HOW TO APPLY FOR SUPPORT FROM THE NETWORK

The Network has supported three types of collaborative or networking activity. The biggest is working groups. We also support postgrads and postdocs travelling to build collaboration between labs, and preparation of innovative postdoc proposals.

The Network's leading aim is to accomplish or stimulate high-impact research.

The Network has funded 67 working groups and several post grad and post doc research collaborations to date.

The last round of funding for new proposals closed in April 2009. The Network is winding up in 2009/10 and we have a full program of activity to take us through the rest of this year. At this time no proposals for new working groups will be considered.

If this website does not answer your questions, you are welcome to discuss possibilities in advance with the Network’s convenors, Mark Westoby mwestoby@bio.mq.edu.au and Adrienne Nicotra adrienne.nicotra@anu.edu.au.

Scope
The Network's role is to encourage effective and creative collaboration between labs and across disciplines. The Network is not permitted to fund individual data-collecting research projects.

The potential range of topics is wide, spanning for example molecular genetics and proteomics, evolutionary radiation, biogeography and control of distribution boundaries, ecophysiology, development and architecture, root symbioses, ecosystem processes, functional and comparative ecology, global change, forestry, rangelands, agricultural landscapes, herbivory, pollination, fire, vegetation dynamics and population dynamics, soil processes, nutrient cycles, herbivory, plant diseases, global change, quaternary landscapes, palaeoecology.

Travel by Australian postgrads and postdocs to build collaboration between research groups
Travel plus some accommodation can be supported for visits in the range 2 weeks to 3 months. Letters of application (to vegadmin@bio.mq.edu.au) should come from leaders of both research groups, in order to confirm that there is commitment from the two labs, not only from the person travelling.

Letters of application should address the following questions. They are the Network's criteria in choosing between competing proposals.

(1) Will the visit accomplish publication-quality research?

(2) In what way will the visit lay a foundation for new collaborative grant proposals?

(3) How talented is the postgrad or postdoc? (Undergrad academic record or other evidence can be attached.)

(4) In what way will the student or postgrad acquire new skills different from those in their home lab?

(5) Would the expenditure be moderate relative to the outcomes? Please indicate the support needed towards travel and accommodation, on top of whatever contributions may already be available from participating labs or people or Departments.

Visits will be supported only if they lead to actual research being carried out at the lab visited, or to proposals being written. Seminar-giving, discussion and conference attendance are not sufficient outcomes to attract support.

Postdoc proposals
The Network would like to encourage the kind of postdoc applications (to ARC or other funding agencies) where the applicant is moving away from their home lab and building innovative bridges to new disciplines or methodologies. It can be difficult for an early-career researcher to develop a proposal in a new field, since they will not have such mastery of literature as in their own PhD topic.

Accordingly the Network is willing to support visits for up to 4 weeks to Australian labs by prospective postdocs in order to prepare fully-polished postdoc proposals to work there.

The Network will be willing to write letters to ARC in support of applications that have been developed under this program.

Letters of application (to vegadmin@bio.mq.edu.au) should come from both the would-be postdoc and the leader of the lab where they would move to. Please address the following questions, which will be the Network's criteria in choosing between competing applications.

(1) In what way would the postdoctoral proposal form an innovative and creative collaboration? Why would the funding agency be impressed by the combination of skills and ideas between the would-be postdoc and the lab they would be moving to?

(2) Is the postdoc's personal track record likely to be competitive for a postdoc from the intended funding agency? (Attach CV, publications list and any other useful evidence.)

Please also indicate what might be available by way of moderate-cost accommodation for the visit, and what expenses would be needed for it. The Network seeks to provide adequate support, but at the same time, money may be a factor in deciding which proposals can be funded.

Working Groups
The last round of funding for new proposals closed in April 2009.

Working groups offer a mechanism to develop new syntheses, data analyses, theory and proposals, and to collaborate intensively and congenially with other researchers. Please consult here for principles of working groups, and here for a list of the Network's current working groups.