La Trobe University > Research > Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research > Partnership funding

Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research partnership funding

Round Four Applications - Now Open

We are delighted to announce the opening of the fourth round of the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research Research Partnership Funding Stream. Applications are now open and will close at 5pm on Friday 19th May 2023.

The funding stream supports short-term projects that directly improve the health or well-being of people living in rural and remote locations. This means that the number of people benefitting and the extent of benefit, as a direct result of the project, is an important consideration in project assessment.

Funding will be considered for seed funding of projects, that whilst they do have some direct benefits, can grow through attracting other sources of funding in subsequent stages.

Proposals must align with the aims and philosophy of the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research: to improve the health and wellbeing of rural people.  Through measuring the benefits delivered, projects should promote understanding of good practice for the delivery of research results into communities.

Funding is available to organisations, community groups or entities including, but not limited to, health and social services, councils, schools, maternal and child health centres and other community groups.   The funds are not intended to replace normal recurrent expenditures and applicants should explain the additional benefits that flow directly to their communities from their proposals.

Project management and research support for communities may be available from the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research, including support to develop evaluation plans.

To download an application form click here

Aims

  • To accelerate projects that are important to and have a rapid impact on the community, as demonstrated by the community’s matching funding commitment.
  • To support communities that may be interested in larger funding applications but need additional funding to complete pilot work and establish a track record that will support future bids.

    • To guarantee strong engagement from a community which has a) invested financially, and b) received matching funds from the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research Partnership Funding Stream. The matching funds will give the community greater capital to proceed with projects/research that is directly relevant to their community. This will lead to strong community ownership and should lead to better success rates/longer term outcomes and impact.

Funding rules

The Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research Partnership Funding Stream is not intended to be onerous for communities.

  • Funding is available to organisations, community groups or entities including, but not limited to, health and social services, councils, schools, maternal and child health centres and community groups, whose proposal aligns with the aims and philosophy of the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research – to directly improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of rural people.

  • Up to a total of $50,000 is available per project over a maximum period of two years.

  • Applications for funding must clearly demonstrate how the proposed project will directly impact rural people at the grassroots community level, beyond contribution to academic outputs such as research and conference presentations. Where possible, applicants will be encouraged to disseminate their work to maximise learnings across communities.

  • Student involvement in projects must be directly aligned to the purpose, outcomes and outputs of the project. The funding cannot be used, for example, to support undergraduate student placement. It is envisaged that honours, doctoral and post-doctoral fellows may support work. Any funding applications that involve a student stipend (for example, an Industry PhD Scholarship program) would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

  • Applicants are required to commit matching funding to the project. In-kind contributions will be considered on a case-by-case basis providing an appropriate rationale for no cash contribution is provided

  • Intentions to use the funding to leverage other funding sources (such as using funding for a National Health and Medical Research Council bid) must be outlined in detail in the funding application.

  • Applicants must include a plan for evaluation of project outcomes. All projects will have a funding schedule based on satisfactory performance and will be required to submit six-monthly progress reports. At project end, all applicants will be asked to submit details of the evaluation and evidence of project outcomes

  • Partnerships with other universities are an important part of the activities of the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research, so projects that involve other universities are welcomed.

For all enquiries relating to partnership funding, please email violet.marshman@latrobe.edu.au.

Funded Partnership Projects in Previous Rounds

The successful applicants in our 2021 funded partnerships came from across rural Victoria and NSW. The funding was allocated to four projects across two rounds.

Round 1: Sunraysia Community Health Services, together with Ruth Hardman.

Round 2: Mildura Rural City Council, West Wimmera Health Service and Cultivate Farms.

Round 3: Echuca Regional Health and Northern District Community Health Service.