A guide to applicants for Doctoral Scholarships

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*Please read these notes carefully before completing your application*

Objective

The Auckland Medical Research Foundation’s (AMRF) vision is to improve the health and quality of life for all New Zealanders. We aim to achieve this by providing genuine advances in health, science and medicine through funding the highest quality medical research of all kinds.

Funding area

The AMRF’s research funding area is limited to all recognised tertiary institutions and district health boards (DHBs) in the greater Auckland and Northland region of New Zealand. The principal investigator/grant holder must be affiliated with a host institution within this area, and the majority of work should be undertaken within this area, but co-applicants can come from, and part of the research can be performed, outside our catchment area - either nationally or internationally.

How to apply

Use the on-line application form provided, after first creating an account. The application must be created and submitted from the applicant's portal account.

Purpose of the grant

The scholarship is for the support of outstanding non-medically qualified graduates enrolled or enrolling for a PhD in biomedical, clinical or population health research. Since 2022, this scholarship can no longer be used to support an Masters degree. This scholarship is a personal award, and once awarded, is non-transferable to another person.

Value of grant

* $35,000 tax free stipend per annum

* Up to $8,000 fees per annum

* $5,000 working expenses per annum

* $5,000 travel grant

Tenure of grant

Maximum tenure is 3 years.

Number of grants awarded

The AMRF offers two to three Doctoral Scholarships each year, but may consider more depending on the available funds and quality of applications.

Eligibility

* To apply you must be a New Zealand resident, permanent resident or citizen. Applications from non-New Zealand residents or citizens will not be accepted.

* As an early career development award, the AMRF values the primary supervisor's support of the recipient and their research project and their commitment to helping them develop their career as an independent researcher. Therefore, A primary supervisor may only support one application for an AMRF Doctoral Scholarship submitted to the granting round. Please check with your primary supervisor to confirm you are eligible to apply.

* The Primary Supervisor must have tenure, or an employment contract for the term of the scholarship.

* The AMRF only accepts one re-submission of a previously unsuccessful Doctoral Scholarship application. An applicant who has been unsuccessful twice can submit further applications in their chosen field of research, but it will need to be based on a new or substantially revised hypothesis.

* The start date of the Scholarship must be after the Award date (decision date) of that round. Please check the grant rounds dates on the How to Apply page on our website.

Application process

Since 2023 the Doctoral Scholarship is a two-stage application process:

Stage 1

Submission of a full application. Applicants submit their application which is then reviewed by the AMRF scholarships and fellowships medical committee.

Stage 2

Top ranked applicants will be invited to an interview.

Writing guidelines

* Applications should be written and submitted by the applicant personally.

* When you write your application, please remember that your research proposal will be reviewed by both discipline-specific referees and also by members of the Medical Committee with a broad range of experience in health research. Please structure your proposal in a clear and succinct way and if possible seek feedback from a colleague outside your immediate research area.

* *Research benefiting commercial entities*: Where an application includes research that could benefit a commercial entity, all conflicts of interest (financial or otherwise) must be disclosed.

Justification for why the research team is seeking AMRF public good funding for the proposed project rather than (or as well as) it being commissioned and funded by the commercial entity must be provided. Details about what components of the proposal constitute hypothesis-driven academic research should be provided, if applicable.

* *Animal experimentation*:

Since May 2024, the AMRF is a signatory of ANZCCART’s Openness Agreement on Animal Research and Teaching in New Zealand and we are working to fulfil the commitments of the Agreement as they apply to the Foundation. If the research involves the use of laboratory animals, the AMRF requires that you use the PREPARE guidelines (Planning Research and Experimental Procedures on Animals: Recommendations for Excellence) for planning animal experiments, and the ARRIVE guidelines (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) for improving the reproducibility and reporting of research involving animals. Not all the guidelines may be relevant to your project, but you can use them to ensure that you plan your experimental design carefully and include all the relevant information in your application(s) crucial to the peer review process at the application stage, as well as providing all the experimental details, results and analysis required for publications that arise from the work. *Note:* Where animal research constitutes a component of your research project it is an expectation of the AMRF that information pertaining to it is included in your media summary.

* The AMRF supports the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s expectation that scientists will account for the possible role of sex as a biological variable (SABV) in vertebrate animal and human studies (or any material originating from animals or humans, e.g. organs, cells, tissues). The AMRF recommends that you familiarise yourself with the SABV policy. Strong justification from the scientific literature, preliminary data, or other relevant considerations must be provided for applications proposing to study only one sex. Additional useful information can be found within the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines, which are a comprehensive set of guidelines for reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analyses, results and interpretation of findings. Not all the guidelines may be relevant to your project, but you can use them to ensure that you plan your experimental design carefully and include all the relevant information in your application(s) crucial to the peer review process at the application stage, as well as providing all the experimental details, results and analysis required for publications that arise from the work.

* If the research involves a clinical trial, the AMRF strongly recommends that you familiarise yourself with the SPIRIT 2013 Statement (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials). Not all the guidelines may be relevant to your project, but you can use them to ensure that you plan your trial carefully and include all the relevant information in your application(s) crucial to the peer review process at the application stage, as well as providing all the trial details, results and analysis required for publications that arise from the work.

* There is no standard CV format for this application.

Budget guidelines

* The tenure of the scholarship is 3 years from the award date. The AMRF does not provide retrospective funding. Therefore, if you have enrolled and started your project prior to the award date you will still be eligible for 3 years of funding, but it is our requirement that should your project be completed in less than the full tenure of your Scholarship, you will be required to file your final report and any remaining funds will be cancelled. If you know that you will only require 1 or 2 years of full funding from the AMRF, please only apply for a shortened tenure (rounded to the full year).

* If you have already started your project and received some funding from an alternative source for the time period until the start date of your AMRF Scholarship, it is an expectation of the AMRF that you will only receive a maximum of 4 years full time scholarship funding from all sources. The AMRF reserves the right to withdraw funding if they know this has been breached.

* The AMRF provides up to $5,000 p.a. for working expenses for every year of Scholarship awarded. These working expenses can be used to support research costs associated with your project. The AMRF will consider funding*:

Expenses associated with “wet lab” work (reagents, plasticware, chemicals, kits etc)

Animal purchase and board

Equipment/Instrument usage costs

Small items of equipment (costing less than $5,000) where there is a strong justification for the need for this item to undertake the research

Expenses associated with clinical work, that is not included as part of the normal standard of care

Computers, laptops, tablets if these items are essential for field work and are not supplied by the host institution

Costs of data extraction, data storage devices, website creation and hosting, etc.

Compensation for participants (koha)

Non-conference travel where it is an essential part of the research

Stationery, freight, postage etc.

Publication charges

Statistician costs

* If you want to cover an item that is not included in the list above, please contact the Research Programme Manager on 923 1701 to discuss the suitability.

Note

The AMRF reserves the right not to award the full value of the working expenses if they deem the use is not well justified or that the ‘expense’ comes under another component of the Scholarship.

General

* The applicant’s academic record will be taken into account by the Medical Committee.

* Awards to successful applicants will be dependent on confirmation of registration for a PhD or MD.

* Co-tenuring of other Scholarships will not be permitted.

* Doctoral Scholars require the consent of the AMRF to undertake additional remunerated employment during their scholarship tenure.

The AMRF will not fund

* This doctoral scholarship is not available to medically qualified candidates. Please apply for the Douglas Goodfellow Medical Research Fellowship.

* The AMRF will not fund any element of overhead recovery, including salary buyout.

* The AMRF does not fund costs of rental accommodation, heating, lighting and what might be termed the usual office facilities and accessories.

* The AMRF does not provide retrospective funding.

* The AMRF does not fund major items of equipment costing more than $5,000.

Regulatory approval

* Experimentation or questionnaires involving human subjects requires approval from an HRC accredited ethics committee. Experimentation with animals requires approval from a registered animal ethics committee. Either attach the approval(s) to the application, or indicate that approval is being sought.

* All appropriate regulatory approvals must be in place before the grant can be activated.

* If the project involves a clinical trial, please indicate if the trail is registered and with which clinical trial registry. Please also provide details of your data safety monitoring committee if applicable.

* Applications will not be considered unless the Applicant Agreement is completed.

Publicity declaration

The AMRF is supported by private donations and therefore has an obligation through the news media, and its own newsletters to members and supporters, to report research that it supports. By becoming a recipient of an AMRF grant, you automatically agree to the mention of your name to media and stakeholders.

The AMRF raises awareness of its aims with the general public, by inviting AMRF funded researchers to discuss their research with local interest groups (Rotary, U3A etc). By becoming a recipient of an AMRF grant, you automatically agree to be included on a list of available guest speakers.

Submission procedure

Log into the AMRF Portal at funding.medicalresearch.org.nz and create a new application. Ensure all the required details are entered and all necessary documents have been attached.

Clicking ‘Submit’ on your application form sends it to your host institution. They will then complete their requirements, before officially submitting it to the AMRF. Your host institution compliance process takes time so please adhere to internal deadlines to ensure your application reaches the AMRF by 5 pm on the closing date.

Please refer to the Application process help page for details of what happens to your submitted application.

Additional information can be found in the Grant Proposal template.

Our contact details

EMAIL ADDRESS	[mailto:amrf@medicalresearch.org.nz,amrf@medicalresearch.org.nz]
POSTAL ADDRESS	Research Programme Manager Auckland Medical Research Foundation P O Box 110139 Auckland Hospital Auckland 1148
TELEPHONE	+64 9 923 1701
COURIER	Third Floor, 81 Grafton Road Grafton Auckland 1010

If you can't find the information you need, please use the contact form at the bottom of this page to send an inquiry to the Auckland Medical Research Foundation.