NHMRC Postgraduate Research Scholarships

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) invites applications for a number of Postgraduate Research Scholarships, including the following:

Biomedical Postgraduate Research Scholarships - The purpose of the Biomedical Postgraduate Research Scholarships is to encourage honours graduates of outstanding ability to gain full-time biomedical research experience while enrolled for a higher degree.

Medical and Dental Postgraduate Research Scholarships - Medical and Dental Postgraduate Research Scholarships are awarded to provide support to medical or dental graduates undertaking a postgraduate degree involving full-time research.

Gustav Nossal Scholarship - Each year, the highest ranked applicant from the combined Medical and Dental Postgraduate Research Scholarship applications will be awarded the Gustav Nossal Research Scholarship. Sir Gustav Joseph V. Nossal was Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Professor of Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne and is distinguished for contributions to the fields of antibody formation and immunological tolerance. The Gustav Nossal Research Scholarship will be awarded under similar conditions to the basic Medical and Dental Postgraduate Research Scholarship except that the scholar will receive an additional stipend and travel allowance.

Pharmacy Guild Postgraduate Scholarship - The purpose of The Pharmacy Practice Scholarships is to encourage graduates to obtain formal training in the area of pharmacy practice research.

Primary Health Care Postgraduate Research Scholarship - The purpose of Primary Health Care Postgraduate Research Scholarships is to encourage graduates to obtain formal training in primary health care research, with an emphasis on rural communities.

Training Scholarships for Indigenous Health Research - Training Scholarships for Indigenous Australian Health Research are awarded to provide support for research training or training leading to research areas of particular relevance to Indigenous Australians.

These scholarships are to encourage honours graduates of outstanding ability to gain research experience, and applications will be considered to undertake higher degree studies in medical, biomedical and relevant health-related disciplines, including social and behavioural sciences.

All candidates must enrol for a higher degree requiring full-time research.

Scholarships will be held within Australia.

To be eligible to apply, applicants must, at the time of application:
• be Australian citizens or permanent residents or New Zealand citizens holding a Special Category Visa. Evidence of the appropriate status must be provided before the start of the award.

Those not eligible to apply:
• Applicants in the final year of an honours degree.
• Applicants already in receipt of an Australian Postgraduate Award or equivalent.

For further information, and eligibility criteria for individual awards, please read the NHMRC Scholarships Funding Policy for funding commencing in 2010

Stipend and Allowances

• For most awards, the current Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) of $20,427 pa (in 2009) will be paid.
• For Nursing and Allied Health Professionals, the NHMRC priority rate of $26,359 pa (in 2009) will be paid.
• For those eligible to be registered as a Medical/Dental practitioner, the rate to be paid will be $30,378 pa (in 2009).
• For the applicant awarded the Gustav Nossal Scholarship, the rate to be paid will be $34,039 pa (in 2009), plus a conference travel allowance of $2,435
• For the applicant awarded the John Shaw Scholarship, the rate to be paid will be $31,865 pa (in 2009).

More details can be found on the NHMRC website.

Applicants enrolled in a graduate medical degree combined with a PhD course will be considered separately and may be funded for a maximum of two years full-time and one or more year full-time or two years part-time.

An allowance of $2,250 pa can be used flexibly towards purchasing items directly related to the scholarship - $750 towards conference travel, and $1,500 to purchase consumables.

A thesis allowance is awarded to all scholarship holders - $860 for PhD students, $430 for Masters students.

Top-Up Allowance

NHMRC intends to increase the 50 per cent restriction on top-up funding for Postgraduate Scholarships to bring NHMRC into line with the 75 per cent allowed by the Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA).

UWA Top-Up Scholarships

The UWA Scholarships Committee provides UWA Top-Up Scholarships to students who are awarded NHMRC Biomedical and Public Health Scholarships which are paid at the APA rate. The UWA Top-Up is $5000pa in 2009, but this rate may be reduced to $3500pa for 2010 if the Federal Government increases the APA to $22,500pa, as announced in the Federal Budget. The combined stipend package in 2010 is likely to be at least $26,000pa. Details will be confirmed once the 2010 APA and NHMRC rates have been confirmed later in 2009. 

Applications

An Instruction Booklet and application forms are available from the NHRMC.

Applications must be submitted to The University of Western Australia’s Scholarships Office by 24 July 2009 (one week earlier than the NHMRC deadline). You must read NHMRC Scholarships Advice and Instructions to Applicants for funding commencing in 2010 before you begin to complete the application form.

Application ID Number

Please note that ALL applications and referee reports require an application ID number, which is obtained by emailing the following details to the Research Grants Office at nhmrc@admin.uwa.edu.au:
• Type of application (e.g. Biomedical Postgraduate Research Scholarships)
• Name of Investigator
• School of Investigator
• Title of Project

Lodging your Forms

In addition to the completed application form, applicants must organise reports to be submitted directly to the NHMRC from:
• the intended supervisor
• a nominated referee knowledgeable in the proposed field of research but from a different institute and with no current collaboration

Please return to the Graduate Research School and Scholarships Office:
• one electronic copy of the application, saved as one file in PDF (preferable) or RTF format sent to sara.rogers@uwa.edu.au - see the Instruction Booklet for detailed requirements.
• one electronic copy of the supporting documents and research proposal, saved as one file in PDF (preferable) or RTF format sent to sara.rogers@uwa.edu.au - see the Instruction Booklet for detailed requirements.

Closing Date

Internal closing date – 24 July 2009

External closing date – 31 July 2009

You must deliver your application to the UWA Scholarships Office by the internal closing date.