About
The Research Impact Grants Program will fund proposals that address developments and challenges in Australian domestic higher education equity policy, practice, and evaluation.
Research priorities: The 2027–28 Round will consider proposals that outline projects in relation to the following
- equitable tertiary pathways and harmonisation (including early offers, in-school enabling initiatives, and VET pathways)
- student financing, student participation, and/or outcomes
- generative artificial intelligence (AI) and student equity
- translating equity evidence into practice
- evidence to support First Nations higher education funding and success.
The funding round will also prioritise proposals that use a quasi-experimental design (QED), such as non-equivalent control group design, regression discontinuity, and interrupted time-series, to evaluate the effects of an intervention, program, policy, or practice. Proposals should clearly identify the intervention and comparison conditions, explain the proposed QED methodology and demonstrate how the research design will support credible conclusions about impact.
It should be noted that ACSES’s Trials and Evaluation Program funds randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in Australian higher education and all proposals involving RCTs should be directed to the Trials and Evaluation team, care of the ACSES mailbox (as per Section 1.2).
Project funding: Up to $120,000 (excluding GST) per project, with a total of $360,000 of funding available.
All proposals should be able to identify one or more priority groups who are the focus of the research, as listed in the Proposal Template. Proposals are not limited to the stated priority groups listed in the Proposal Template and can nominate other groups experiencing forms of disadvantage and/or underrepresentation in higher education, in addition to addressing the issue of compounding disadvantage where relevant.
To assist applicants with the preparation of their proposals, ACSES can provide, on request, a copy of successful proposals from previous research grants rounds courtesy of project teams who have generously granted the Centre permission to do so.
Applications open on Wednesday, 4 November 2026 and close at 4pm (AWST) on Wednesday, 10 February 2027. ACSES will acknowledge receipt of all applications submitted and outcomes of the selection process will be announced in late March 2027.
