Rewarding Research Excellence

At Telethon Kids, we actively encourage and promote excellence in both our research and our researchers.  We recognise that our people are our greatest assest so building capacity and excellence in them is a major priority. 

We believe that the way we reward research excellence is better than anywhere else in the nation.  Find out more below about the ways we reward and support our researchers. 

Plus 10: Incentive Scheme for Category 1 Project Grants

Plus 10 rewards research excellence by offering a 10% top up to researchers who secure Category 1 grants, as listed on the Australian Competitive Grants Register.  Plus 10 provides top-up funding (referred to as a "Research Incentive Payment") for eligible Project Grants which are determined on the basis of a fixed percentage of the final amount of grant funding received by the Institute. We believe to be the largest incentive offered by a Medical Research Institute in Australia.  Email our Research Development team to find out more. 

Fellowship Support

Telethon Kids Institute encourages and actively promotes researchers to submit applications for peer-reviewed and other Fellowship schemes. For category 1 and 2 fellowships, salaries are matched to the recipient’s fellowship Institute salary level. Recipients of category 1 fellowships receive 17% superannuation and an additional annual allowance.

Supporting Research Leaders Scheme

​​​The Supporting Research Leaders Scheme is a competitive process designed to support, incentivise and retain those Institute researchers who are our "best and brightest". These researchers demonstrate the highest potential and are visionaries in their research area. Successful applicants will have access to salary underwriting for up to five years.

The top ranked applicants will also receive an additional research support allowance of $100,000 annually to further support their research objectives.​​

Salary Support

The Telethon Kids Institute is committed to supporting high-achieving researchers by offering support options to people whose funding is ceasing at the Telethon Kids Institute, who meet the associated prerequisites and perform highly against the criteria outlined in the process.

 

Internal Funding and Awards

Competitive Working Group Project Grants

The Competitive Working Group Project Grant scheme aims to provide seed funding for projects from Working Groups which have the potential for competitive funding and are capitalising on new and existing collaborations. The Telethon Kids Institute provides seed funding of $200,000 per year to support new multi-disciplinary collaborative areas of research activity in the Research Focus Areas with a goal of future grant applications and research funding.

The total value of the scheme is $200,000 per annum with up to $25,000 available per project.

Blue Sky

Supporting blue sky research is a key part of the Institute’s strategy. In our Strategic Plan the Institute committed to directing at least 10% of discretionary internal research funding to ‘high risk, high return research. To achieve this, the BHP Billiton Blue Sky Awards were created. Blue Sky research can be defined as curiosity-driven, exploratory, innovative, fundamental or high risk, high return.

The total value of the scheme is $200,000 with up to $100,000 available per project. 

Kudos Awards

The Annual Awards aim to recognise outstanding colleagues and teams for behaviours and achievements aligned to the Institute’s core values. There are six awards separated into two categories – Research Excellence Awards and People Excellence Awards. Individuals and teams are eligible to win the awards with winners of the Research Excellence Awards receiving $2000 in work-related gifts and winners of the People Excellence Awards receiving $1000 in work-related gifts.

Other Internal Funding and Awards

The Institute offers competitive funding for researchers of all levels to promote scientific collaborations and/or the placement of a researcher at a host Institution for the exchange of knowledge or generation of data with a view to the development of competitive funding applications involving the collaborator. There are also a number of awards that promote research in particular areas or reward research excellence.

The total value of the program is approximately more than $200,000 per annum, which varies annually.

Other benefits

• Salary Packaging - Salary Packaging is an entitlement granted by the Federal Government to all workers that allows researchers to take part of your income as a tax-free benefit. By effectively reducing their taxable income, researchers decrease the amount of income tax they pay. Less income tax means an increase researchers take home salary.
• Professional Development opportunities