Centres of Research Excellence (CRE)

Research Office Contact:
research-applications@newcastle.edu.au

The Centres of Research Excellence (CRE) Scheme provides support for teams of researchers to pursue collaborative research and develop capacity in clinical, population health and health services research. Funding will support the following streams:

• up to 5 CREs in Basic Science Research; including one for dementia research with a basic science research focus
• up to 5 CREs in Clinical Research
• up to 5 CREs in Health Services Research
• up to 5 CREs in Public Health Research

A CRE 2024 grant is awarded for a five year term with a fixed budget of $3M. There can be up to 10 Chief Investigators on a CRE.

For further information please see the NHMRC web page.

Please note: It is strongly recommended all CRE applicants subscribe to the Research Office NHMRC mailing list for up to date information on this scheme.

Key Dates

• Applicants are strongly encouraged to commence their application in Sapphire ASAP after the scheme opens so that they can:
  • book their preferred day for an Eligibility and Compliance Check.
  • receive a copy of the scheme Essential Instructions developed by the Research Office to assist in the completion of the application.
• To enable the allocation of appropriate resourcing, bookings must be made prior to the defined scheme Eligibility and Compliance Check period. Access to book an Eligibility and Compliance Check will no longer be available once the Eligibility and Compliance Check period has commenced. This does not apply for schemes with continuous rounds (i.e. ARC Linkage Projects and NHMRC Partnership Projects).
• The University deadline for final application (the internal deadline) requires the provision of a submission-ready proposal to the Research Grants Office submitted via Sapphire, as well as a fully signed application coversheet.

Key Changes in 2024

Applicants should note the following changes for the CRE 2024 Guidelines:

• The funding allocation to the CRE scheme has increased and the funding distribution across CRE streams has changed (Section 3).
• Funding is available for CRE in Basic Science Research grants, including for dementia research with a basic science research focus (Section 3, section 8.1.2 and Appendix A2).
• CRE assessment criteria and score descriptors have been amended to incorporate assessment of CRE in Basic Science Research stream applications (Section 6 and Appendix B). Guidance is provided on addressing research translation (Appendix C section 7.7).

Documents

The NHMRC is required to publish Grant Guidelines and all associated scheme documents on GrantConnect, the Australian Government whole-of-government, web-based, grant information system. You will need to sign in or create a User Registration account in GrantConnect to access all relevant documentation for NHMRC applications.

Once you have signed in to GrantConnect, the essential documents can be found by searching for the relevant scheme under ‘grant opportunities’ (open schemes) or ‘forecast opportunities’ (upcoming schemes). As the NHMRC often updates documents after the scheme opens, it is highly recommended that you sign up for alerts by editing your profile.

If you encounter any problems accessing or downloading these documents please contact research-applications@newcastle.edu.au or 4921 7733.

University Documents

• External Grant Application Coversheet (includes ARC/NHMRC) (DOC)
• ARC/NHMRC Grant Rounds Submission Procedures (PDF)