TRI Spore Grants

The TRI Spore Grants are for multidisciplinary teams of scientists and clinicians from a combination of academic, commercial and clinical backgrounds to test innovative ideas.  The TRI Spore Grants will be awarded to the applicant team with an important clinical question; a clear translational outcome identified and a commercial partner involved in the preparation of the application.

The 2016 round of grants now open

Conditions and Eligibility

Five Spore Grants up to a possible total of $90,000 each were awarded in 2015, with applications for 2016 now open.  The TRI stakeholder institutions - The University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Mater Medical Research Institute and Metro Health South - will provide $10,000 per Grant, if part of the multidisciplinary team.   TRI will provide $50,000 per Grant.   The Grants will be subject to the following conditions being met:

1. The proposal involves chief investigators belonging to at least two different TRI stakeholder institutions, one of these from a clinical discipline who is an active clinician.
2. The proposal constitutes a collaboration formed to test a new innovation.
3. The proposal must include an expression of interest or commitment from a commercial partner.
4. The proposal must clearly outline the contributions and role of each of the participating stakeholder institutes and their Chief Investigator/s (CI) in the project.
5. TRI must be acknowledged on all publications and slide presentations.
6. All committed funding by the participating stakeholders must be paid upfront to TRI for each project.
7. The Grant will be milestone based and paid to the lead applicant's administering institute only.
8. Upon being awarded, it is expected the lead applicant’s institute will finalise the Inter Institutional Agreements and ensure any required ethics and governance structures are in place with the participating partners, TRI recommends:
   1. Background IP will be owned by the respective parties
   2. Ownership of the IP developed through the 2016 Spore Grants will reflect the respective inventive contribution of each collaborator
   3. Commercialisation of any jointly owned IP will be led by the administering institute and as  negotiated between the relevant parties who hold the IP
   4. It is the CI’s and the administering institutes responsibility to be aware and finalise any ethical clearances, risk assessments and other administrative processes that may be required prior to the commencement of the project, if not completed the CI and the administering institute acknowledge there may be a delay in funding.
9. For the purpose of this year’s Grants, as one of the key milestones, the applicant and the teams must be willing to:
   1. Provide a non-confidential, one to two page summary of the commercial potential of the project outcomes by addressing the value proposition of the project, key results demonstrating the value proposition, current position on the translational continuum, competition, market, IP position if any and areas of future use.
   2. Agree to discuss their application with TRI consultants to evaluate the objectives of the research program and securing additional resources and partnerships to achieving increased translational success.

Assessment and allocation of funding

The applications will be assessed by an independent Selection Committee chaired by the TRI CEO.  Announcement of funding should be made by November 2016.

Submission Information

To download the 2016 TRI Spore Grants Criteria, click here. To download the Application Form, click here.  Applications should be emailed by the first-named investigator as a PDF to [email protected] by Friday 21 October 2016.

 For any further assistance with your application or if you have any specific questions, please contact Dr Nagaraj Gopisetty (07) 3443 7611 or email: [email protected]