Early Career Research Fellowship

The Early Career Research Fellowship aim to encourage persons of outstanding ability to make biomedical research a career and provide an opportunity to increase their competitiveness for various early career fellowships (e.g. NHMRC Level 1).

A further objective is to stimulate research that directly links to and benefits CALHN.

Priority will be given to:

• University graduates with a PhD (no more than 4 years postdoctoral training) or equivalent combination of study and research experience, or relevant specialist biomedical or health sciences training.
• Applicants who can demonstrate original intellectual input into research and/or have had research published in international peer-reviewed journals.
• Australian citizens, permanent residents, or holders of appropriate visas that enable the undertaking of the activity described in the application that is valid for the duration of the fellowship (i.e. a minimum of three years).

Other criteria which may be used:

• Publication in highly rated international journals (particularly the number of publications against publishing opportunities), presentations to national and international bodies.
• Greater weighting given if applicant was an invited speaker, and/or has received prizes or awards for presentations.
• Evidence of independent research is provided.

There will be one ECR Fellowship awarded for a maximum term of three years each. The successful recipient will be employed by CALHN. 

• Tenure of the Fellowship will be up to 3 years.
• Progress will be assessed by means of an annual report and possibly an interview, as determined by the CALHN Research Scholarships and Fellowships Review Panel.
• It is a condition of appointment that the Early Career Fellow must apply for an appropriate research fellowship or other external salary funding no later than the 3rd year of appointment.
• Term of this fellowship will be based on annual contract renewal subject to satisfactory progress and annual funding and may not be extended.
• Appointment is required to commence by 1st January 2025.
• The fellowship must be based in a clinical program at a CALHN clinical site or in a suitable laboratory within the Adelaide BioMed Precinct or CALHN clinical site. Applicants should contact the CALHN clinical program and/or the suitable host laboratory within the Adelaide BioMed Precinct to develop a mutually agreed research proposal in consultation with the department or laboratory head.
• Fellowships are not transferrable, and no other fellowship/scholarship may be held concurrently.
• Upon notification of successful application, the recipient must contact their existing Department supervisor and HR to obtain employment within CALHN on a taxable salary corresponding to an appropriate level of SA Health grant-funded scientist scales.
• The offer of employment will be subject to SA Health Human Resource policies and procedures, which will include the requirement to obtain relevant police clearances, working with children and vulnerable people clearances, visa requirements and signed intellectual property policies, and codes of ethical conduct.
• In the event that the recipient is unable to meet any or all of these requirements for whatever reason, the CALHN Research Scholarships and Fellowships Review Panel reserves the right to withdraw the fellowship offer without prejudice and award this fellowship to another applicant.
• Successful applicants must submit an annual progress report, due 1 March following the first and second year of the Fellowship, and a final report must be provided within 3 months of the scholarship completion to CALHN Research Services.  
• The successful applicant may be required to present findings if requested by the CALHN Research Scholarships and Fellowships Review Panel or CALHN Research Services.
• Current ethics approval specific to the project (if applicable) and governance approvals are required before commencement of the project and before funding is made available.
• Acknowledgement of CALHN’s support should be recorded in all published articles, reports etc. (journal and abstracts) in the following manner “This project was undertaken whilst holding a CALHN Early Career Fellowship” (as applicable).
• The CALHN Research Scholarships and Fellowships Review Panel reserves the right to recommend that no award be made if in its opinion there are no suitable applicants.
• In the event the recipient cannot complete the tenure of the fellowship for whatever reason, including the successful award of an external fellowship or salary support, any funding remaining against this fellowship (including salary, on-costs and maintenance funds) will cease, and the balance of funds will be forfeited.
• The Fellowship is awarded while funding is available through CALHN Research Services and the Health Services Charitable Gifts Board (HSCGB) and may be withdrawn at any time should insufficient annual funding be made available for this fellowship.
• Do not exceed word counts as this will exclude your application from consideration.
• Please do not send hard copies. Submit your application via the online process only.

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.

Please adhere to the specified word or page limits. Content in excess of these limits will not be included for assessment. 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.

• First name
• Last name
• Position; Current Employer, University; Department and Site
• Contact phone number
• Email address
• Citizenship, permanent residency, or appropriate visa
  • Australian Citizen
  • Permanent Residency (documentation required)
  • Appropriate visa that enables the undertaking of the activity described in the application that is valid for the duration of the fellowship (i.e. a minimum of three years).

• List previous research support achieved.
• Provide details of two referees

• Proposed appointment
• Research department/unit/CALHN site where the project will be conducted
• Where else the project will be conducted (e.g. non-CALHN sites)
• Who owns the intellectual property

• Supervisor details:
  • Name
  • Department
  • Position
  • Institution
  • Phone
  • Email
• Proposed supervisor's successful competitive grant funding over the past 5 years

• Other applications for this project (funding agency, project title, and funds requested)
• Current research funding for this applicant
• Specify why existing funding cannot be used for this application

• Explanation of the benefit and link to CALHN sites (maximum 500 words)

• Is genetic manipulation required for your project?
• Is ethics approval required
  • Yes - type required (human, animal, other)
  • No - justification
• Ethics approval status
  • Not submitted - provide intended date of submission
  • Submitted - provide date and reference number
  • Using existing ethics - justify why this is appropriate
  • Please provide ethics and governance reference numbers where applicable, below:
    • Q or R Number
    • HREC Reference
    • SSA Reference
    • MYIP Number

• Nominate 3 three external scientific reviewers (including full name and contact details) who are competent to review your application without a conflict of interest. You will be asked to provide for each reviewer: Name, Institution, Position, Phone number, Email address.
• 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.

After submitting application form, please ensure you email the following attachments to the CALHN Research Services Grants Team.

It is preferable that all attachments are within a single PDF file, but multiple PDFs will be accepted: please ensure the applicant's last name is included at the start of each file name, such as 'NAME_ECRF application attachments.pdf'

Attachments required (in a searchable PDF format):

1. (If relevant) Permanent residency or appropriate visa

   1.1 Permanent Residency Letter of Confirmation (required for permanent residents), or
   1.2 Appropriate documentation as evidence of rights to work in Australia for the duration of the fellowship (i.e. minimum of three years).
    

2. Full Curriculum Vitae (4 pages maximum) - CV to include academic qualifications, teaching experience, professional experience, prizes and awards, publication history (maximum of 8 most relevant recent publications - no abstracts), presentations etc.
3. Referee reports (x2) Click here to download a report template
4. Background and research plan required. No more than 2,500 words or 5 A4 pages - This section should include a literature review, aims and objectives, hypotheses, experimental design, outcomes, a clear definition of study end points, statistical methods to be used, power calculations and an explanation of the relationship of the study to the applicants’ longer-term research agenda.
5. List of references (1 page maximum) - Please highlight with an asterisk (*) up to 6 key references
6. Ethics and governance documents - If using existing/current ethics approvals, please provide confirmation from the relevant ethics committee that this new project proposal is covered under the current HREC or AEC approval, along with the relevant approval letters.
7. Head of Department/Division approval - A signed Letter of Certification from the Head of Department/Division certifying that appropriate general facilities will be available to the investigator if successful, and that the project will be carried out strictly in accordance with NHMRC Ethical and Scientific Practice Guidelines. This letter of certification must be from the CALHN department in which they are proposing to be employed in (letters from a university will not be accepted).