Scholarships and grants

CHARG application guidelines

For health professionals
Scholarships and grants
CHARG application guidelines

Aim

The aim of the new Continence Health Australia Research Grant (CHARG) is to fund early-career or seeding projects in any area of research relevant to continence science and care, where the principal researcher is a member of Continence Health Australia.

Research areas supported

Grant applications should focus on patient-focused biomedical/laboratory, clinical, or quality improvement continence-related research, in any of the following areas:

Urinary incontinence
Faecal incontinence
Bladder dysfunction
Bowel dysfunction
Pelvic floor disorders
Neurological conditions
Service delivery
Prevention and treatment
Other related areas such as basic science, climate impact, access and equity to care.

Projects should lead to publishable outcomes and/or generate preliminary data to support further research or application for larger future funding.

Funding

Each CHARG grant award will be for a period of no more than 2 years.

Maximum value of each award is $25,000.

Up to three grants are available per annual round.

Budget items supported:

research personnel support, small project-specific equipment, consumables, data analysis, database establishment, laboratory costs, travel costs associated with presenting research at a national conference.

Items not supported:

overhead institutional infrastructure costs >10% of budget, major capital expenditure or significant equipment purchases not directly related to the project.

CHARG Committee reserves the right to:

award less than the requested amount if the proposed budget appears excessive
award NO grant in any given granting period if, in their opinion, there is no suitable applicant.
not release grant funds until ethics and governance approval (or an ethics waiver/exemption letter) is provided. Awardees can invoice Continence Health Australia for the initial half of grant monies once ethics and governance approval/waiver has been obtained. CHA will negotiate release of the remaining award monies with individual winners.

Eligibility

Applicants must be a financial member of Continence Health Australia.

Suitability will be assessed using the grant scoring matrix and with reference to the applicant’s qualifications, research experience, supervision during project and strength of supporting team.
Only one grant may be held by any one person at a time.

Submission of proposals

Proposal must be submitted as a mature research plan including detailed budget and timeline for completion. Ethics approval timing should be considered when calculating project timelines.

Proposal should include a dissemination plan. If the primary paper of the CHARG- funded study will be submitted to a non-Continence Health Australia journal, a manuscript addressing either the methodology used in the research or a review of the literature on the topic should also be provided to the editor of Australia New Zealand Continence Journal.

Selection process

All proposals will be considered against the eligibility criteria and assessed by the members of the Research Committee using a marking rubric.

The following criteria will be used to rank applications:

Scientific quality – worth 40%: including significance and/or innovation, clarity of aims and objectives, strengths and weaknesses of the experimental design
Structure and formatting of research proposal – worth 10%
Feasibility and achievability of aims including supervisory / team support and realistic budget- worth 20%
Consumer and health service involvement in planning / design / conducting project – worth 10%
Potential for translation of findings into clinical care or to inform research beyond the project – worth 20%

The CHARG committee will make recommendations to the Continence Health Australia Board after assessing applicants for each grant round.

Reporting requirements

Successful applicants will be expected to:

Commence the project within 6 months of award.
Complete the project within 24 months.
Submit progress reports every 6 months.
Participate in milestone review meetings if requested.
Present outcomes through a CHA forum, conference, publication, or equivalent dissemination activity.
Submit a final report (not > 12 months from completion of data collection).
Acknowledge CHARG funding in all project outputs.

Grant recipients must notify the CHARG Committee at the following time points:

Ethics approval (no more than 6 months from awarding of grant)
Start of project/enrolment of first patient (not > 12 months from awarding of grant)
Completion of data collection (a minimum of 12 months from start of data collection/patient enrolment to a maximum of 24 months). Any extension to this deadline must be made in writing and are at the discretion of the committee.

CHA will keep a register of the research grants allocated and paid, completion of reporting duties by researchers and occasions of dissemination.

Publication/dissemination of results

It is expected that the results of the research will be presented at a scientific meeting and/or published in appropriate peer-reviewed journals.

Continence Health Australia and CHARG must be acknowledged as a supporter of the research project in any publications or presentations.

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