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Division of Information and Communication Sciences

ICS Postgraduate Research Fund (ICS PGRF) Guidelines

Overview

  1. The fund is to provide financial support for postgraduate research projects in the Division when a clear need for such support exists. The fund does not provide retrospective funding for postgraduate research projects.
  2. The funding is provided at the discretion of the University.
  3. A student may, on the advice of their official supervisors, apply for funding to support specific aspects of the postgraduate Research studies. Students should be guided by their official supervisors as to what is appropriate in the circumstances. Applications without clearly identified and agreed (by the assessors) merit will not be considered further. All applications are processed solely on the basis of merit. ICS PGRF is not an entitlement. The actual funding of a successful application is subject to the availability of appropriately budgeted funds.
  4. Items supported by the scheme include, but are not limited to, consumables, tools, project-specific, specialised equipment, repairs and upgrades to equipment and computers, travel, project-specific hardware and software, research books and thesis preparation charges. All items purchased under the scheme remain the property of Macquarie University.
  5. It is not intended to provide basic infrastructure for the projects (e.g. an office computer, desk, OH&S consumables and equipment), as such facilities are the responsibility of the Department.
  6. Before requesting support for conference travel, the student should discuss with their supervisor(s) the available conferences and select jointly, based on quality, merit and benefit. Both the student and supervisor(s) should justify, independently, their selection in the application, including merit and excellence of the conference.

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Funding amount

PhD students can expect to receive the funding up to $12,000 over four years.
MPhil students can expect to receive the funding up to $6,000 over two years.


Application and approval process

Note that no formal application is required for amounts under $200. The process is:

    1. Students need to send an email to the Manager, ICS Student Services Team enquiries@ics.mq.edu.au with cc to your supervisor.
    2. The ICS STudent Services sends a notification of approval email to the student, supervisor and the Manager of ICS Financial Services.
    3. If the funding is for travel or a local (off-campus) conference, the student still needs to fill out
      the Postgraduate Travel/Activity Approval form. This is submitted with a print-out of the notification
      email to the Department Administrator (for the purposes of gaining travel approval).

For all other applications:

  1. The application should be made on the Application Form (~doc ~rtf ~pdf). It should be signed by the student and the main supervisor. The student and at least the main supervisor (preferably all supervisors) should agree on the necessity of the support before submitting the application. The main supervisor MUST justify the need and the merit of the application. When funds are available from other sources, authorised signatures are required.
  2. The form and the required documentation (e.g. paper acceptance letters, quotations for accommodation, conference registration, airfare invoices and itineraries) should be submitted to the ICS Student Services team for further processing by the monthly processing deadline, which is the 10th of every month. The supporting documentation will be crosschecked against the application, and will be forwarded with the application to the Departmental Director for assessment.
  3. Applications submitted outside of the deadline will not be considered and will be returned to the applicant. The only applications which will be processed outside of the deadline are for travel for conferences which have an uncharacteristically late paper acceptance notification.
  4. The information contained in the student's Annual Reports may be taken into account when assessing the need for funding. An application to the ICS PGRF may be rejected if the report submitted by the student for a previous ICS PGRF or MU PGRF grant is not satisfactory.
  5. For expenses exceeding the funding awarded to the student, support should be sought from other sources as well (e.g. MQ PGRF, Macquarie International Vice Chancellor's Travel Grant, supervisor's research grants, Department).
  6. The Department may be requested to contribute to the total cost of the grant applied for, particularly when expensive equipment or repairs to such equipment are requested. This contribution will depend on the lifetime of the item requested, and its potential use in other projects.
  7. The application will be assessed by the Director of Postgraduate Research of the Department and the Postgraduate Research Director of the Division.
  8. The Dean of ICS, or a nominee, has the power to give the final approval or to decline the request.
  9. The student and the ICS Financial Services Manager will receive an email notifying them of the outcome of the application. The original application will be passed to the ICS Financial Services Manager and a softcopy of it will be sent to the student. The student will contact the ICS Financial Services Manager in E6a 202 for their account number and to get information about the processing of claims, advances, order placements, airline bookings and accommodation and conference registration payments. The student is responsible for the management of this account and should ensure that it is not overdrawn.
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Additional Requirements for

•  Travel Applications:

  1. Any application for travel must be submitted to the Postgraduate Research Administrator no less than 20 working days before the first day of travel (for conference-related travel, different deadlines apply). Applications submitted late will not be considered and will be returned to the applicant. It is the applicant's responsibility to read and comply with the University Travel Policy.
  2. A strong case must be made for travel to workshops or for the purpose of a research visit.
  3. Students applying for air travel support must follow the procedure set out in the Help with Airline Bookings page.
  4. Only MU STA and Campus Travel airfare invoices will be considered for the application.
  5. Whenever possible, support should be sought from the Macquarie University Postgraduate Research Fund (MU PGRF) and Macquarie International Travel Grant, before applying for ICS PGRF. This is especially the case with conference travel that should be planned well ahead. [Notes: a) MU PGRF has a deadline; b) support for conference travel can be requested from MU PGRF even before a conference paper is accepted. In such cases, the award is subject to the acceptance of a paper by at least one of possibly several nominated conferences.] The Macquarie International Travel Grant can provide partial support towards international travel. The applications to the scheme close on the 15 th of every month, except January, when the scheme is closed.
  6. Under no circumstances may the student pay for the airfare with private funds, expecting a reimbursement later. There will be no reimbursement of airfares purchased in this way.

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•  Conference travel applications

In addition to the travel requirements list above, there are the following requirements for conference travel:

  1. The conference must be of significant importance.
  2. The ICS PGRF application should ideally be submitted at the same time as the paper submission is made.
  3. The conference registration fee will only be funded to the value of the early bird registration fee.
  4. Computing and Electronics students: a presentation at a conference must result in an E1 publication. Proof of paper acceptance and E1 status must be submitted when it is available.
  5. Physics students: a presentation at a conference must result in a publication. Proof of paper acceptance must be submitted when it is available.
  6. Mathematics students: the supervisor must make a compelling case for the reason why the conference attendance is of benefit to the student.
  7. In exceptional circumstances, where there is no publication resulting from a conference but the supervisor makes a very strong case for the student to attend, the maximum funding that can be awarded from the ICS PGRF is $500.

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Conditions of award

  1. For grants over $1000, the successful applicant must submit a brief report to the Postgraduate Research Administrator, outlining the benefits and outcomes of the grant. The report is due within one month from the date of return in case of travel grants, and within 3 months from spending in the case of all other grants. It must follow the one-page format of the ICS PGRF Report Form and must be approved and signed by the main supervisor before submission. Failure to submit a report within the deadline will disqualify the applicant from further ICS PGRF support.

    •  Funding applications under $1000 do not require a report.

  2. The applicant must comply with the ICS Travel Policy requirements.
  3. The lodgment of claims must be completed within 2 months of return from travel or, in the case of an Advance, substantiation must be completed within 1 month of return (refer MU Travel Policy item 27.2).
  4. There will be no funding of extra expenses outside of the approved budget, unless there are exceptional circumstances justified by the Head of the Department.
  5. The maximum rate of subsistence allowed by ICS PGRF is 50% of the lowest rate published in the current ATO reasonable amounts.
  6. Conference dinner, should it not be included in the conference registration price, can be claimed separately up to the limit of Item 5 (previous item).
  7. Application for funding may be rejected if reports for previous ICS PGRF or MU PGRF grants are not satisfactory.
  8. The successful applicant is required to give a practice presentation to a significant audience before the conference. This applies to both oral and poster presentations. The target audience may be the whole department or the research group. The latter is acceptable only if the research group has more than 5 members. It is the responsibility of the student to organise the practice presentation and send notices to the target audience at least two weeks prior to the event. The date, time and venue of the presentation should be stated the ICS PGRF report, and email notification of the presentation should be attached to it.

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