ARC DECRA ‘How to Guide’ (DE14) Step 1:

ARC DECRA ‘How to Guide’ (DE14)
Are you considering applying for a DECRA through the University of New South Wales?
This ‘How To’ guide will help you to get started as soon as possible.
Step 1:
Read the ARC DECRA Funding Rules and ensure you are eligible.
Some eligibility points to consider are:
 Candidates can be nominated for no more than one DECRA in this funding round
 DECRA Recipients may receive concurrent funding for no more than one Project under the
following Schemes and Program combined: Discovery Projects, Discovery Indigenous Researchers
Development or Discovery Indigenous schemes, or Centre Personnel receiving funding under the
ARC Research Centres Program.
 A DECRA Candidate for funding commencing in 2014 cannot apply for another ARC Fellowship or
ARC Award commencing in 2014
 An ARC Fellowship or ARC Award recipient cannot concurrently hold a fellowship from another
Commonwealth funding agency. The ARC will not accept applications for ARC Fellowships or ARC
Awards where the candidate has applied, or intends to apply, for another Commonwealthfunded fellowship within the six months before or after the ARC closing date for Proposals
 Researchers holding an ARC Fellowship may apply for a DECRA in the final year of Fellowship
 Eligible applicants must have been awarded a PhD on or after 1 March 2008 (exception can only
be made if there has been significant career interruptions on or after 1 March 2005
 A researcher may only apply for up to two DECRAs over the period in which they are eligible
 Medical/dental research is not supported, see below for more information.
 External closing date is 27 March 2013
Step 2:
All applicants must discuss their intentions to submit a DECRA proposal with the appropriate Head of
School/Centre Director to ensure their support is given.
Please see http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/employee/acad/hos.html for a list of all Head of Schools.
Head of School sign off will later be required via submission of a Grant Application Lodgement Form
(GALF). You can download a GALF from the Policies, Procedures and Forms for Researchers and
Research Support Staff Page. In addition, the support must be outlined in section D2 “Organisational
statement in respect to the Research Environment” of your DECRA application (further details on the
process for completion of this statement will be emailed to applicants in due course). If you have not
already discussed your DECRA application with your relevant Head of School/Centre Director, please
start discussions now. You may do this directly with your Head of School/Centre or through your
UNSW “champion/mentor” – the person who is supporting your application to join a UNSW research
group.
Step 3:
Start your application on RMS. Even if you do not have much detail to put in your application at this
stage, you should provide the minimum detail so that we can register your intention. When you start
in RMS we can communicate with you directly, track your progress and help you with RMS and
compliance issues. It is important you add UNSW as the Administering Institution to your proposal.
This is what allows us to see you in RMS. For more details on getting started on RMS, see the
documents below:
Acquiring an RMS ID:
Go to the RMS homepage and click the link- “Request new account”. For a walk through of the
account creation process, please see Instructions for applying for RMS login pages 15-29.
Please note:
 You will create your own individual RMS User ID
 You should select The University of New South Wales as the “Organisation that will administer
this RMS Account”. This allows the GMO to provide you with technical RMS support.
 For “Organisation that is this users current principal affiliation”, select your current organisation
or if you don’t have one, select UNSW.
 Once the form has been submitted, you will get an email from RMS asking you to validate your
account and proceed. You may need to add rms@arc.gov.au to your list of trusted email
addresses to prevent the emails being marked as spam.
 The GMO will also receive an email from RMS, which we will validate. This triggers another email
to you from the GMO - you can then set your password and login to RMS.
Creating a proposal on RMS:
o Starting a DE14 Proposal on RMS
o Adding yourself to the DECRA proposal on RMS
o Adding UNSW to your proposal on RMS
Step 4:
Read the ARC Instructions to Applicants and review the information on the GMO DECRA Resource
Page. The resource page contains a host of information, including:
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Key dates for strategy advice, compliance review, request not to assess and ARC external close.
Essential GMO communications, including DE14 Alerts, compliance advice template, FAQS and
templates to assist you in completing your application.
Budget documentation, including the UNSW/ARC salary scales, travel budget builder, DECRA
budget table example, ATO travel allowance rates, advice to researchers using electron
microscopic units and Australian National Fabrication Facility advice.
RMS support information, including step-by-step walkthroughs of applying for RMS login,
starting a proposal, adding yourself to your proposal and adding UNSW to your proposal.
Training and support information, including registration links for RSO DE14 workshops.
Step 5:
Work on your application and engage support from colleagues, School/Centre staff, the Research
Strategy Office and the Grants Management Office
UNSW Research Strategy Office (RSO)
The RSO is offering strategic advice (including review of applications) to researchers intending to
submit an application through UNSW. To access this optional service, you must:
1. Create an application record in RMS as soon as possible
2. For strategic review of applications, please send parts C and D1 at a minimum as Word files
when completed to DECRA.rso@unsw.edu.au, ideally by Wednesday 27 February 2013. The
RSO will be pleased to offer strategic advice after that date, but can’t guarantee a timely
service due to peak loads.
3. For other strategic inquiries (e.g. use of FoR codes, Medical and Dental, D2 statements),
please email DECRA.rso@unsw.edu.au and be sure to indicate the nature of your inquiry in
the title. Because of peak loads, applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the RSO for
any strategic matter as soon as possible.
RSO will provide advice on medical/dental applications. The ARC does not fund Medical and Dental
Research, and panels enforce very strict interpretations of this rule. If you have any concerns about
your project, please contact Laurent Rivory (l.rivory@unsw.edu.au).
UNSW Grants Management Office
The GMO undertakes a compliance review of each application to ensure it meets the ARC’s
requirements. It is anticipated that each application will undergo on average 2‐3 reviews. It is
important that you meet the internal deadline for submission. The process for submission and
compliance review is:

Applicant completes proposal in RMS and “Submits Proposal to Research Office” by the GMO
Internal Close of Wednesday 6 March.
 The GMO assigns a Compliance Advisor who will review your application and send you details of
any eligibility or similar issues within 48 hours, after which they will desubmit your application
 Applicant makes changes and resubmits their application for a second review, until your
application is complete from a compliance point of view.
Note: you may need to upload a blank D2 statement if this is not yet complete by the time you
require a compliance review.
If you have questions about compliance, eligibility, interpretation of funding rules and/or
instructions to applicants, prior to submitting your application to the research office, email the GMO
on mygrants.gmo@unsw.edu.au.
Step 6:
Finalise your application and submit to the GMO via RMS no later than 12:00pm, Wednesday 27
March 2013. The GMO will:
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Upload your D2 Statement signed‐off by the DVC‐Research
Certify your application
Ensure you have completed all required paperwork
Submit your application to the ARC
Send you an email confirming submission