Clinical Research Grants for Allied and Scientific Health, Pharmacy and Nursing are designed to support and promote clinical research by non-medical health service staff within CALHN that will ultimately lead to improving health outcomes for patients.
The 2025 applications are now closed
We expect the 2026 process to commence in May/June 2025.
About the grants
A key objective is to provide seed funding for CALHN investigators trying to establish a research profile that is likely to lead to future external funding.
Priority will be given to support early career clinical investigators conducting hypotheses-driven clinical research centred on human participants. The involvement of patients can be at the level of correlations between clinical observations and laboratory or pathology findings, development of improved assessment and outcome tools, or observed effects of specific therapeutic interventions. Applications that do not fulfil these criteria will not be considered.
The Grants are intended to achieve one or more of the following:
- Approach a meaningful conclusion in one year.
- Support new investigator-initiated clinical projects (as defined above) based at a CALHN site. Assist investigators striving to establish new programs or new directions.
- Fund initial exploratory research after which external funding will be sought.
- Address circumscribed clinical problems of a sort unlikely to attract industry funding.
- Survey groups of patients to assess the success rate, sequelae, safety or any other aspect of medical or surgical procedures of treatment protocols.
- Bridge the gap of a year between completion of one external grant and the commencement of another.
- These Awards are intended to cover maintenance or minor equipment or to employ professional, technical or clerical staff. They do not fund the salaries/stipends for higher degree students or postdoctoral staff who should instead apply for one of the CALHN Scholarships or Fellowships. While minor equipment items may be funded, they should not be the major component of the budget.
Please be advised that if the investigator has submitted the same or a similar titled project grant application to an external funding body and the application is subsequently successful, the application will be withdrawn from consideration by the CALHN Allied and Scientific Health, Pharmacy and Nursing Grant Committee.
- Chief Investigators must:
- Be employed within a CALHN service as either:
- an allied or scientific health professional as outlined in the current SA Public Sector Enterprise Agreement Salaried (2021) and be classified as an Allied Health Professional (AHP), Medical Scientist (MeS) or Medical Physicist (MPH); OR
- a nurse; OR
- a pharmacist.
- Be working within clinical practice and involved in the delivery of patient care or patient outcomes as part of their primary role.
- Have tenure within CALHN until at least 30 June 2026.
- Be employed within a CALHN service as either:
- Grants may also be given to support clinically relevant research in collaboration with departments of the University of Adelaide, University of South Australia or Flinders University. In these instances, applications are to be co-sponsored by a Head of Unit/Department/Division who holds an access appointment within CALHN.
Conditions and application information
- Award of up to $35,000 for one year only. The CALHN Allied and Scientific Health, Pharmacy and Nursing Grant Committee may elect to award a lesser amount.
- The project must commence by 1 July 2025.
- Applicants must be realistic in the amount of work that can be achieved in the timeframe (12 months) and within the budget requested. For projects expected to take two or more years to complete, the proposal must clearly state the aims and expected results for the first year of the project.
- Only one application per Chief Investigator is permitted and investigators may not apply for other CALHN grants or awards for the same project.
- Current Ethics and Governance approvals specific to the project are required before commencement of the project and before funding is made available. It is the responsibility of the successful applicants to provide the CALHN Research Grants Officer with all relevant ethics and governance approvals by 1 March of the funding year, otherwise funding may be withdrawn. For assistance please contact the CALHN Grants Team.
- Acknowledgement of the support of the CALHN Allied and Scientific Health, Pharmacy and Nursing Grant must be included in any presentation/paper arising from the research. The researcher may be required to give a presentation of their findings if requested by the Committee.
- Funds must only be expended on direct research costs relating to this project as outlined in the original application.
- The project funding will be acquitted at the conclusion of the funding period (after 30 June). Any unexpended funds will be automatically reclaimed at the end of the following funding period year. Recipients will need to submit a formal application by April 2025 to carry over any unspent funds and extend the project for a maximum of three months to enable effective use the funds.
- The release of funds will be subject to the SPF Policy, i.e. an approved tax invoice and/or reimbursement claims in accordance with SA Health procedures.
- Successful projects must be completed, and funding expended by 30 June 2026.
- Successful applicants are required to submit a final report detailing achievements of the research and publications resulting from the research conducted, and whether any subsequent funding was achieved as a result of this award, within three months of the conclusion of the award period (i.e. before 30 September).
- Research is to be undertaken within CALHN services, SA Pathology, or within the SA Health and Biomedical Precinct. The researcher agrees to abide by all policies and procedures, confidentiality, WHS obligations of these institutions as well as the Australian Research Code of Conduct including any updates or replacements. Click here for application guidelines and advice to applicants [link to NHMRC website].
Completing the online application form
As the form cannot be saved and edited in another session, we recommend that you complete a draft of your response in Word and then cut and paste the final version into the application form prior to submitting.
Check your application for accuracy and ensure all application documents are uploaded before you submit your application.
Applications that exceed specified word or page limits will not be accepted. Where applicable, these limits are indicated under each question on the online form.
Prior to submitting the form, you may select an option to have your responses sent to you.
Upon completion of the form, you will receive an automatic reply that your application has been received. If you do not receive this, or have other questions about this grant, please contact the CALHN Grants Team.
Contents of the online application form
Information you will be asked to provide:
- Investigator details
- Principal investigator contact details and intended project workload (hours per week)
- Associate investigator(s) contact details and intended project workload (hours per week)
- Principal investigator contact details and intended project workload (hours per week)
- Clinical program and location of study
- CALHN Clinical Program in which the research project will be conducted, department/unit, CALHN site(s)
- Non-CALHN site(s) involved
- Details of Research Proposal
- Title
- Lay summary (300 words maximum)
- Who owns the project / protocol (Intellectual Property)
- Status/details of other research support (for this project):
- title of funded project
- value of funding support per annum
- funding source
- why this funding source cannot be used to support this project
- Ethics and governance approvals
- Ethics approval status
- Not approved - application needed - provide intended date of application
- Not approved - an application is pending - provide date of submission
- Not approved - ethics approval is not required - provide justification
- Yes, approved
- [Upload 1] Provide all evidence of ethics approvals
- Please provide a statement on Ethical considerations in your research project (max 500 words):
- A clear description of procedures to be performed on patients or volunteers, with particular emphasis on possible risks, pain or discomfort, and an indication of whether the procedure is part of normal diagnosis and treatment. For guidance, the primary ethical principle is respect for the subjects. It is expected that written consent will be obtained. This must be preceded by provision of information relevant to the subject’s participation and presented in a comprehensible form
- Governance approval status
- Pending, not submitted, or approved
- [Upload 2] Provide all evidence of governance approvals
- Ethics approval status
- Reviewers and certification
- Nominate 3 three external scientific reviewers (including full name and contact details) who are competent to review your application without a conflict of interest
- It is the responsibility of the applicant to obtain the consent of the nominated external reviewers prior to submission of their application
- Reviewers must not be from the applicant’s department or be associated with the project, nor should they have collaborated with the applicant(s) scientifically in the past five years
- [Upload 3] All applications must include a signed letter of certification from the Department/Division Head confirming appropriate general facilities will be available to the investigator/s if successful in this application and confirming that the project will be carried out strictly in accordance with NHMRC Ethical and Scientific Practice Guidelines. Please upload relevant files. Applications submitted without a signed certification will not be considered
- Nominate 3 three external scientific reviewers (including full name and contact details) who are competent to review your application without a conflict of interest
- Research proposal
- Purpose of study (300 words maximum)
- Aims of study (300 words maximum)
- [Upload 4] Background, Research Plan, Analysis, and Reporting of Results (4 pages maximum. Minimum 12 pitch font, 1.5 spacing):
- This section should include a clear definition of study end points and an explanation of the relationship of the study to the applicants’ longer-term research agenda
- Provide clear information about inclusion/exclusion criteria, study design and end points, outcomes and an explanation of how the study links to the applicant’s longer term research agenda
- In addition, describe the statistical methods to be used to analyse results and provide power calculations
- [Upload 5] Provide references (1 page maximum of minimum 12 pitch font, 1.5 spacing)
- Benefit to CALHN (300 words maximum)
- Date of proposed commencement
- Research budget
- [Upload 6] Completed Budget template
- Only applications for direct costs (for example, salaries, equipment and consumables) will be considered. Please refer to the NHMRC Direct Research Costs Guidelines (DRCs): Direct Research Cost Guidelines | NHMRC.
- Previous Research Activity and Achievements
- [Upload 7] Principal Investigator curriculum vitae
- Previous research support - list research support funding for the Chief Investigator for the last four years giving the project title, value of support per annum and the source of funding
- Recent publication history - list a maximum of 8 most relevant recent publications (no abstracts)
Summary of uploads required
The following documents are required to be uploaded (in PDF format) throughout the application form:
- Evidence of ethics approvals
- Evidence of governance approvals
- Signed letter of certification from the Department/Division Head confirming appropriate general facilities will be available to the investigator/s if successful in the application and confirming that the project will be carried out strictly in accordance with NHMRC Ethical and Scientific Practice Guidelines
- Background, Research Plan, Analysis, and Reporting of Results (4 pages maximum (minimum 12 pitch font, 1.5 spacing)
- References (1 page maximum of minimum 12 pitch font, 1.5 spacing)
- Completed Budget template
- Principal Investigator curriculum vitae (maximum of 3 pages of minimum 12 pitch font, 1.5 spacing)