FoE-Disability and Inclusive Seed Funding Project-2025-DEC

We are excited to announce FoE Disability and Inclusive Seed Funding for 2026.

This initiative is a joint funding scheme between the Melbourne Disability Institute and the Faculty of Education.

Eligibility

To qualify, FoE Disability and Inclusive Seed Funding projects must:

• Driven by the priorities of people with disability
• Have practical outcomes
• Are interdisciplinary; * project team must consist of researchers from at least two different faculties, but funds will only be awarded to FoE staff.
• Involve strong partnerships with people with disability and/or disability advocacy organisations; and
• Have a pathway to further research and funding

Teams must be led by a Principal Investigator who must have a salaried academic position of at least 0.5 FTE at FoE. External partners, graduate students, honorary or casual researchers can also be involved.

Project funds will be transferred in December 2025 for projects starting 1 January 2026 and must be spent within one year of receiving the funds - by 31 December 2026

May apply for funding up to $10,000 funding for projects that meet the criteria.

1. Clear evidence that the project is driven by the priorities of people with disability and addresses an evidence, policy or practice gap. Research projects that consider intersectionality are encouraged.
2. Genuine involvement of people with disability in the project. This may include researchers with lived experience. We are looking for projects that are either led by people with disability and/or conducted by and with people with disability. This will include shared decision-making, appropriate support to facilitate full participation, and appropriate payment.
3. Policy or practice outcomes. We want to know how the knowledge generated by the project will have a positive impact on policy or practice. We want to know how the findings of the project will be shared and used.
4. Robust methods. We are looking for projects that use methods appropriate to the question, are feasible with the resources available, and can be completed within a reasonable timeframe. We are also looking for evidence of a plan for how the next stage of the work will be funded and completed.
5. Collaborative and interdisciplinary. We are looking for projects that involve genuine partnerships and reach across traditional disciplines.

Items that directly support the research program, which may be funded, are:

1. Research Assistant (information below regarding RA costing). Research assistants can, for example,

• conduct systemic searches of the literature and file the papers;
• write an annotated bibliography of literature;
• write a literature review; analyse a set of existing data;
• conduct a policy/media/curriculum analysis (i.e., research not requiring ethics approval);
• assist in data collection for projects with ethics approval (e.g., conducting interviews);
• assist in developing tools for future research, e.g., developing a survey;
• assist in producing outputs from data, e.g., write a paper (academic or public-facing) from analysed data;
• assist in planning and organising a research event, e.g., workshop, roundtable, mini-conference.

Anticipated 2026 RA payment rates for budgeting - including oncosts (using 1 Nov 25 rates)

*If a staff member earns over $450 in a month, then superannuation is also payable.

2. Marking relief (within guidelines for Teaching and Learning).

Anticipated 2026 RA Marking buy out rates (using 1 Nov 2025 rates)

3. Consumables.

The review committee reserves the right to make reasonable adjustments to the budget of an awarded project.

Budget items not supported:

• Chief Investigators salaries and/or on-costs.
• Teaching buyout.
• Conference/travel (Please refer to the FoE Local Operating Rule for Conference Funding).

Once awarded, any changes to the budget must be sent to the Associate Dean - Diversity and Inclusion for approval.

A committee chaired by the Associate Dean - Diversity and Inclusion will assess applications on a competitive basis in accordance with the objectives of the Scheme and the selection criteria outlined in these guidelines.