23rd May 2013

DAN Research Grants

Following are the Guidelines that will assist you in formulating your Grant Application. The DAN Research Grant Application Form can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE.

Research Grant Guidelines

DAN Asia-Pacific and DAN America are jointly offering an amount of up to AUD$30,000 per year to be awarded for suitable diving safety/ diving medical research. To this end, we are offering individual grants of up to AUD$10,000 each.

Applications can be submitted at any time. However, once the funding ceiling has been allocated no further funds will be available until the following year.

Physicians, hyperbaric technicians, scientists, hyperbaric nurses and other personnel with training in diving and/or hyperbaric medicine, or research, are encouraged to submit research and development proposals to the DAN AP Research Grants Committee (RGC) for funding consideration. Applications for funding will only be considered for research in diving and/or hyperbaric medicine, recompression chamber operations/safety or treatment protocols, and other initiatives likely to improve diving safety and dive accident prevention or management. The RGC makes the final funding determination. Each project or request for funding must be reviewed by the RGC and receives a priority score.

The objective of the Research Grants is to fund medical or technical research, which aims to produce measurable and worthwhile advances in the field of diving safety and diving and hyperbaric medicine.

The RGC has outlined specific guidelines and criteria that must be adhered to in developing your proposal. In addition, we recommend you review the following considerations:

Principal Investigator:
The Principal Investigator (PI) must be an appropriately qualified and/or experienced diving medical professional, scientist, technician or researcher. Students will not be considered as PI's unless they are working under the direct supervision of an appropriate mentor.

Completion time:
Only proposals requesting funding for up to a maximum of two years will be eligible. Funds that remain unspent or formally uncommitted, and have not been approved for carry over at the completion of this period, will be resumed by DAN.

Ethics Approval:
Research utilising human or animal subjects must be approved by an appropriate ethics committee(s) (with approval letter included as an appendix) prior to beginning the outlined study. Studies involving humans must also include submission of an approved consent form. Research questions, and/or hypothesis or hypotheses, should be identified explicitly in the context of the proposal.

Funding Conditions:
The RGC will not provide funds for loans of any type. Applications are encouraged to include a statement of plans to attract long-term and/or additional future funding. Funding provided by the RGC must be acknowledged upon presentation of research, (i.e. publication or formal presentation).

Computer equipment: The RGC will not fund the purchase of computer equipment.

Research Assistants: Applications that include the appointment of research assistants or administrative staff should indicate both the level and duration of the appointment. All on-costs should also be included in the budget. Where it can be shown that short term assistance is necessary, a grant may be made for such employment. Employment should be for specific tasks or in particular areas of a project.

Travel, accommodation and subsistence: Where funding is required for travel essential to the applicant's research, funds will normally be provided at the cheapest rail rate for travel, and for the cheapest available airfare for travel overseas. A contribution to accommodation costs may be considered, although a full “per diem” amount will not be approved. Where public transport is not available or practical for conducting the research, car travel should be budgeted at the agreed local standard cost per km. Travel costs will generally be limited to a maximum of 25% of the grant funds.

Payment of participants in a research project: Applicants should note that payment of participants in a research project raises a number of ethical issues that will be considered separately by the various Human Ethics Committee’s when an application for ethics approval for the project is considered. It is noted that payment of participants in a research project is not encouraged by DAN. However, a proposed budget may include payment to participants, and in that case the following points must be addressed in the budget justification section of the grant application:

  • Why is payment of participants necessary?
  • Is it possible that payment might be considered an inducement for consent to participate?
  • Are there implications for the integrity of the conduct of the research and its outcomes?
  • What other options to obtain participation have been attempted before deciding on payment participants?

Purposes for which funds will not be provided:        

  • costs associated with conference attendance;
  • stipends or other support for higher degrees by research students;
  • costs associated with the preparation of completed research, such as typing;
  • other expenses incurred in the preparation of books, journal articles or other texts for publication or dissemination, or of theses for submission; and
  • entertainment expenses.

Total funding for a project is limited to AUD$10,000.00 (Ten Thousand Australian Dollars) 

Reporting requirements:
All researchers must submit a report on projects funded in this round, including budget expenditure details, by 30th June following the receipt of the initial funds.

If a project is not complete at the end of the first year of the grant (but expenditure of grant funds is finished) annual progress reports for the project will continue to be required by the end of June each year until the activities for which funds were provided are completed.

Failure to submit reports at any stage will mean that a future application from any of the researchers concerned will not be considered by DAN while there is an outstanding report. Funds remaining in any grant account for which a report has not been provided may be frozen or resumed by DAN.

Reports provided to DAN must contain:

  • a detailed statement of expenditure;
  • a report on the research conducted, including information such as any difficulties encountered, unexpected findings, potential for new research identified or other experiences that may be of concern or interest to the RGC;
  • a clear statement of how well the aims as set out in the original application have been achieved, or an explanation of why the aims have not been achieved if this is the case, and what steps are being taken to make further progress in this regard;
  • details of conference papers, publications and other outcomes arising from the research, or which are still in preparation, and copies where appropriate.

DAN Research Grant Application

CLICK HERE to Download DAN AP's Research Grant Application

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