Arts PhD Fieldwork Grant

Eligibility and selection criteria

Eligibility

• Be enrolled in a PhD degree in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne;
• Be Confirmed;
• Be able to demonstrate that the primary data collection for your PhD requires?fieldwork methodology with strong support from your Advisory Committee. Assessment of applications for fieldwork support will be based not on the discipline, but the methodology involved;
• Have a Research Expenses Plan approved by your Advisory Committee at Confirmation of Candidature; and
• Be able to demonstrate that you have met all relevant University policy requirements relating to their fieldwork (such as compliance with the University’s code of conduct for research and student travel policy): Research Integrity Principles, Student Travel and Transport Policy (MPF1209), Graduate Research Training Policy (MPF1321), Academic Progress Review Policy (Graduate Research) (MPF1363).

Selection criteria

The selection is based on:

• How your methodology meets the guidelines of what constitutes fieldwork
• That the proposed fieldwork is essential and integral to your thesis
• The Research Expenses Plan approved at Confirmation of Candidature

Methodological approaches relevant to this scheme include ethnographic and linguistic research techniques, and studies requiring immersion or other site-intensive work. These may include participant observation or interview-based strategies that must occur over a sustained period of time‚ or other types of field-based research projects that requires the graduate researcher to be embedded within a particular field location or locations. Fieldwork funding may also be appropriate for research projects requiring long-term strategies of building trust to gain access to the object of research.

Fieldwork may consist of deep immersion in one place or research in a number of sites – in either case, the onus is on the graduate researcher to make the case as to how the proposed research meets the other criteria for fieldwork funding.

What is not fieldwork?

Visits to libraries, museums, archives, and other forms of data collection or research that do not require the graduate researcher to be embedded at the location, visits to other universities, to consult with academics or to attend conferences and data gathering and analysis performed by professional companies or private individuals on behalf of the graduate researcher.

Conditions

• Applications for fieldwork funding for the purpose of research involving human subjects must demonstrate compliance with the University's code of conduct for research before any data gathering can commence under the auspices of the PhD Fieldwork Grant Scheme.
• Graduate researchers who have obtained approval for their Research Expenses Plan during the Confirmation phase are eligible to access the allocated funds by submitting a payment request, but it is expected that funded fieldwork will be completed within 3 years (EFTSL) of candidature. Graduate researchers who apply under this scheme cannot apply for funding from the Essentials Grant.
• Graduate researchers may propose to undertake more than one research trip of fieldwork throughout their candidature up to the specified limit. Each trip is typically expected to be elements of the same essential fieldwork activity.
• The experience of data collection and interpretation are considered an important part of the training of a graduate researcher, and this scheme is designed to support this experience. Funding awarded under this scheme cannot be used to pay for data analysis or transcription by professional fieldwork companies.
• Graduate researchers jointly enrolled in another Faculty with co-supervision in Arts may access pro-rated funding only when an approved completion sharing agreement is in place. For partner based IRTG candidates, reciprocal arrangements must be approved prior to enrolment.
• Graduate researchers on AusAID scholarships have funding for fieldwork built into their scholarship and are allowed one fieldwork trip (either to their home country or within Australia) funded by AusAID during the course of their scholarship. Visit the Australia's Aid Program web page.
• Retrospective applications, where the activity has already taken place, will not be considered.
• Graduate researchers travelling under this scheme are required to submit a report. Reports are due by the 1 March in the year following their trip. Guidelines on drafting such reports are available on the research grant reporting requirements web page. A report must be provided for before accessing funding up to the approved funding limit.

Budget

Budgets are expected to be prudent and economical and any funding is based on an agreed budget by the Advisory Committee, subject to approval by the Faculty ADGR. The Faculty may choose to award less than the allowable maximum, depending on the quality of the application and available funds.

Items usually funded include:

• Expenses to support costs associated with course-related research work
• Fees for obtaining research material essential to course-related research work
• Travel costs for the critical research work
• Accommodation
• Access fees (i.e. costs of community access, gatekeeping, interpreting in the field, etc.)
• Government fees and research visas
• Archival materials from external sources
• Software or consumable materials critical for the research that cannot be provided by the University of Melbourne

Items that may be funded with justifiable evidence (case-by-case basis):

Items not funded include:

• Living expenses – these are expected to be covered by either your scholarship or other sources
• Electronic equipment, such as laptops, recorders or other consumables
• Language study – you are expected to have developed any required language skill prior to travel
• Cross-institutional study or travel to attend a training course or workshop
• Travel insurance over and above the University policy
• Joint PhD graduate researchers visiting partner universities
• Data gathering or analysis performed by professional fieldwork companies or private individuals on your behalf