The Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) is proud to launch our Data Impact Grants scheme—a new funding opportunity for high-impact, technically-focused projects that promise to deliver benefit across the higher education sector.
This scheme will support projects that generate practical outputs designed to be shared and translated nationwide, directly contributing to the quality, usability, consistency, accessibility, linkage, and interpretation of student equity data.
Applications for the 2027 pilot round are now open, with funding of up to $100,000 per project on offer.
Example project areas include, but are not limited to:
- training resources or micro-credentials for effective use of student equity data
- the design and piloting of national student surveys
- institutional equity data quality audit frameworks
- the development and piloting of new measures for identifying equity student groups or educational disadvantage
- tertiary admissions student data harmonisation, with a focus on equity reporting
- data linkage projects addressing student equity evidence needs
- open-source tools, dashboards, or technical resources for equity analysis.
ACSES Data Program Director Associate Professor Gemma Cadby said the launch was the latest step in the Centre’s work to strengthen the national student equity evidence base.
“The Data Impact Grants scheme was developed to help practitioners, policymakers, and researchers make better use of student equity data across all facets of data collection and use,” she said.
“We’re looking to support projects that are practically usable and ready for sector-wide adoption or adaptation, with clearly identified intended end users and equity group beneficiaries.”
Applications close on Friday, 22 January 2027.
For more information, the Data Impact Grants Guidelines 2027 and Application Pack are available here.
