Research Infrastructure Support 2024
The 2024 Research Infrastructure Support (RIS) program aimed to provide a sustainable health and medical research environment and to promote excellence in health and medical research in Western Australia.
RIS provided support to eligible Western Australian medical research institutes, universities, and hospitals for the indirect costs of research and for costs associated with operating shared research-dedicated facilities, services and equipment.
Research infrastructure refers to resources essential for supporting quality research, where these resources are not directly funded by research grants. Examples include indirect costs such as laboratory consumables, computers, and support staff, research services and equipment.
Under Stream 1 eligible medical research institutes, universities and hospitals received a share of $17.5 million to support their indirect costs of research. This included a dedicated allocation for eligible medical research institutes. Stream 1 funding was awarded based on research excellence demonstrated through the previous three-year average of eligible research grant income.
Under Stream 2 eligible medical research institutes, universities and hospitals received a share of $7.5 million for the operational costs associated with running shared research facilities, services and equipment in order to make them more broadly accessible to the health and medical research sector. Stream 2 funding was awarded based on the previous three-year average of eligible operational costs.
Funding amounts were calculated based on eligible research grant income and eligible operational costs.
Program Status: 2024 Program Closed
The RIS Guidelines and Conditions and Application Form can be accessed below:
Any queries related to the program can be directed to the Western Australian Department of Health, Office of Medical Research and Innovation.
Information on other FHRI Fund programs can be accessed by subscribing to updates or checking the FHRI Fund current opportunities.
Question: Individual researcher applications
Can individual researchers apply to the RIS program?
Answer:
The RIS program provides eligible Medical Research Institutes (MRIs), universities and hospitals with research infrastructure funding. The application must be at an organisational level. Applicants can include MRIs, universities, Health Service Providers (HSP), private hospitals or Public-Private Partnership hospitals.
For public hospitals, the applicant is the HSP.
Question: Applying for one Stream
Can a Responsible Entity apply for just Stream 1 or 2?
Answer:
Eligible Responsible Entities can apply for either one or both Streams.
Question: Field of Research codes
For Stream 1, what level of hierarchy should the Field of Research (FoR) be? If there exists multiple FoRs per grant, should I list all of them or select the most relevant code?
Answer:
Please include the Research Classification Field of Research code (six digits) for each grant, e.g. 111201 (Cancer Cell Biology). If more than one code is applicable, choose the one that describes the majority area of research. The onus is on Responsible Entities to determine relevant codes and include only those grants they have assessed to be eligible (i.e. related to health and medical research).
Question: No grant ID
Where no Application/Grant Number is provided, should the Application Number section be left blank?
Answer:
Where possible, please include the Research Governance Service (RGS) identifier/number. If this is not applicable to the grant, then please include your local Research Governance identifier.
Question: When do I count the eligible grant
Can grant income be declared if it has been announced/awarded, or do funds have to have been received in our bank account?
Answer:
Grant income must be received (in bank account) in 2021, 2022 and 2023 can be included.
Question: Which year for shared grants (Unis & MRIs)
For Stream 1, at what point should grants received by researchers who are affiliated with both a University and a Medical Research Institute (MRI) be included?
Answer:
It is acknowledged that research grants received by universities who have an affiliation agreement with a Medical Research Institute (MRI) may be passed to the MRI in a future financial year.
To assist with grant splits/sharing MRIs that have a formal Affiliation Agreement in place with a university are able to include their agreed share of the research grant income as eligible grant income in the same year funds are received by their affiliated university.
Question: Which year for shared grants (HSPs)
For Stream 1, at what point should grants won by Health Service Provider researchers but are received through a university, be included?
Answer:
It is acknowledged that research grants won by Health Service Provider researchers may be received by universities (through their associated appointments) and that grant money may be passed to the HSP in a future financial year.
To assist with grant splits/sharing HSPs that employ researchers who’s grants have been received by a university, are able to include their agreed share of the research grant income as eligible grant income in the same year funds are received by the university.
Question: MRFF interest
For Stream 1, can the interest accrued on MRFF grants be included as eligible research income?
Answer:
The interest accrued on an MRFF grant does not form a part of the eligible grant income that can be used towards the RIS Stream 1 claim.
Question: National infrastructure and operational grants
For Stream 1, can national infrastructure or operational grants be included as competitive eligible research income?
Answer:
The component of national infrastructure or operational grants won through a competitive process as defined in the Section 4 of the Guidelines and Conditions (page 6) used for the direct costs of research can be claimed. The portion used for indirect costs or infrastructure cannot be claimed.
Question: Multi-use services, equipment and facilities
For Stream 2, can operating costs for facilities with dual uses i.e. teaching and research, or shared health and medical research and non-health and medical research, be included in the claim?
Answer:
Where facilities, services or equipment is used for a variety of purposes (one of which is health and medical research) the onus is on the university to determine the per centage of costs related to the health and medical research use which can be claimed. The Responsible Entity should use a defendable justification/methodology for their determination.
Question: Human Research Ethics Committee
For Stream 2, can the operational costs of providing Human Research Ethics Committee review and Research Governance review services for research be included?
Answer:
If a component of HREC and Governance review services are provided to researchers that are external to your organisation, then 100 per cent of the operational costs to run the service can be included as eligible operational costs.
Question: Research support departments
For Stream 2, is the operational costs of research support departments (i.e. salary of Research Directors, clinical trial liaison officer, finance support staff etc) considered to be eligible operational costs, if the research office supports external researchers and organisations who would like to engage with our organisation in research activities?
Answer:
If the service provided includes a service to external researchers and organisations that is of an ongoing and regular nature, then 100 per cent of operational costs to operate that service can be included as eligible operational costs.
Please note the intention is for Stream 2 grant money received as a result of the application, to make the service more accessible (this may mean a reduction in fees, improved service etc to external parties)