Grants FAQ

Grants are for discrete activities. Grant-funded activities should have a clearly identified activity completion milestone.

Eligible activities include:

• Indonesia-Australia knowledge exchange activities or events, such as residencies, cultural festivals, trade shows or other collaborations that foster bilateral exchange.
• Workshops, conferences, seminars and professional networking events.
• Capacity building, mentoring or coaching.
• Academic research and research-related activities.
• Public awareness campaigns.
• Organisational or institutional strengthening.
• Community development activities.
• Activities that form part of an AAI short course award projects.

Grants will not be awarded for the following:

• To pay for grantee’s professional fee or salary.
• To meet recurrent costs such as office rental, salaries, vehicle running expenses, office supplies, transportation costs or vehicle running expenses, and electricity bills.
• Standard office equipment such as computers, photocopiers, cameras and mobile phones etc. Only equipment specifically required for implementing activities will be considered.
• Participation at an activity for which applicants already receive funding from the Government of Australia, or other parties.
• Any personal items not relevant to the implementation of the grant activity.
• Repayment of loans or unacquitted amounts from previous grants.
• Activities for which the expense was incurred prior to the grant application.
• Purchase of fixed assets as such of property, land, buildings, and major assets, such as vehicles.
• Construction of buildings or other structures.
• Activities contrary to the interests of Australia or AAI.
• Activities which are the responsibility of other funding bodies or other government agencies.

AAI will open application windows periodically throughout each calendar year. Each window will be open for approximately two weeks and publicised through AAI websites and social media platforms to attract a range of applicants from across the alumni network.

You will need to submit an application through links below:

• Grants

To apply for a grant, you will need to fill out the online application form. Applications should address how the proposed grant activity will contribute to one of the five AAI change pathways.

You can find guidelines on preparing grant proposals and budgets in the Grant Guidelines. You will need to submit your applications in English and make sure that your budget is calculated in AUD as the currency refer to the following exchange rate 1 AUD = IDR 10.300,-

The Grant Assessment Committee will undertake merit-based assessment of eligible applications. The assessment will consider the merit of the proposed grant funded activities using the following criteria:

1. Alignment with AAI Grants eligible activities.
2. Potential for the grant activity to reconnect the grantee or grantees with Australia or Australian colleagues and networks.
3. Potential for the grant activity to contribute to the grantee or grantees’ professional development.
4. Alignment of the proposed activity with priority themes or initiatives that contribute to the Indonesia-Australia bilateral relationship.
5. Simplicity: proposals should involve a minimal number of payments or transactions, including a capacity of the grantee to meet activity expenditure costs up front and seek reimbursement from AAI or payment directly to a vendor by AAI under the grant, rather than requiring an advance.
6. Risk: proposed activities must not create unmanageable risks for the grantee, AAI, DFAT or the Government of Indonesia.
7. Leveraging: evidence of third-party financial contributions is not essential but will be considered favourably.

If you think your activities will be delayed, you should advise the Australia Awards Indonesia team in writing as soon as possible.

You can only use grant funds to carry out the activity for which the grant has been awarded. If you want to make any changes to the nature of the activity, you must have prior approval from Australia Awards in Indonesia. Please refer to the grants guidelines on variation section.

Grants to successful applicants will be documented through a simple exchange of emails to confirm grantee acknowledgement and acceptance of these teams and conditions. Grant funds cannot be disbursed without this exchange of emails or text messages.

Grants will cover the actual costs for your proposed activities. AAI can disburse the funds using any of the following:

• As reimbursement for approved activity expenses paid up front by the grantee.
• As transfer direct to service providers for approved activity costs.
• As an advance paid by bank transfer to the grantee, to be acquitted based on actual costs following the end of the activity. Advances will be considered in some cases, but are not preferred due to the additional complexity for the grantee and AAI.

We can only provide additional funding for an activity through a new window of grants. You will need to apply for a new activity proposal during one of the advertised rounds and provide us with evidence that your activity is completed, including proof of effort in promoting the previous activity and the AAI brand through social media.

For funds disbursed through cash advances must be acquitted using the AAI financial acquittal mechanism. Grantees with unacquitted advances will be ineligible to take part in any future AAI alumni activities including grant offerings.

Unspent portions of advances will need to be refunded to AAI. Reimbursements and payments direct to service providers will be based on actual costs.

If you are not able to complete the activities, we will ask you to return all or part of the grant funds. We will work out how much of the funds you need to return based on whether there were any circumstances outside of your control and how much of the activity was already completed.

You should acknowledge Australian funding in the activities you carry out as part of your project and in any publicity. We encourage you to promote your activities in traditional and online media. We encourage that you seek our advice prior to any publicity. We will provide you with further information about branding and publicity in the Grant Orientation workshop.