General Post Award Guidance – Summary of Changes

Downloadable PDF version – ARC Post Award Guidance including Major Investments: Responding to the impact of COVID-19. 

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Some variation requests will not be required until the End of Year Report

The following variations can now be approved at the discretion of Administering Organisations and notified to the ARC in the 2021 End of the Year Report submitted in March 2022:

• Budget changes during this period where funding is moved across line items. Provided revised budgets comply with allowable items and expenditure caps (e.g. travel) in the relevant Grant Guidelines and are not related to special conditions, the ARC will seek notification of total expenditure via the 2021 End of Year Reports.
• Deferral of commencement for projects with funding commencing in 2021 or 2022:
  • ITRP grants commencing in 2021, where the Final Commencement Date is on or before 31 December 2021.
• Suspension of projects for a period or periods totalling up to 18 months.
• Extension of the project end date due to project delay or suspension resulting in unspent funds.

Extensions to notification and reporting requirements

The following extensions to notification and reporting deadlines are applied to all projects:

• Notification and resolution of default of Participating Organisation contributions:
  • For ARC Centres of Excellence grants the notification period remains within 3 months, but the period to resolve participating organisation contributions and submit a revised Participating Organisation Agreed Contribution Report (POACR) has been extended to 12 months (please see: FAQ–General–Linkage Program Partner Organisations requirements).
  • For all other grants the notification period has been extended to within 3 months of the full impact being determined. The time period to resolve participating organisation contributions and submit a revised POACR will remain at 3 months, however an extension of up to 12 months can be requested by emailing ARC-Postaward@arc.gov.au with the relevant detail.
• Variations related to changes in specified personnel can be submitted within 6 months of the change.
• The deadlines for KPIs and plans as well as launches for Major Investments (ITRP) have been extended (please see: FAQ–Major Investment–Key Performance Indicators).

Variations considered

Administering Organisations can also seek other variations to projects due to the impact of COVID-19, including:

• Deferral of project commencement up to 24 months.
• Suspension of project totalling up to 24 months.
• Changes to FTE of specified personnel, including Fellowships and Awards (please see: FAQ–General – Salaries)
• Change to the scope and/or objectives of a research project (please see: FAQ–General – ​​​​Program Changes)
• Reallocate Discovery International Award (DIA) funds if the project is nearing completion (please see: FAQ–General – Travel)
• Change to partner organisation minimum contributions, where attempts to find replacement contributions have been unsuccessful (please see: FAQ–General – Linkage Program Partner Organisations requirements)
• Changes to Establishment Funds for the ITRP schemes including increasing the allowable amount (please see: Major Investment Guidance – Establishment Funds).

Projects that require deferrals or suspensions beyond 18 months will be assessed on a case-by-case basis (Refer to the Principles of Guidance).

Note: In deferring, suspending or extending a current ARC project, researchers should take into account the impact on their project limits for holding active ARC grants and eligibility to apply for future ARC grants. The limits on holding active grants remain the same and there are currently no plans to change the application and project limits for grant opportunities scheduled to open later this year.