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Linkage Projects

The Linkage Projects scheme supports collaborative research and development projects between higher education organisations and other organisations, including within industry, to enable the application of advanced knowledge to problems. Typically, research projects funded under the scheme involve risk.

Proposals for funding under Linkage Projects must involve a Partner Organisation from outside the higher education sector. The Partner Organisation must make a significant contribution in cash and/or in kind, to the project that is equal to, or greater than, the ARC funding).

Under the Linkage Projects scheme, the ARC offers postgraduate awards and fellowships to provide industry-oriented research training and enable postdoctoral researchers to pursue internationally competitive research opportunities in collaboration with industry.

Linkage Projects awards and fellowships offered by the ARC are:

• Australian Postgraduate Awards (Industry), available for postgraduate research students.
• Australian Postgraduate Awards (Industry) - IT, available for postgraduate research students in the field of information technology and communications.
• Australian Postdoctoral Fellowships (Industry), available for researchers with fewer than three years' postdoctoral experience at the closing date for applications.
• Linkage Industry Fellowships, which enable the temporary transfer of a researcher to a Partner Organisation or another higher education organisation participating on a project, or vice versa.

In recommending funding for Proposals under Linkage Projects, the ARC may take into consideration the likely benefit of the research to Australian regional and rural communities.

The objectives of Linkage Projects are to:

• encourage and develop long-term strategic research alliances between higher education organisations and other organisations, including within industry and end-users, in order to apply advanced knowledge to problems and/or to provide opportunities to obtain national economic, social or cultural benefits;
• support collaborative research on issues of benefit to rural and regional communities;
• enhance the scale and focus of research in National Research Priorities;
• foster opportunities for postdoctoral researchers to pursue internationally competitive research in collaboration with organisations outside the higher education sector, targeting those who have demonstrated a clear commitment to high-quality research;
• provide outcome-oriented research training to prepare high-calibre postgraduate research students; and
• produce a national pool of world-class researchers to meet the needs of the broader Australian innovation system.

Proposals for funding under the Linkage Projects scheme are processed twice a year.

• Funding Rules
• Eligibility Exemption and Advice
• Funding Agreement
• Instructions to applicants
• Sample Application Form
• Certification Proforma
• Funding Outcomes
• Application closing dates
• GAMS Information
• Reporting requirements
• Request not to assess
• RMS Information
• Classification Codes – FOR, RFCD, SEO and ANZSIC

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