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Published: 24 Oct 2024 291 views
The Council on Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) was established by the Australian Government in 2001 to enhance Australia's economic, political and social relations with Latin America.
The Council's objectives are the achievement of:
The annual COALAR grant round is funded through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's International Relations Grants Program.
| Application Deadline | 25 Oct 2024 |
| Value | $143,650 |
| Type | Fellowship |
| Course to study | View courses |
| Sponsor | Australian Government |
| Gender | Men and Women |
The objectives of the program are to promote people-to-people links and a contemporary and positive image of Australia, and support Australia's international policy goals.
Benefits:
The Australian Tax Office Tax Determination (TD2023/3) sets out reasonable amounts for overseas travel expenses such as meals and incidentals.
This includes appropriate budget for meals and incidentals during time spent in Latin American countries, calculated on the basis of a salary of $143,650 p.a. and below.
Costs for airfares and accommodation should be budgeted at amounts that can be fully substantiated.
Propose a project between $10,000 to $50,000, single or multi-year
An eligible entity is one of the following types:
Applications from consortia are acceptable, provided you have a lead applicant who is the main driver of the project and is eligible as per the list above.
Individuals who intend the grant to be administered by a university should apply on behalf of the university, i.e. your university is the applicant.
In addition, to be eligible you must:
Information on eligible expenditure, as well as what the grant money cannot be used for, is set out in Section 5 on pages 8-10 of the Grant Guidelines.
You can only spend grant funds on eligible grant activities as defined in the grant details in your grant agreement.
In addition, applications are required to align with one or more of COALAR's Goals and one or more Priority Areas as outlined in Section 2.1 on pages 6-7 of the Grant Guidelines.
Grant applicants intending to carry out activities focussed on scientific exchange or research should become familiar with Australia's export control regimes as appropriate. You should refer, for example, to for the Defence and Strategic Goods List 2021 and Defence Exporting for further information including on the Defence Trade Controls Amendment Act 2024. Refer to guidelines to counter foreign interference in the Australian university sector.
You can use the grant to pay for costs detailed in your budget and grant agreement, including:
For activities delivered in Australia, applicants are encouraged to consider the use of an Indigenous supplier, if they intend to subcontract any of the services above. A directory of registered Indigenous businesses is available at Supply Nation website.
You can only spend grant funds on eligible grant activities and within the start and end dates, as defined in the grant details in your grant agreement.
You should allow for the exchange fees in your project budget. You are responsible for any financial differences that may occur from the time of the application submission to when the project takes place, due to fluctuations in the exchange rate. Bank remittance fees are to be covered by the grantee.
We do not generally fund travel and accommodation for attendance at conferences or meetings, participation in fieldwork or sporting or other events, unless they are directly related to achieving the project outcomes described by you. Such activities are considered and scrutinised by the COALAR Board and must be of direct relevance to its objectives. For conference or meeting attendance to be considered, a substantial program should exist in the sidelines or around the conference and there should also be a strong argument for the selection of applicant(s).
We first review your application against the eligibility criteria (in Section 4 of the Grant Guidelines).
If eligible, we will then assess your application against the assessment criteria (see Section 6 of the Grant Guidelines) and against other applications. We consider your application on its merits, based on:
We assess the extent to which the application represents value with money through identifying:
An assessment committee will assess applications. The assessment committee will be made up of members of the COALAR Board and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials. Board members are treated as Commonwealth officials due to their role in the assessment process, in accordance with Part 1, section 2.8 of the CGRGs and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.
The COALAR Secretariat, within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, will provide information and advice to the assessment committee to assist its determination of policy and its assessment of grant applications.
The assessment committee may seek additional input from relevant Australian missions overseas about you or your application. They may also seek additional information from other Commonwealth agencies, even if the sources are not nominated by you as referees. The assessment committee may also consider information about you or your application that is available through the normal course of business.
If the selection process identifies unintentional errors in your application, you may be contacted to correct or explain the information.
While an application may meet the assessment criteria, a grant is not guaranteed.
Who will approve grants?
The assessment committee will make recommendations to the delegate, Assistant Secretary, APEC and Latin America Branch, who decides which grants to approve.
Where funds become available during the financial year, DFAT may award funding to applicants that were previously shortlisted as suitable but were not funded.
The delegate's decision is final in all matters, including:
The delegate will not approve funding if the application does not represent value with money.
COALAR reserves the right to offer less funding than that sought by the applicant. There is no appeal mechanism for decisions to approve or not approve a grant.
Notification of application outcomes
COALAR will advise you of the outcome of your application in writing.
If you are successful, we will advise you of any specific conditions attached to the grant.
If you are unsuccessful, you may submit a new application for the same project (or a similar project) in any future grant opportunity rounds. You may wish to include new or more information to address any weaknesses that may have prevented your previous application from being successful.
COALAR will not provide individual feedback in relation to your application.
Applications for the 2024-2025 Grant Round must be submitted using the COALAR online funding application form through SmartyGrants. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will not provide application forms or accept applications for this grant opportunity by email or other means.
Applicants will be required to complete the COALAR online application form in full and provide all mandatory requested documentation. Please take care to complete each section of the application form and make sure you provide the information we have requested. Applicants must address all of the eligibility and assessment criteria to be considered for a grant. Applications and supporting documentation must be in English. Any application that does not meet these minimum requirements will be deemed ineligible.
Applicants are responsible for ensuring that the application is complete and accurate. Giving false or misleading information is a serious offence under the Criminal Code 1995 and we will investigate any false or misleading information and may exclude your application from further consideration.
It is important that you keep a copy of your application and any supporting papers.
We will acknowledge that we have received your grant application, through an automated email from the online grants management system, SmartyGrants, within one working day. If you find an error in your application after submitting it, you should contact us immediately on (02) 6178 6739.
Applications must be received by 25 October 1200 AEDT. We have no obligation to consider applications received after the specified submission period. We do not have to accept any additional information, nor requests from you to correct your application after the closing time. If we find an error or information that is missing, we may ask for clarification or additional information from you that will not change the nature of your application. However, we can refuse to accept any additional information from you that would change your submission after the application closing time.
Before applying, read the grant guidelines carefully, look at the application form, the Charter for the Council on Australia Latin America Relations and the Council on Australia Latin America Relations Strategic Plan 2024-2027. Also look at the draft grant agreement and the sample final report.
It is recommended that you draft your statements against each criterion and gather all of the supporting information you need from partners prior to commencing the online application process.
Please ensure you have:
Only attach the documents you have been asked to include.
Some organisations may apply as a consortium to deliver grant activities. A consortium is two or more organisations who are working together to combine their capabilities when developing and delivering a grant activity. Individuals who intend the grant to be administered by a university should apply on behalf of the university, i.e., your university is the applicant.
If you are submitting a grant application on behalf of a consortium, a member organisation or a newly created organisation must be appointed as the ‘lead organisation'. Only the lead organisation will enter into a grant agreement with the Commonwealth and will be responsible for the grant. The lead organisation must complete the application form and identify all other members of the proposed consortium in the application.
The application must include a letter of support from each organisation involved in the grant. Each letter of support should include:
You must have a formal arrangement in place with all parties prior to execution of the agreement.
For more details visit: Australian Government website.
