Australian Alumni Grants Fund

AAGF – Round 3, 2020

The Australian Alumni Grants Fund (AAGF), formerly known as the Small Grants Fund (SGF) is an activity under the Australian Alumni in Vietnam Strategy administered by Aus4Skills. The AAGF has been established to fund proposals from Vietnamese alumni of Australian education institutions to consolidate their professional knowledge and skills and strengthen linkages between Australia and Vietnam through undertaking applied research, organising training courses and workshops and improving their workplace systems and processes. Under Aus4Skills to date, two grant rounds open for Australia Awards and broader alumni and one pilot round open to only Aus4Skills non-scholarships human resource development (HRD) alumni have been implemented.

These guidelines apply to the AAGF Round 3 which targets the following alumni cohorts/categories:

Cohort / Category	Eligible applicants	Project proposals
Broader alumni	Vietnamese alumni who have completed their studies in an Australian education institution through the Australia Awards, including the Australia Awards Scholarships, the Australia Awards Fellowships, the Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships, and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) Scholarships. Vietnamese alumni who have completed their studies in an Australian education institution through Vietnamese Government scholarships. Vietnamese alumni who have self-funded their studies or received other scholarship support and who have completed post-graduate studies at an Australian education institution in Australia or Vietnam.	Contribution to the selected priority areas/sectors including: Governance and Economic Growth (economics, competition, international trade, public policy, public finance management, corporate finance, law to support economic integration, entrepreneurship and innovation) Infrastructure and Transport (project management and financing, traffic forecasting, transport engineering, social and environmental safeguards, urban transport planning and management, transport master planning, public-private partnership, transport economics, road safety and audit, logistics management) Water and Sanitation (water management, water engineering, water quality and supply systems, water and waste water, water governance, water security, drought management) Education (education management, institutional governance, vocational education management) Gender Equality (gender and development, women’s studies) Agriculture and Rural Development (agribusiness, agricultural economics, rural development, sustainable tourism management, food safety) Regional Stability and Human Rights (cyber security, criminology and public governance, international law, international human rights law) Climate Change (including disaster risk reduction) Innovation (science and technology transfer and commercialisation) Health (related to Covid-19 impacts)
HRD Alumni	Only alumni of Aus4Skills Australia Awards Short Courses (AASC) and Informal Learning Opportunities (ILOs). Other alumni of Australian education institutions can be part of an eligible team of alumni under an HRD cohort, with the condition that the team is led by an HRD alumnus. HRD Alumni are strongly encouraged to apply under the HRD Alumni Cohort/Category (unless their project is targeting Disability Inclusion when it must be submitted under the Disability Inclusion Cohort/Category)	Contributions to HRD component targets
Disability Inclusion	Alumni must either be a person with disability and/or working at a Disabled People’s Organisation(s)¹ (DPO) and/or partnering with a DPO(s) to undertake proposed projects, in line with ‘nothing about us, without us’ principle – to provide perspectives based on their experiences of living with disabilities, to inform effective inclusion efforts. Other alumni of Australian education institutions can be part of an eligible team of alumni under the Disability Inclusion cohort, with the condition that the team is led by a Disability Inclusion alumnus. All projects targeting Disability Inclusion must be submitted under this Cohort/Category.	Contributions to Disability Inclusion targets (promoting accessibility for people with disabilities in Vietnam to: physical environments; and/or assistive technology; and/or education; and/or employment; and/or health care)

¹ “Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) are defined as organisations that represent or support people with disabilities; they can be global, regional, national or local organisations. Generally, the main common feature is that their membership comprises, and they are run by and for, people with disabilities in line with the ‘nothing about us without us’ principle. They must be registered as a DPO or as an NGO with the government.

Proposals under AAGF Round 3-2020 will be given special consideration if they assist Vietnam’s response to Covid-19 in the areas detailed under the Project Proposals column in the table above.

AAGF proposals must be completed in English and submitted online at https://vietnam.smartygrants.com.au/AAGFRound3 by midnight (Hanoi time) Saturday 20 June 2020.

NOTE: Access to the SmartyGrants link will be ready from 20 April 2020.

Any AAGF project must contribute to one or more of the following three Aus4Skills Program Outcomes:

Outcome 1: Male and female alumni use new skills and knowledge to make positive contributions to selected priority areas
Outcome 2: Selected Vietnamese government, private sector and civil society organisations, and other partners, demonstrate organisational change as program-facilitated improvement(s) in policies, practices and/or performance standards
Outcome 3: Australia and Vietnam have stronger, sustainable links in selected sectors/agencies

Eligible project categories for a grant

The following categories of projects are eligible for AAGF funding:

Category 1. Development and conduct of a training program or training course(s), workshop(s), seminar(s), or conference(s) (proposals only to attend one of these events are not eligible), or public awareness campaigns or advocacy activities.

Category 2. Applied research. Proposals only to present papers or posters at conferences are not eligible.

Category 3. Organisational and Institutional Change. This category provides scope for innovative activities that contribute to changes/improvements in an organisation and to a better workplace enabling environment, including for the advancement of women. The improvements may be in the form of policy, practice and/or performance standards.

Category 4. HRD application projects/action plans. This category refers to a single or group application project or action plan or the extension or upscaling of these projects/plans that have been or are being applied as a result of participation in Aus4Skills HRD activities. This category also includes a project which involves the application of learning more generally from participation in Aus4Skills HRD activities.

Funding

The value of a grant is based on the following table.

Number of alumni applicants	Maximum Grant
One or two alumni	VND 150 million
Three alumni	VND 220 million
Four alumni and more	VND 300 million

Any project that has the involvement of an alumni team must clearly demonstrate that it is a team project with specified roles for each alumnus. It should show the added value in submitting a team proposal as compared to individual submissions.

Additional funding: Co-funding

Aus4Skills will provide matching funds of 100% of a contribution by the applicant, employer or other relevant Vietnamese/ Australian organisation (e.g. DPO; industry association) to a maximum of VND50,000,000. The co-funding must be in the form of cash (not ‘in kind’ contribution) and be shown as part of the budget in the AAGF application including the timing of the provision of the co-funding. Such a co-funding arrangement will increase the amount of funds available for a proposal as well as strengthen the commitment of the applicant/ employer/ organisation to the proposal. Aus4Skills will assess in its sole discretion whether ‘matching funds’ are available.

	Example 1:	Example 2:
AAGF project grant	VND 150,000,000	VND 150,000,000
Co-funding (i.e. from employer)	VND 50,000,000	VND 100,000,000
AAGF matching funds	VND 50,000,000	VND 50,000,000
Total	VND 250,000,000	VND 300,000,000

The maximum matching funds are VND50,000,000 regardless of the amount of co-funding amount. Aus4Skills will not match funds sourced from loans.

Duration of grant

The maximum duration for implementing a grant project is 12 months. Grant implementation should commence within 3 months of the notification of grant approval.

Proposal evaluation criteria

Each application is to be evaluated against six key criteria: 1) Strategic Purpose, 2) Methodology/Approaches, 3) Gender, Disability and Social Inclusion, 4) Financial and Risk Management, 5) Ownership, Sustainability and Communications and 6) Monitoring & Evaluation.

Equity of Access Fund

For alumni with disability and rural disadvantaged alumni (including rural disadvantaged ethnic minority alumni) wishing to participate in AAGF events organised by the Australian Embassy or Aus4Skills, alumni may seek the support from the Aus4Skills Equity of Access Fund.

Recognition of Successful Grant Completion

When a grant has been successfully implemented and both the completion and final financial reports have been received and accepted by Aus4Skills, a Certificate of Grant Completion will be awarded to the respective alumnus/alumni team.

AAGF Guidelines

Full details about applying for a AAGF can be found in the AAGF Guidelines for Applicants.

The AAGF Financial Guidelines and Communications Guidelines will be applied for successful applications during the grant implementation.

List of Alumni and Projects awarded AAGF Round 1 (2017)

List of Alumni and Projects awarded AAGF Round 2 (2018)

List of Alumni and Projects awarded AAGF Pilot Round 2.1 (2019)