Australian Government - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Advancing the interests of Australia and Australians internationally

Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership Grant Round 4

Submissions closed at 5:00PM 24 May 2024 (AEST).

IMPORTANT: Please read information below to assist you in completing your application online.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Welcome to the Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership (AICCTP) Round 4 online grant application service.

You must read the Grant Round 4 Guidelines before filling out an application. These guidelines provide detailed information on the following:

  • the purpose of the grant program/ grant opportunity
  • the eligibility and assessment criteria
  • how grant applications are considered and selected
  • how grantees are notified and receive grant payments
  • how grantees will be monitored and evaluated
  • responsibilities and expectations in relation to the opportunity.

The AICCTP provides funding to support Australia-India collaborations that will help shape a global technology environment that meets Australia and India’s shared vision of an open, inclusive, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific, where the rules-based international order is upheld. The AICCTP contributes to the Australian Government’s commitment to work with the global community to ensure greater security and prosperity for everyone underpinned by the safe and fair development and use of critical technologies.

The focus areas of the AICCTP’s 2023-24 (Round 4) grant opportunity are:

  1. Initiatives that develop standards and ethical frameworks to address risks to international peace and stability arising from critical technology design, development and use.
  2. Activities that promote diversity and inclusivity in the design, development and implementation of critical technology standards and ethical frameworks.
  3. Activities that examine best practice in translating critical technology ethical frameworks and principles into policies and practical action.
  4. Initiatives that explore how critical technology standards, ethical frameworks and principles can facilitate bilateral and regional trade (including digital trade) and economic opportunities in critical technologies.

Round 4 closes on Friday 24 May 2024 (5pm AEST/12:30pm IST).

You may begin anywhere in this application form. Please ensure you save as you go.

After you have read the guidelines, if you have any further queries, please contact us by email at aicctp@dfat.gov.au and quote your submission number.

If you need more help using this form, download the Help Guide for Applicants or check out Applicant Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's).

Summary of prospective applicant questions and DFAT answers.

 

Question

Answer

1.

Are countries other than Australia and India eligible to apply for this grant?

As the grant guidelines outline, to be eligible for AICCTP funding, the lead partner must be a research institution:

o   located in Australia and have a partner institution that is in India for the purposes of the activity; or

o   be in India and have a partner institution that is in Australia for the purposes of the activity.

Other countries would only be eligible as an additional partner in partnerships consisting of both Australian and Indian partners (in an arrangement whereby an Australian or Indian partner acts as a lead partner).

2.

I'd like to understand what is meant by the term "critical technologies". Do you have a list of these technologies? Is it the list provided by Aus Industry?

For some context on what constitutes critical technologies, please refer to section 2.1 - About the AICCTP’S 2023-24 (Round 4) grant opportunity in the AICCTP Grant Guidelines on the DFAT website.

3.

We prefer to apply under the name of our start-up organisation without the weight of the university bureaucracy. The first question therefore is this. Can a newly created research institution or a research institution with only a small number of projects and relatively small income be the lead organisation.

A related question would be, if we proceed in this manner, what negative weight – if any -- would attach to our failure to provide an annual report or recent financial statements of the normal kind if we can demonstrate decades of experience on project management at senior levels for the project leaders, supported by appropriate refences?”

Second, in the Application Form, under the section “Required Documents”, there are two questions that are similar concerning Audited Financial Statements. One has the number (1) in it and refers to FCRA compliance. The second question has the number (2) in it. Would we be correct in assuming that the former only relates to Indian organisations and the latter to non-Indian organisations?

While ultimately the decision to apply under a specific entity is yours, we can advise that we do require audited financial statements to demonstrate financial viability. The grant assessment process is a competitive one and an applying entity with no demonstrated financial viability history may be a factor at the time of evaluating and comparing submissions.

With regards to your second question, in the section that has the (1) in front of it, financial statements must be provided by both the Australian and Indian stakeholders in the partnership. However, FCRA Compliance is an act of the Parliament of India and will only relate to the Indian stakeholders included in the partnership application. 

4.

Could you kindly confirm and clarify Total Budget and funding will be inclusive of GST or Exclusive. Grant Guidelines and FAQ mentions Inclusive, while the application draft form states exclusive.

The amount of funding that you will receive will be GST inclusive (between $150,000 and $250,000).

However, we are asking you to list the costs without GST as it is assumed that a proportion of costs will not attract GST.

 

NAVIGATING (MOVING THROUGH) THE APPLICATION FORM

On every screen (page of the form) you will find a Form Navigation contents box, this links directly to every page of the application. Click the link to jump directly to the page you want.

You can also click 'next page' or 'previous page' on the top or bottom of each page to move forward or backward through the application.

SAVING YOUR DRAFT APPLICATION

If you wish to leave a partially completed application, press 'save and close' and log out. When you log back in and click on the 'My Submissions' link at the top of the screen, you will find a list of any applications you have started or submitted. You can reopen your draft application and start where you left off.

You can also download any application, whether draft or completed, as a PDF. Click on the 'Download PDF' button located at the bottom of the last page of the application form.

SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION

You will find a Review and Submit button at the bottom of the Navigation Panel. You need to review your application before you can submit it.

Once you have reviewed your application you can submit it by clicking on 'Submit' at the top or bottom of the screen or on the navigation panel. You will not be able to submit your application until all the compulsory questions are completed and there are no validation errors.

Once you have submitted your application, no further editing or uploading of support materials is possible.

When you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email with a copy of your submitted application attached. This will be sent to the email you used to register.

If you do not receive a confirmation of submission email then you should presume that your submission has NOT been submitted.

Hint: also check the email hasn't landed in your spam or junk email folder.

ATTACHMENTS AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

You may need to upload/submit attachments to support your application. This is very simple, but requires you to have the documents saved on your computer, or on a storage device.

You need to allow enough time for each file to upload before trying to attach another file. Files can be up to 25MB each; however, we do recommend trying to keep files to a maximum of 5MB – the larger the file, the longer the upload time.

COMPLETING AN APPLICATION IN A GROUP/TEAM

A number of people can work on an application using the same log in details as long as only one person is working at a time. Ensure you save as you go.

SPELL CHECK

Most internet browsers (including Firefox v2.0 and above; Safari; and Google Chrome) have spell checking facilities built in – you can switch this function on or off by adjusting your browser settings.