What is the Australia India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF)?
The Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) is a grant opportunity to support collaborative research projects between Australia and India.
Background
The Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) provides grants for collaborative research projects with Indian partners. For Round 13 of the AISRF, your project must involve research in a COVID-19 focused priority area and must be mutually beneficial for Australia and India with outcomes that contribute to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The objectives of the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund program are to:
- increase the uptake of leading science and technology by supporting collaboration between Australian and Indian researchers in strategically focused, leading-edge scientific research and technology projects
- strengthen strategic alliances between Australian and Indian researchers, and
- facilitate Australia and India’s access to the global science and technology system.
The objective AISRF Round 13 is to fund short collaborative research projects with tangible outcomes focused on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The intended outcomes of the grant opportunity are:
- bring together leading research institutions and/or industry in both Australia and India currently working on areas relevant to COVID-19 such as vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.
- projects of a mutually beneficial nature whose outcomes contribute to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding
For this grant opportunity, up to $6 million is available over three years from 2021-22 to 2023-24.
The grant amount will be up to 100% of eligible project expenditure (grant percentage).
- the minimum grant amount is $500,000
- the maximum grant amount is $1,000,000
- you must complete your project by 01 January 2025.
The lead organisation can submit a maximum of two applications but only one application per priority area.
Priority Areas
Your project must be in a priority area, the priority areas for Round 14 of AISRF are:
Indo-Australian Science & Technology Fund (administered by DST in India)
- Quantum technologies
- Earth observation remote sensing
- Groundwater resources management
- Downstream processing, recycling and tailings reclamation of critical minerals.
Indo-Australian Biotechnology Fund (administered by DBT in India)
- COVID-19 long-term health impacts
- Infection prevention and control
- Digital health and telemedicine
- Biomaterials (including bioplastics).
Eligibility
To be eligible you must:
- have an Australian business number (ABN)
and be one of the following entities:
- a publicly funded research organisation (PFRO) as defined in section 14 of the grant opportunity guidelines
- a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC)
- an Australian State/Territory Government agency or body
Additionally, the program can only accept applications that have a primary Indian partner who has submitted, or is in the process of submitting, a corresponding application to India’s DST or DBT.
Joint applications involving more than one Australian partner are acceptable and industry involvement (including businesses) is encouraged where appropriate, provided the lead applicant is the main driver of the project and eligible to apply.
Timing
To be announced.
More Information
Latest News
15 March 2022 – $5.2M in grants for Australia-India research projects
A total of $5,217,705 from Round 14 of the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund has been allocated to the six Collaborative Research Projects, which were chosen from more than 80 applicants.
The projects, successful Australian applicants and grant amounts are:
- Development of low cost, portable and solar-powered optical sensing technology for online monitoring of contaminants in groundwater, University of Sydney ($979,931).
- Prevention of blindness using digital technologies at primary care centres, The University Of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle ($912,000).
- Research into the structural dynamics of SARS-Cov-2, University of Melbourne ($894,513).
- Advanced recovery of the battery materials and rare earth elements from ores and wastes, University of South Australia ($905,881).
- Development of a versatile protein mimicry platform to deliver the next generation of bioadhesives for mending soft tissues, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology ($525,380).
- Quantum-enhanced atomic gravimetry for improved sensing capabilities, Australian National University ($1,000,000).
The Indian Government will support the Indian partners in the projects.
03 February 2021 – QUT awarded grant for COVID-19 surface research
Leading researchers from QUT and Metro North Hospital and Health Service have been awarded more than $500,000 from the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund to assist with their work into virus reduction from surfaces.
The grant, which will fund research into ways of killing viruses such as COVID-19 on surfaces with a wet-etching technique, was awarded to QUT’s Professor Prasad Yarlagadda in partnership with Metro North Hospital and Health Service’s Professor Michael Schuetz and Associate Prof Kaushik Chatterjee from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
