development (R&D) income
- Category 2 - Other public sector R&D income
- Category 3 - Industry and other R&D income
- Category 4 - Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) R&D income
There is no pre-defined list of categorised fund schemes - this is a self assessment process.
You can find the latest HERDC specifications on the Department of Education website. These can help you decide what category your research income falls under and are updated every year.
What is considered R&D
An activity qualifies as R&D if it satisfies all 5 criteria:
- Novel – aimed at new findings
- Creative – based on original, not obvious, concepts and hypotheses
- Uncertain – uncertain about the final outcome(s)
- Systemic – planned and budgeted
- Transferable and/or reproducible – lead to results that can be possibly reproduced