FAQs for the Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Research

The award guidelines and links to the application forms can be found on the Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Research page.

If you are eligible, yes, you can apply for more than one award category. However, you cannot receive more than one award.

To be eligible for these awards, you must have been an academic staff member or have held academic status at Flinders University for a period of at least 12 months and meet the other relevant eligibility criteria outlined in the award guidelines.

If you meet the eligibility requirements stated in the award guidelines, you can apply for these awards. However, academics in teaching specialist roles may wish to apply for teaching awards.

Applicants who are past award recipients (winners) cannot apply for the same award but may apply for other awards if they are eligible.

These awards are for self-nomination.

Yes, you are able to “Save” your application form and return to it as needed. You will find the "Save" icon at the bottom of the application form screen.

If the "Next" button is obstructed, you are able to use the dots along the bottom of the application form screen to navigate to the next question.

No letters of support are required for these awards. If you choose to include them, they will not be considered by the Selection Committee as part of your application. However, you are welcome to include quotes or the sentiment of the support letters in your written responses, if appropriate.

The recipient can spend their prize funds at their discretion as long as it is in keeping with the requirement to use the funds to “broaden the recipient's research networks and enhance their standing and recognition as a researcher at Flinders University”. Conference travel and hiring a research assistant are examples of approved expenditures.

The funding must be spent within the following calendar year (i.e., award winners in 2025 must spend the funds in 2026). Any unspent funds will not be able to be carried over to the following year.

You will be notified about the outcome of your application via email in early October.

The research excellence awards follow the general approach taken by the ARC and NHMRC re: choosing your top publications and explaining the quality of the publication and its overall contribution to science. Explanations of your career-best publications may include:

• Brief descriptions of the key knowledge gain, significance, and impact of the research,
• Journal and citation metrics, including journal impact factor, citations (identify the source), Field Weighted Citation Index (FWCI), or Altmetrics,
• Benefits that resulted from the research, such as new funding, collaborations, media appearances, or
• Evidence of methodological expertise or innovation, particularly if you have evidence that other researchers adopted the methods. 

There is no ‘right’ way to explain why each publication is in your top 5. These deidentified examples show different ways of approaching this part of the application:

• ‘The first paper to describe <this new discovery> and to apply <this innovative technique> to various environments (FWCI = 4.2; 1000 cites [google scholar]).’
• ‘Co-authored work introducing the first tool to <new technique>. Adopted by ten other research teams internationally (20 cites [scopus]).’
• ‘Led to multiple invitations to advise SA government on <topic area>. New collaborations formed with researchers in Europe.’
• ‘Q1 top 10% journal; 521 citations [google scholar]; Altmetrics = 36; 3 national media interviews.’ 

Step-by-step instructions to obtain your ResearchNow summary documents from FLIP are available here.

No, no uploads/attachments are required for the Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Research Impact and Engagement.

From the guidelines for these awards:

Engagement refers to interactions with external partners such as stakeholders and end-users that have made a direct contribution to the direction, growth, quality and impact of the research carried out by the researcher.

The definition of impact is broad and includes demonstrable contributions the research has made to the economy, society, culture, national security, public policy or services, health, the environment, sustainability, or quality of life.  

No. Only the impact needs to have been demonstrated within the preceding three years. We recognise that the engagement activities that contributed to that impact might have taken place for several years before the impact was realised.

At the time of the application, the lead applicant must have been an academic staff member or have held academic status at Flinders University for a period of at least 12 months. Teams can include PhD students and professional staff; however, the lead applicant must be academic staff. Industry partners cannot be named on the team, but you are welcome to mention the industry partners that you are collaborating with.