Program Area
Travel
The Foundation's competitive early career travel grants program is distinctive in Australian philanthropy. The travel grants enable outstanding individuals, with promising careers and potentially important contributions to make to the Australian community, to exchange knowledge with their peers through participation in professional development opportunities, for example attending an international conference in their field of growing expertise.
The grants made are small, generally between $2,000 and $3,000, and are paid to the individual's employing organisation. Note that travel grant applicants cannot request more than the cash financial contribution from the organisation.
Most travel grant recipients in the past have been staff from universities or research institutes, but those working in the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) sector are encouraged to apply and staff from any organisation with BOTH Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) and Tax Concession Charity (TCC) status are eligible.
The Foundation does not make travel grants to Undergraduate, Masters or Doctoral students.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of our Travel Grants Program is to assist early career staff members with an appointment of at least three years, to attend overseas conferences to develop their research, and to interact with their peers in the international scene.
Generally the destination needs to be outside Australia. In some instances, such as staff working in the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) sector, if a strong case is made for travel within Australia in terms of the professional development opportunity it will give to the individual and the potential benefits to their organisation, the application will be considered.
EXCLUSIONS
The Foundation does not provide travel grants for:
- domestic travel
- Undergraduate, Masters, or Doctoral students; or
- retrospective grants for travel already undertaken in part or in whole.
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Case Study
University of Tasmania
$2,700 Travel Grant
Dr Julian Harrington
Tasmanian Aquaculture & Fisheries Institute
Dr Harrington made two presentations at the 16th International Pectinid Workshop in Nova Scotia, Canada, May 2007. Both were collaborations between Julian Harrington, Jayson M. Semmens and Malcolm Haddon. The first presentation was entitled ‘Examining the impacts of commercial scallop dredging on scallop habitat in Tasmania’, and provided the initial results of a detailed study looking at the impact of scallop dredge fishing on scallops and scallop habitat.
The second presentation, ‘The Tasmanian commercial scallop, Pecten fumatus, fishery’, provided a broad overview of the detailed spatial management strategy used in the Tasmanian scallop fishery, and the use of
industry surveys as the key mechanism for obtaining the data needed to manage the fishery.
Under the strategy, only small regions of known scallop stocks are opened to commercial harvesting, and all remaining state waters remain closed.
"The overall benefit of attending the Pectinid Workshop was to meet and discuss issues concerning scallop research and management with many of the leading scallop researchers from around the world. This communication allowed the formation of several collaborations, and an increased interest/knowledge of the work being conducted within the SE Australian commercial scallop fisheries, particularly within Tasmania."
Dr Julian Harrington
Previous
Grant Summaries
University of South Australia, SA
$2,300 Travel Grant 2007
Dr Carol Collins, School of Education.
To present ideas from her doctoral research into the teaching of critical and ethical thinking at the 13th International Conference on Thinking, Sweden, June 2007.
Dr Collins presented two papers: ‘The role of dialogue-based ethical inquiry in educating for a just democracy: an intervention study’ and ‘Engaging students in the processes of rational ethical justification: a way forward for social and environmental education?’ Dr Collins also facilitated a workshop session entitled ‘The complexities and challenges of fostering ethical reasoning in our schools’.
Centre for Eye Research Australia Ltd (CERA)
$2,330 Travel Grant 2007
Dr Patricia O'Connor attended the Association for Research in Vision and Opthalmology Annual Meeting, USA, May 2007.
Dr O'Connor's paper based on the poster she presented has been accepted for publication and will appear in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, Volume: 92, Issue: 2 in February 2008.
University of Melbourne, VIC
$3,000 Travel Grant 2007
Dr Sophie Havighurst, Centre for Training and Research in Developmental Health.
Dr Havighurst provided the first presentation of the study ‘Tuning in to Kids’, an early intervention program for preventing behavioural problems in preschool children, at the Society for Prevention Research Conference, and spent a week at Pennsylvania State University’s Prevention Research Centre (PSU), USA, May - June 2007.
The intervention aims to prevent behavioural problems in preschoolers by providing them with skills in understanding and regulating emotions. The study also tested the efficacy of an intervention that builds parents’ and teachers’ emotion coaching skills and examines whether this leads to improved emotional competence and behavioural functioning in children.
Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre
$2,000 Travel Grant 2007
Professor Nick Crofts and Jennifer Johnston
To attend the 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm, Poland, May 2007.
University of Sydney, Medical Sciences
$1,862 Travel Grant 2007
Dr Jonathon Arnold, Department of Pharmacology
To present at the 12th Biennial Meeting of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society, Germany, September 2007.
Dr Arnold's research attempts to provide the biological mechanisms explaining why cannabis use may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia by precipitating the disorder in genetically vulnerable individuals.
As a result of meeting Professor Gernot Riedel (University of Aberdeen) at the conference, Dr Arnold was invited to present his research at the International Cannabinoid Research Society meeting to be held in Scotland, June 2008.
