Medicine/Science Grants
Guidelines

CASS supports short term, ‘proof of concept’ research in promising topic areas, which if validated, has the potential to attract longer-term funding and to contribute to better practice and delivery of services. 

Print the Guidelines

Grants

CASS offers Medicine/Science Grants of up to $65,000 for proof of concept research projects.

Dates

CASS 2025 Medicine/Science Grant applications will be accepted between:
Monday 18 August 2025
and
Friday 5 September 2025, 5.00pm (AEST)

Application

The application form is available by clicking on the button below.

Application Form

Contact

Any queries about CASS Medicine/Science Grants should be directed to:

David Abraham AM
[email protected]
0418 335 642

We are currently rolling out a new applicant grant portal. Please bear with us if there are any glitches in the system.

Eligible Organisations - 2025

CASS restricts applications for Medicine/Science Grants to Victorian-based organisations, the Grantee. A designated list of relevant organisations will be eligible to apply in alternate years.

Only Applicants employed by one of the following organisations will be eligible to apply in 2025:
1. Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute;
2. Deakin University;
3. The Florey Institute of Neurosciences and Mental Health;
4. Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research (trading as Hudson Institute of Medical Research);
5. La Trobe University;
6. Swinburne University of Technology;
7. St Vincent’s Hospital (Melbourne) Limited;
8. Centre for Eye Research Australia Limited;
9. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research; and
10. The University of Melbourne.

Note: Only organisations listed above will be eligible employer/Grantee organisations in 2025.
Applicants not employed by organisations named in this list will be eligible to apply in 2026.

Eligibility Criteria - 2025

  1. Grantees must be based in the State of Victoria.
  2. Applicants must be employed by one of the 10 designated organisations listed above.
  3. Grantees must hold an ABN and be registered for GST.
  4. Grantees must have Income Tax Exempt Status.
  5. Applicants can only make one (1) application in this round.
  6. Applicants must be either an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident at the time of applying.
Previously successful Applicants are eligible to apply for funding towards new projects.

Previously unsuccessful Applicants may re-apply for new or previously applied-for projects provided they did not apply in the previous year.

Nomenclature

In these Guidelines:
‘Applicant‘ means the Chief Researcher in charge of a project and who is an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident of Australia;
‘Grantee‘ means the legal entity named in the Application at which the Chief Researcher is employed;
‘Grants Officer’ means the person so designated by the Grantee;
‘Head of Department’ means the person who heads up the faculty/department and to whom the Applicant reports;
‘Permanent Resident’ means a person granted a Permanent Residency Status that allows you to remain in Australia indefinitely (not a 408 Visa, a 482 Visa or a 444(SCV) Visa for a NZ citizen) as per the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs; and
‘The Project’ means the specific research project (which may be part of a wider project) that will be funded by CASS, should a grant be awarded.

Provisions

If an Applicant has a joint appointment, your employer for the purpose of a CASS application, is your major employer (the one who pays you the most). In any event, if you remain in the same employment, you cannot apply for a CASS grant in two (2) consecutive years.

CASS does not have any particular priority funding areas in medicine or science and each grant application will be considered on its merits. However, preference will be given to ‘proof of concept’ applications as defined by CASS below.

CASS will only consider applications for research and development projects in medicine and/or science from Applicants and Grantees based in Victoria. A collaborator may work in a place other than Victoria, and may or may not work at one of the 10 organisations listed above, but the project must be substantially Victorian based.

Funds Available

Applications for grants up to $65,000 (excluding GST) will be considered for specific research and development projects.

Applicants will be required to provide information about their proposed budget for the project, including:
1. Salaries – Research assistants, including on costs
2. Salaries – including on costs
3. Direct administration costs (but not indirect administration costs.)
4. Evaluation, report and publication costs (but not costs to attend conferences)
5. Consumable materials (such as chemicals, tests, animals)
6. Hire or rental of equipment, property, service, etc.
7. Miscellaneous contingencies (not exceeding 10% of the total budget).

Project Period

Although projects extending over a longer term will be considered, projects which anticipate completion within 12 to 15 months from commencement are preferred.

Applicants will be asked to nominate the start and end dates of their project.

'Proof of Concept' Projects

Preference will be given to ‘proof of concept’ project applications. What CASS understands by this term is that a grant submission deals with a concept, hypothesis, postulate or the like that the Applicant hopes to prove or to validate during the proposed research project, so that further research and development on the concept, hypothesis, postulate or the like will be indicated as worthwhile. CASS is prepared to consider early development projects which are still short of the level of validation that might be required for, say, an NH&MRC application.

Referees

If an application is shortlisted, then Referees will be contacted by CASS. Referees need to be independent and at arm’s length to the Applicant; they need to be able to assess the merits of the project and have knowledge of the capacity of the Applicant.

Applicant Information

Applicants will be asked to provide:
  1. A lay abstract of the project in non-technical language which includes: the ‘proof of concept’ aspects of the project, what outcomes would make the project successful, and the likely beneficiaries. Limited to 1,000 words.
  2. Details of other researchers or collaborators (who may be employed elsewhere, including organisations not eligible to apply in 2025) involved in your project. Limited to 250 words.
  3. Whether the project (as defined) requires Ethics (animal or human) approval, and/or Institutional Biosafety Committee approval at any stage of the project.
  4. Details of how the findings will be made available. Limited to 250 words.
  5. Budget information (as per the above).
Applicants should note that CASS places great weight on the clarity of this lay description. The lay abstract is the key description of the project that is considered by CASS in the first instance. No additional information is either required or accepted at the time of application. CASS does not follow the same process as the NH&MRC and does not want additional documentation at the submission stage. If your application is shortlisted, CASS may request additional information at that stage. Applicants will be contacted by late October to confirm if their application has been shortlisted. Interviews will be scheduled for November and early December and final decisions for successful projects will be made by mid December.

Letter in Support

CASS requires that Applicants have the approval of the Grants Officer of the Grantee for the making of the application. Applicants will be required to certify to that effect in their application and the Grants Officer may be required to provide a certificate of confirmation to that effect. In addition, the Head of Department must submit a Letter in Support of the application, stating:

  1. the application is a ‘proof of concept’ project as defined by CASS in these Guidelines or if not, the reasons why CASS should support the project;
  2. the Applicant has a reasonable likelihood of validating the proposed proof of concept proposal;
  3. the Applicant is an Australian citizen or Permanent Resident of Australia;
  4. the Department will fund any reasonable shortfall in project funding if a grant is provided by CASS;
  5. who will benefit from the project; and that
  6. the project will be undertaken substantially in Victoria.

Goods & Services Tax

GST will be added to the grant amount. CASS will require a Tax Invoice for all grant payments.

Grant Payments

Grantees must provide bank account details to enable electronic funds transfer of grant payments.