The Department of Education (department) has been progressively rolling out a package of reforms to streamline the research block grants (RBGs).
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As part of these reforms the department has implemented a self-assessment system for higher education providers (HEPs) to determine which of their research and development (R&D) income can be classified as Category 1 – Australian competitive grant income, starting from the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) for 2018 data. The method to self-assess was included in the HERDC Specifications for the collection of 2020 data and all annual specifications thereafter.
The Australian competitive grant income HEPs receive can be reported as Category 1 in their R&D income returns and is a metric used to inform the allocation of RBGs.
The Category 1 self-assessment – Frequently asked questions is designed to assist HEPs to self-assess their R&D income, in conjunction with the HERDC specifications, to determine if it can be reported as Category 1.
ACGR notes
The Australian Competitive Grants Register (ACGR) was a centralised register that listed schemes that provided competitive research grants to HEPs. The ACGR is no longer updated by the department.
Contact
Queries can be directed to RBGrants@education.gov.au.