MRFF 2024 National Critical Research Infrastructure

Step 1: Internal Notice of Intent 

All researchers intending to submit an MRFF application are required to submit an internal Notice of Intent. NOIs will be collated centrally and distributed to Faculties and Institutes in order to provide maximum support to the UQ research community.

Submit UQ Notice of Intent

Step 2. Scheme reading

• Locate and download the scheme documents from the Business.gov website (business.gov.au).
• Familiarise yourself with the key Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and UQ documentation. It is especially important to familiarise yourself with the Grant opportunity guidelines. 

Step 3. Begin the application

• Sign into the business.gov.au grants portal and start a new application. Register for an account with your UQ email address if you have not used the portal before.
• When starting a new application, please enter UQ’s ABN and respond ‘Yes’ to “Are you a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)?”. If you answer this question incorrectly, you may have to start a new application.
• Work through and familiarise yourself with the sections of the application. The online application has substantive sections in addition to multiple required attachments. Use the MRFF and UQ templates that are provided at the bottom this page to complete the application. 
• Parts of the application form require details about UQ. If these have not already been provided to you, please contact the Research Office at mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au for these details. 
• Letters of support are required for all partner organisations, including organisations with CIs on the application. UQ R&I strongly advises applicants to start collecting these early using the template below, as this process is a bottleneck for many applications.

Step 4. UQ R&I internal review and feedback

• Ahead of internal review, ensure all application components are complete/valid and add grants-manager@research.uq.edu.au as the primary contact email in your application within the portal.
• To initiate internal review, email your completed MRFF Funding Application Certification form (below) to UQ R&I at mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au and let us know your application is complete and ready for review.

Do not submit the application in the portal at this stage.

• UQ Research Office will review your application and provide you with feedback as requested in your NOI (eligibility & compliance; refinement; or content grantscraft).

Step 5. Final submission

• When the Research Office has confirmed that your application is complete and fully compliant, the final submission should be completed by the Chief Investigator (CI). 
• Please contact us early if you believe there may be a problem with submitting the application. 

Letters of Support

Signing for all letters of support from UQ is co-ordinated through the Research Office. All Letters of support for MRFF applications, including those led by other institutions, must be accompanied by a completed UQ MRFF Funding Application Coversheet (below) and authorisations of any enumerated contributions or additional UQ staff beyond the lead CI listed in the letter.  We strongly recommend working with your local school/institute research professionals to complete this process. 

To provide time for review and signature, submit draft letters to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au no later than two weeks before the external closing date.

Applications led by UQ

• Draft a letter of support using the template CEO letter of support provided in the resource section below. We recommend you work with your local research support to complete the letter.
• Submit the draft letter and a complete Funding Application Certification form to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au, along with written confirmation of any additional co-contributions.

Applications led by other organisations

• The administering organisation should provide you with a draft letter of support. Complete the draft letter with appropriate details of UQ’s involvement in the application. Some of the UQ information in the CEO letter template below may be useful for this.
• Complete and sign an MRFF Funding Application Certification form (see below), and get it countersigned by your Head of School/Institute.
• Submit both to mrffgrants@research.uq.edu.au, along with written confirmation of any additional co-contributions.

Before applying, we recommend you:

• Familiarise yourself with the framework for Applying for Competitive Research Grants at UQ.
• Contact your faculty or institute research manager for advice on peer readership programs.
• Subscribe to the UQ R&I Mailer to stay up to date with round developments.
• Access the UQ R&I Grants Library, a helpful resource of past successful proposals.
• Read the UQ R&I Grant writing advice and strategy website for tips on preparing your application