National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grants

The NISDRG Grant opportunity is a research program created to boost innovation and support national intelligence research in Australia.

The NISDRG Round 4 is piloting a new 'Intelligence Challenges Application Support (ICAS) initiative’ which will provide additional information and support to Early to Mid-Career Researchers from select under-represented / disadvantaged groups who are considering applying to the round 4 NISDRG opportunity.

To enable the National Intelligence Community to better leverage emerging science and technology the following eight challenges have been identified as being the priority areas for engagement with the research and innovation sectors - Covert collection challenges; Space-based challenges; Identity management challenges; Emerging biological and material science exploitation challenges; Cyber security, protective security and offensive cyber challenges; Human behaviour and influence challenges; Data-driven and real-time analytical challenges; Situation awareness and multi-source assessment challenges.

Intelligence Challenges funded by the Office of National Intelligence with three grant opportunities under NISDRG, from 2023-24 to 2025-26. For this grant opportunity, a total of up to $8 million is available from ONI to enable 10 grants. It is anticipated the NISDRG program will fund between $400,000 and $800,000 per grant for a period of up to three years.

Applications will be managed by the Australian Research Council on behalf of the Office on National Intelligence.

Total funding requests must be between $400,000 to $800,000, with a funding duration of up to three years.

There are no minimum cash or in-kind requirements for any organizations listed on the application.

1. Read the Grants Guidelines, Changes to Grant Guidelines, and Instructions to Applicants - see below for links to ARC documents.
2. Submit a Notice of Intent to Submit to the Research Office and full draft EOI submitted for review via ONI RMS Portals by the due date.
3. Submit finalised EOI submitted to the Research office via ONI RMS portals by the due date.
4. Use the DU templates provided below and liaise with your Case Manager as necessary.
5. Organise relevant certification forms.

The ARC will no longer publish scheme specific documents on its website, but will make these available through GrantConnect. Links to scheme specific documents can be found below.

Policies and Strategies can still be found on the ARC website.

• Templates:
• Application templates Intelligence Challenges:
  • Part D2 - NI24 Project Description
  • Part E2 - NI24 ONI Budget Justification
  • Part E3 - NI24 non-ONI Budget Justification
  • Part F7 - NI24 Research Load
  • Part F18 - NI24 ROPE Career Opportunities
• Certification Proforma - NI
• Other Documents:
  • Deakin University Salary Calculator
  • Compliance Checklist Parts A-E
  • Compliance Checklist Part F (ROPE)
  • *NEW* Deakin Library Research Metrics Request Form