The ARC has introduced a new Open Access Policy for ARC funded research which takes effect from 1 January 2013.

According to this new policy the ARC requires that any publications arising from an ARC supported research project must be deposited into an open access institutional repository within a 12 month period from the date of publication.

The overarching aim of ARC's Policy is to ensure that the findings of publicly funded research are made available to the wider public as soon as possible.

This policy brings ARC further into line with the NHMRC and with other international research funding agencies such as those in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Find out more at the ARC website.

The ARC has announced changes to the progress reporting requirements for all active ARC funded projects. The progress reports are now due by exception* and are to be submitted by 31 March 2013.

The Monitoring & Compliance team in the Research Portfolio will contact all Chief Investigators on active ARC funding projects before the end of January, advising them of the new process for completion & submission.

Find out more at the ARC website.

*excluding LP Projects with an APAI component (all of these projects are still required to submit a progress report)

The first online submission of human ethics applications has just been completed. Researchers successfully submitted approximately 40 applications and 40 modifications for review.

Some things to remember when you next submit your application:

• All researchers and your Faculty approver need to approve your application before it is added to a meeting. Make sure you submit your application with enough time before the meeting submission deadline to allow sign-off to occur
• Students cannot be Chief Investigators on human ethics applications. Remember to add your supervisor as the Chief Investigator.
• If any researchers, or the Faculty approver, will be absent when you submit please send an email to Human Ethics and we will contact you to make new arrangements.

The Research Integrity team would like to thank you all for making the  first online submission round a success. If you have any enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us.

Are you interested in a Galaxy bioinformatics computing platform being established at the University of Sydney? ICT would like to hear from you.

Galaxy is an open, web-based bioinformatics platform that enables the user to perform a wide variety of tasks, including those for analysing next generation sequence data, and data sharing in biomedical research.

Professor Eddie Holmes and ICT Manager Mike Baker are gauging interest in establishing such a platform at the University. If you are interested in using Galaxy please send a short email to Prof. Holmes.

ARC Discovery Projects 2014 (DP14) are now open for applications.

Download the ARC Funding Rules and Instructions to Applicants from the ARC website.

Sydney’s annotated guidelines will be available on the Research Support website as soon as possible.

Please note an important change in the Funding Rules regarding cross-scheme eligibility:

A CI on a Program Grant, Project Grant or Centre of Research Excellence awarded funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council for 2014 may only apply for or hold a maximum of one Discovery Project to receive funding in 2014.

Contact: Sophie Carruthers.

If you intend to apply for an ARC Future Fellowship, download the updated Sydney guidelines.

Prepared by the Research Grants & Contracts team (RGC), these gudelines will help you complete your Future Fellowship applications for funding commencing in 2013.

These guidelines should be read in conjunction with the Funding Rules and the complete Instructions to Applicants (including Frequently Asked Questions) available at the ARC website.

The Internal closing date for Future Fellowships is Wednesday 6 February 2013. ARC closing time for submissions is Wednesday 20 Feburary 2013.

• Sydney Guidelines for 2013 Future Fellowship applicants (PDF)

The NHMRC Research and Practitioner Fellowships schemes are open for applications.

The Research Fellowships scheme aims to recruit and support Australia's very best medical and health research to further develop as leaders in their field and contribute to the Australian research community through active participation.

The Practitioner Fellowships scheme aims to strengthen health and public health practice and services by providing an opportunity for clinical, public and health services research practitioners to combine a component of research with their professional career.

Several changes have been made to the scheme including:

• Reapplications with promotion will be assessed and ranked at the fellow’s current level and requested promoted level only
• Removal of external assessments
• Introduction of all interviews by teleconference
• Applicants are required to enter the Supervision & Mentoring Summary in RGMS (B-TTC2)

The funding rules and instructions to applicants can be downloaded from the NHMRC website.

Internal closing date: Wednesday 30th January 2013

Contact Jane Zhang of Research Grants and Contracts.

A two day introductory course for researchers and PhD students who have never used high performance computing before or have had only limited exposure.

High performance computing (HPC) is a powerful tool to use when facing computationally-intensive tasks. If you are waiting hours or days for your computer to crunch through your data, this course is for you. It will enable you to use the HPC facilities available to the university through its support agencies such as Intersect and NCI.

This course assumes only basic Windows competence and will teach participants how to interact via the command line, move data between different locations and prepare and run it through the HPC facilities. It will be delivered in a small group workshop including presentations and hands-on exercises with tutors.

Course dates and registration:

• 11 and 12 February
• 28 February and 1 March

If you're new to research or the University, in need of an update or have an interest in animal research, register now for our Introduction to Animal Research course.

This course, which does not use animals, focuses on the ethical and legal aspects of animal research.

To find out more and register online, visit the Research Support website.

Details
When: 19 February 2013
Where: Nursing Lecture Theatre, Ground Level Building B, Mallett Street Campus.
Register online by 12 February 2013.