Policy
Research block grants are allocated on a calendar year basis using program-specific formulae that reward the performance of providers in attracting research income and the successful completion of higher degree by research students.
Providers have autonomy in deciding which students, research projects, researchers, equipment and infrastructure the block grant funding will support. This also includes decisions by providers about which businesses, international providers and other organisations they collaborate with in establishing research and research training partnerships. In this way, the Australian research funding system recognises that these sorts of decisions are best made by the provider, its researchers and stakeholder communities.
Programs
The Research Training Program (RTP) provides funding to higher education providers to support the training of domestic and international students undertaking Research Doctorate and Research Masters courses, known as higher degrees by research (HDR). In 2020, the Government will provide $1.05 billion through the RTP. RTP scholarships are available to research doctorate degree students for between three to four years, and up to two years to research masters students. RTP scholarships can be provided to fund a student's tuition fees, to provide a stipend to support a student's general living costs, or to support the ancillary costs of an HDR such as thesis publication costs.
The Research Support Program (RSP) provides a flexible funding stream for higher education providers to support the systemic costs of university research. This forms part of the Government's dual funding system for the higher education sector where competitive and other grants support the direct costs of research, and the RSP supports the systemic costs such as research projects not funded through other means, and the indirect costs such as libraries, laboratories, consumables, computing centres and the salaries of support and technical staff. In 2020, the Government will provide $910 million through the RSP.
Further information for students and university administrators
Students with further queries can view the Research Training Program - Frequently Asked Questions for students.
University administrators with further queries can view the Research Training Program - Frequently Asked Questions for university administrators.
Research funding, data collection and calculations
2020 Research Block Grant Allocations provides a summary of the research block grant allocations to individual higher education providers in 2020.
The Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) controls the collection of higher education research data and is designed to ensure the Australian Government's research block grants are allocated in a fair and transparent way and to support the policy intent of the funding.
Research Block Grants - Calculation Methodology specifies the methods used to calculate amounts under the research block grant programs.
The department maintains a series of consolidated data-sets related to research block grants. These include Research Block Grant Allocations (2001-2020), HERDC Research Income Data (2004-2018), HDR Completions (2004-2018), Research Training Scheme Student Load (2004-2014), and HERDC Research Publications (1995-2014).
Historical programs
The following programs ceased on 31 December 2016:
- Australian Postgraduate Awards
- International Postgraduate Research Scholarships
- Research Training Scheme
- Joint Research Engagement
- Research Infrastructure Block Grants
- Sustainable Research Excellence
Information on these previous research block grant arrangements can be found on the historical research block grant programs webpage.
More Information
- Data used in current and historical research block grant allocations
- Reviews studies, consultation papers and evaluations
Administration of the RBG
The RBG is administered by:
- Research Policy and Programs Branch
- Higher Education Division
- Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment
Enquiries can be emailed to: RBGrants@education.gov.au