GRDC Early/Mid-career Research Fellow Call 2024/25

RFT

GRDC Early/Mid-career Research Fellow Call 2024/25

Client

GRDC

Closing Date and Time 

31 October 2024, 5:00pm

Background

The GRDC is focused on delivering value and enduring profitability to Australian grain growers. To achieve this, the GRDC seeks to establish a GRDC Fellowship Program to build excellence in research capacity in Australia by supporting Early and Mid-career researchers in greater innovation and over-the-horizon approaches for the benefit of Australian grain growers.

The GRDC Research Fellowship Program aims to;

• support outstanding early and mid-career researchers, with demonstrated capacity for high-quality research, leadership and mentoring;
• support research fellows that facilitate the engagement of current RD&E co-investment partners with new and emerging research fields;
• support greater person-to-person interaction focussed on an important grains industry constraint to profitability and/or a new value creation  opportunity;
• support excellent and innovative research that addresses a significant problem or gap in knowledge for the Australian Grain Industry and represents value for money.

Scope of Work

This year, GRDC invites applications addressing the selection criteria that are aligned with the following focus areas/outcomes of their RD&E Plan 2023-28:

• FA1 Right Crop & Cultivar - Growers are choosing the best crops and varieties suited to their situation and need. 
• FA2 Biosecurity, weed, pest & disease control - Current and future biotic threats continue to be cost-effectively managed or avoided.
• FA3 Optimise crop nutrition & improve soils - Growers have the confidence & ability to implement informed nutrient & soil management decisions. 
• FA4 Systems integration for reliable profit - Growers and their advisors understand how to integrate different practices and technologies to improve profit and manage financial risk.
• FA5 Step-changes in water & soil  productivity - New discoveries are made or methods developed with potential to deliver step-change improvement in soil function for enhanced crop productivity.
• FA6 Unlock plant potential - New discoveries are made with potential to deliver step changes in crop yield and resource use-efficiency under changing climate and systems.
• FA7 Transform efficiency of input use - New discoveries are made that better match production inputs to profit and land potential. 
• FA8 Enduring access to a diversity of markets - Growers have access to a greater diversity of domestic and international grain markets.
• FA9 Add value to the crop to increase margins - Growers are positioned to capture additional value through supply to high margin markets or grades.
• FA10 Lower post-farm gate costs - Opportunities to reduce costs on and off-farm at or post-harvest are identified, and value captured by growers.
• FA11 Sustainable, responsible production  systems - Growers and industry can accurately measure and manage the sustainability and environmental performance of Australian grain farms. 
• FA12 Support communities & social licence - The people-related challenges and impacts of the Australian grains industry are better understood, helping to build community trust, and supporting activities that drive safe, prosperous communities.

Albeit not essential, candidates would be encouraged to nominate an existing GRDC-supported investment that they would work with and describe and substantiate the additional research activities that they would deliver against the existing investment Outcomes.

GRDC aim to facilitate interaction between new GRDC Research Fellows and Australian grain growers by requiring GRDC Research Fellows attendance and presentation at grains updates and other GRDC-supported fora.

Evaluation Criteria

Below are the Evaluation Criteria that the Tender Evaluation Team will use to assess the value for money of all Tenders; 

• Technical – Qualitative evaluation criteria related to non-price factors such as methodology, project plan, track record, experience.
  • Candidate Capability – 40% - Demonstrated track record of the candidate, including:
    1. relevant achievements of the candidate in providing leadership, co-ordination, management, monitoring and evaluation and the timely delivery of high-quality outputs
    2. relevant technical knowledge and experience of the candidate in the research area
    3. relevant achievements in the delivery of commercial IP (if relevant)
    4. ability of the candidate to collaborate with the relevant research organisations and industry personnel to build on the research (national and international) already undertaken in this area
    5. please provide 2 referee reports including full referee contact details and signature.
  • Research Quality and Innovation – 40% - A detailed plan to demonstrate the project quality and innovation, specifying the:
    1. contribution to an important gap in knowledge or significant problem
    2. clarity of the major research questions
    3. key tasks/milestones, budget and indicative timeframes
    4. specific information, products and/or services to be delivered
    5. project structure and management arrangements, including collaborations with organisations, commercial companies and/or other projects with relevant data.
  • Impact and Benefit – 20% - A detailed plan to deliver impact and benefit to target audience/s, specifying:
    1. the significance of the grains industry challenge being addressed in the research project
    2. information, products and/or services resulting from the research project
    3. the potential for short-, medium- or long-term outcomes. translation, adoption and/or commercialisation beyond fellowship completion
    4. the target audiences for each output - e.g. growers, advisors, plant breeders, pathologists, GRDC
    5. the methods and structures for delivering of the outputs, which may include commercialisation, communication, and/or additional R&D.
  • Focus Area and GRDC Investment Alignment – unweighted - The application must identify the research topic's Focus Area alignment from GRDC’s RD&E Plan 2023-28. If the proposed research will be aligning with an existing GRDC-supported investment that they would work with, the candidate will need to demonstrate the support of the investment lead for that investment and that there is Freedom to Operate (FTO) with the tools that they will be applying.
• Price – unweighted - the tendered budget
• Risk – unweighted - The risks inherent in the application including the degree of compliance with the Draft Contract and any modern slavery risks identified during the procurement process, application process and evaluation process, including as a consequence of the review of the GRDC Supplier Questionnaire (if required) and any actual or perceived conflict of interest.
• Australian economy – unweighted - The economic benefit of the procurement to the Australian economy.

Budget

The budget range for this investment is capped at $600,000 for Early-career Researchers and $750,000 for Mid-career Researchers across the proposed 3 year term.