Swinburne Neuroimaging (SNI) Access and Support Scheme

Kick-starting high quality, innovative research

Overview

Swinburne Neuroimaging (SNI) offers a competitive Access and Support Scheme designed to promote, facilitate and support world-class innovation and research in neuroimaging. The scheme recognises the challenges associated with obtaining external neuroimaging research funding and accepts internal applications from early career researchers (ECRs) and those seeking i) feasibility data, ii) to develop novel and cutting-edge neuroimaging methods, and iii) requiring a top-up to other granted funds to adequately power a study.

Applications for the following grants are now being accepted:

• SNI Early Career Research Grant

• SNI Feasibility Grant

• SNI Enhancing Capability Grant

• SNI Top-Up Grants for Innovative Research

Scope

The SNI Access and Support Scheme aims to address specific barriers to obtaining external research funding in a fair and transparent manner, and assist researchers to go on to be successful in future external funding applications. These specific barriers include research projects for which there is:

• a lack of demonstrated expertise using imaging methods

• a lack of pilot data demonstrating that the methods to be used in a grant application are feasible

• a lack of demonstrated capability at SNI in certain methodologies, particularly new and innovative techniques

• insufficient external research funding for an appropriately powered neuroimaging budget

Applications will generally be assessed according to their ability to bring in new research funding for SNI facility use through increased grant applications to research councils and engagement with third-party contributors (charity and industry). Increasing high-quality research outputs (publications, software, datasets, technologies) and impact are also major considerations. Applications are required to clearly outline how the proposed research activity addresses the criteria of the specific grant scheme.

Applications will be reviewed by the SNI Scientific Committee, who will consult with the SNI Operations Committee and/or other experts as necessary. Applications will receive approval, advice to resubmit, or rejection. All approved projects will be bound by specific obligations and deliverables and must acknowledge the SNI grant and facility in all publications that arise. In addition to the specified deliverables, all research undertaken at SNI will abide by SNI policies and procedures as outlined in the project-specific Access Agreement. Projects must be run in accordance with   FAIR guidelines for Open Science, as detailed in the Access Agreement. Grants will have a dollar value sufficient to cover the cost of facility access.

Applications meeting one or more of the following criteria will be prioritised: 

• Industry partnerships

• Cross-disciplinary research involving researchers across Swinburne faculties and research centres

• ECR projects involving  multiple ECRs, particularly in the case of Honours and HDR projects

• Demonstrated outputs (publications, grant applications, other outputs) from previous research supported by SNI grants or equivalent (e.g. “gratis” scans)

Please consult the SNI team before submitting an application.

You can contact the SNI Operations Manager via email at   neuroimaging@swin.edu.au and they can assist in organising a consultation. In this consultation, we aim to establish a basic understanding of the project, its requirements, and the researcher's expectations of SNI staff.

SNI Early Career Researcher Grant

These grants are aimed at providing a “launch platform” in neuroimaging research for early career researchers, including Honours students, HDR students, postdocs and early career lecturers. They are explicitly designed to support first studies that will lead to publication and grant applications. Applications for an SNI Early Career Research Grant must address the following criteria:

1. The aim, rationale, hypotheses and relevance/impact of the proposed research

2. Detailed methodology, including participant recruitment and screening, piloting, statistical   power/sensitivity, data acquisition, data quality control and analysis, statistical analysis plan, and   how “null results” will be addressed

3. Description of the resources, expertise, and training (including supervision of ECRs) required to complete the proposed research

4. Proposed publication outlet (and why) and proposed date for submission

5. Proposed funding scheme to be applied for (and why) and application submission date

6. Proposed technology or services outputs and proposed timeline for their release or   implementation

All SNI ECR Grant research projects need to be preregistered on the Open Science Framework (OSF;   https://osf.io) and/or submitted as a Registered Report at a relevant journal. Publications must be submitted to a relevant preprint server at, or prior to, submission. All data collected and data analysis scripts must be made available on an open access data repository at the time of submission for publication.

SNI Feasibility Grant

The SNI Feasibility Grant is a small scale grant providing access to the SNI facility to demonstrate project feasibility and allow for the fine-tuning of the project methodology where necessary. Importantly, feasibility grants are   not  small studies aimed at showing that a hypothesised effect might exist or to estimate effect sizes for statistical power analysis. Small studies cannot validly be used for those purposes (see   here for example).

Applications for an SNI Feasibility Grant must address the following criteria:

1.  The aim, rationale, hypotheses and relevance/impact of the proposed research

2. Detailed methodology, including participant recruitment and screening, piloting, data acquisition, data quality control and analysis, proposed statistical analysis plan (following acquisition of the full dataset), and how “null results” will be addressed

3. Description of the resources, expertise and training (including supervision of ECRs) required to complete the proposed research

4. Funding scheme (and application deadline) that will be applied for on the basis of the feasibility grant data, with an outline of how the proposed research fits within that funding scheme

Research projects funded on the basis of the feasibility grant data are to complete their funded data acquisition at SNI. Where feasibility is not demonstrated by the pilot data, recipients of an SNI Feasibility Grant will be required to present their methodology at an SNI Seminar Series meeting, and provide a detailed assessment/hypotheses addressing the lack of feasibility.

SNI Enhancing Capability Grant

SNI Enhancing Capability Grants support methodological research that will apply imaging techniques that have not yet been used at SNI, and/or develop new and novel imaging techniques. Applications for an SNI Enhancing Capacity Grant must address the following criteria:

1. A detailed description of the proposed method (including a brief relevant background literature review), and how it will enhance SNI capability beyond one specific project

2. Detailed proposal of how the technique will be developed and tested, including measures of data quality, data analysis and validation

3. Description of the resources, expertise and training (including supervision of ECRs) required to complete the proposed research

All SNI Enhancing Capability Grant recipients must commit to making the technique freely available to all future SNI users, including making all protocols and analysis scripts available on   OSF and/or   GitHub, and/or (where deemed applicable by the SNI Scientific Committee) submit the data for publication in a relevant methods journal. The recipient must also present their research at an SNI Seminar Series meeting.

SNI Top-Up Grants for Innovative Research

The aim of the SNI Top-Up Grant is to encourage researchers to obtain external funding to support innovative imaging research, even when such funding can only partially fund the research. Priority will be given to applications for top-up funding that are made during the initial planning stages of the research, and for which SNI has provided support and advice.

Applications for an SNI Top-Up Grant for Innovative Research must address the following criteria:

1. The aim, rationale, hypotheses and relevance/impact of the proposed research

2. How the research strengthens the SNI research profile

3. Detailed methodology, including participant recruitment and screening, piloting, statistical power/sensitivity, data acquisition, data quality control and analysis, statistical analysis plan, how “null results” will be addressed

4. Description of the resources, expertise and training (including supervision of ECRs) required to complete the proposed research

5. Justification for the need for top-up funding, including efforts made to obtain funding from other sources

6. Proposed publication outlet (and why) and proposed date for submission

7. Proposed funding scheme to be applied for (and why) and application submission date

8. Proposed technology or services outputs and proposed timeline for their release or implementation

All SNI Top-Up Grant research projects need to be preregistered on the   Open Science Framework  (OSF) and/or submitted as a Registered Report at a relevant journal. Publications must be submitted to a relevant preprint server at, or prior to, submission. All data collected and data analysis scripts must be made available on an open access data repository at the time of submission for publication.