Council on Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) grants eligibility

Your application must satisfy all the eligibility criteria to be considered by the Council.

Who is eligible to apply for a grant?

Eligibility criteria is set out in Section 4 on pages 7-8 of the Grant Guidelines.

An eligible entity is one of the following types:

• an Australian entity with an Australian Business Number (ABN), Australian Company Number (ACN), or Indigenous Corporation Number (ICN)
• an Australian consortium with a lead organisation
• an Australian registered charity or not-for-profit organisation¹
• an Australian local government body
• an Australian State/Territory government body
• a corporate Commonwealth entity
• an Australian statutory authority
• an Australian or permanent resident of Australia
• a citizen or organisation from one of the following countries in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú and Uruguay
• a well-established organisation in a Latin American country with a business purpose to advocate for Australian business, education and/or cultural interests.

Applications from consortia are acceptable, provided you have a lead applicant who is the main driver of the project and is eligible as per the list above.

Individuals who intend the grant to be administered by a university should apply on behalf of the university, i.e. your university is the applicant.

In addition, to be eligible you must:

• complete the Grant Eligibility Checklist in the Appendix B on page 27 of the Grant Guidelines (elements reproduced here for ease of reference):
  • be willing to provide a develop child protection guidelines for your project if it involves people under the age of 18 years
  • have completed all previous IRGP grant acquittals
  • propose a project that is aligned with one or more of COALAR's Goals and one or more Priority Areas
  • propose a project of one year's duration, or multi-year duration, from the time of contract signing the project acquittal will be due within 60 days of the end of the project
  • propose a project between $10,000 to $50,000, single or multi-year
  • submit a complete application in English with supporting documentation in English
  • submit two independent references in English that address you/your organisation and the proposal
• submit all the attachments listed in Section 7.1 on page 13 of the Grant Guidelines (reproduced here for ease of reference):
  • two short signed independent references in support of you/your organisation and the proposal (please limit references to two only) (see Criteria 4 above)
  • letter of support from nominated partners (if relevant)
  • organisation capability statement or individual's curriculum vitae (optional) and
  • if you apply on behalf of a university, a letter of support from your Research Office.

Who is not eligible to apply for a grant?

You are not eligible to apply if you are:

• an organisation, or your project partner is an organisation, included on the National Redress Scheme's website² on the list of 'Institutions that have not joined or signified their intent to join the Scheme'
• not an Australian, a permanent resident of Australia or an Australian organisation or you are not a citizen of, or organisation from countries of Latin America listed in Section 2.1 on page 6 of the Grant Guidelines
• a previous applicant who has failed to provide a full and proper acquittal of an earlier IRGP grant.

What can the grant money be used for?

Information on eligible expenditure, as well as what the grant money cannot be used for, is set out in Section 5 on pages 8-10 of the Grant Guidelines.

You can only spend grant funds on eligible grant activities as defined in the grant details in your grant agreement.

In addition, applications are required to align with one or more of COALAR's Goals and one or more Priority Areas as outlined in Section 2.1 on pages 6-7 of the Grant Guidelines.

Grant applicants intending to carry out activities focussed on scientific exchange or research should become familiar with Australia's export control regimes as appropriate. You should refer, for example, to for the Defence and Strategic Goods List 2021 and Defence Exporting for further information including on the Defence Trade Controls Amendment Act 2024. Refer to guidelines to counter foreign interference in the Australian university sector.

You can use the grant to pay for costs detailed in your budget and grant agreement, including:

• advertising and promotion, graphic design, photography, social media, video and printed material,
• production costs, including freight, artists' and support staff wages and/or fees directly related to the project (business-as-usual wages or fees will not be supported),
• labour costs of employees to deliver the core elements of the grant project (business-as-usual labour costs will not be supported),
• one principal speaker on the subject of the project which is of direct relevance to the grant opportunity,
• venue hire and catering,
• travel, including economy flights, modest accommodation costs (3- or 4-star hotel equivalent), meals and travel allowances, other transport.  Refer to ATO Tax Determination for more detail on what constitutes 'reasonable travel and overtime meal allowance expense amounts, other transport',
• for your application to be competitive, travel and accommodation expenses associated with your grant activities should not exceed 50 per cent of the total grant funds,
• costs related to studies, research or surveys aligned to project outcomes, and
• costs relating to auspices services, project administration or coordination (e.g. temporary engagement of a coordinator) may be considered, capped at 5% of the total grant value.

For activities delivered in Australia, applicants are encouraged to consider the use of an Indigenous supplier, if they intend to subcontract any of the services above. A directory of registered Indigenous businesses is available at Supply Nation website.

You can only spend grant funds on eligible grant activities and within the start and end dates, as defined in the grant details in your grant agreement.

You should allow for the exchange fees in your project budget. You are responsible for any financial differences that may occur from the time of the application submission to when the project takes place, due to fluctuations in the exchange rate. Bank remittance fees are to be covered by the grantee.

What can't the grant money be used for?

You cannot use the grant for the following:

• capital expenditure, including purchase of real estate and vehicles,
• purchase of equipment (for example, musical instruments, computers, videos, photographic or printing equipment),
• the covering of retrospective costs or recurrent funding of activities,
• activities assessed by the COALAR Board as commercially viable in their own right,
• activities which will provide commercial advantage to the applicant or third parties (e.g. promotion of the applicant's own business; crowdfunding or any money generating activity),
• costs incurred in the preparation of a grant application, acquittal or related documentation,
• subsidy of general ongoing administration of an organisation such as electricity, phone, rent, salaries (including for research assistants or administrative staff), honorariums or administrative charges levied by the applicant's organisation,
• activities for which other Commonwealth, State, Territory or Local Government bodies have primary responsibility (e.g., academic research, assistance to business, development assistance projects),
• activities undertaken by primary or high schools, including study tours, where travel by a significant number of students is the principal element of the proposal,
• scholarships to individual students, and
• completed projects.

We do not generally fund travel and accommodation for attendance at conferences or meetings, participation in fieldwork or sporting or other events, unless they are directly related to achieving the project outcomes described by you. Such activities are considered and scrutinised by the COALAR Board and must be of direct relevance to its objectives. For conference or meeting attendance to be considered, a substantial program should exist in the sidelines or around the conference and there should also be a strong argument for the selection of applicant(s).