Information for grant applicants

Information for Grant Applicants

Discover everything you need to know about applying for a grant from the Alastair Swayn Foundation, including eligibility criteria, guidelines, obligations and more. The 2025 Alastair Swayn Foundation grants round is now open until 3 July.

Guidelines for applicants

You can begin preparing your application before the application period opens. Start by considering the research you’d like to pursue and how it aligns with the Foundation’s guiding principles. It’s also helpful to review examples of previously funded research and podcasts to see the kinds of projects we support.

When applications open, you will be able to view all questions and requirements here.

We recommend drafting your responses in a word document prior to filling in the online form. This helps you stay within character limits and ensures you’re happy with your responses before submitting the form.

Make your case clear and compelling – Strong applications clearly articulate the value of a project. Emphasise what makes your idea unique and explain why you’re the best person to lead it.

Make sure your ideas are well developed – Assessors are more likely to support applications that demonstrate clear planning, strong justification, and a realistic path to success. Applications with undeveloped or vague concepts are unlikely to be funded.

Select from the dropdown menu below to view information and find answers to FAQs

Eligibility

Grants are generally offered to individual applicants over the age of 18 years.
All applicants must have a registered Australian Business Number (ABN)
Grants are awarded for the purpose of the advancement of architecture and design through research, education and exhibition. Project outcomes must align with our Open Access Policy. Applicants must clearly state if they are applying as individual or as part of an organisation, institution or collective.
Grant applications that focus solely on personal academic studies, or are for activities that are part of assessable coursework are unlikely to be successful. We do not support applications requesting the costs of academic fees or courses.
The Foundation will not consider any new grant, sponsoring or other funding proposal from an individual or entity where they are the recipient of a funded proposal from the Foundation that remains active and has not been fully acquitted. For these reasons, grantees with outstanding Foundation obligations are ineligible to apply.

What is not allowable in the Grant Funding?

Budget items that will not be supported by Foundation funding and should not form part of the Budget include costs not directly related to the proposal, such as:

Costs not directly related to research or the Project
Insurance or similar indirect costs
Salaries and/or on-costs, in whole or part
Salary support for the organisation submitting or partnering the proposal that will be responsible for the administration of the funding
General infrastructure costs, such as computer or software purchase

Is my project subject to any timeframes?

Yes, successful candidates are generally expected to complete their research and provide the Foundation with the final research paper (or pre-approved equivalent output) ready for publication, usually within a six (6) to 12 month timeframe, from the signed date on the Grant Agreement.

How to apply?

Read the guidelines and criteria carefully and make sure you are eligible to apply.
Applications will only be accepted online using the grants application form on our website. If you have difficulty submitting your application online, please contact office@alastairswaynfoundation.org
We recommend composing your responses in a separate document and to cut and paste into the online application.
Keep your writing style clear and concise.
Request people to read your application before submitting. (Are there any errors? Does it make sense?)
Make sure the budget is accurate, realistic and capable of ensuring the deliverable/outcomes will be realised in accordance with the project timeframe.
Once you have submitted your application online, you will be emailed a confirmation that it has been received.
You must submit your application by the deadline.

What support material must I include?

You must submit a budget for your proposed project and the CVs of those who will work on the project as part of your grant application. The budget should detail any in-kind support or other funding sources for your project.

Can I submit more than one application?

Only one application per grant type, per proposal will be accepted, regardless of whether the applicant is an individual, organisation or entity.

Assessment

All applications will be assessed and moderated by a panel of industry experts, having regard to the following areas:

Applicant(s) Capability
Project Quality and Innovation
Feasibility and Resourcing
Benefit – meets one or more of the Foundation’s outcomes (which can be found under Foundation Purpose on the Grants page)

Are there any obligations if a grant is awarded?

Successful applicants will need to sign an Agreement with the Foundation. This must be returned to the Foundation by the due date. Please note if the Foundation has not received the signed Agreement by the due date, the grant may be forfeited and offered to another research project.
Payment Schedule for funding is 50% upon signing of the Agreement and 50% on completion of the project and upon receipt of the deliverables to the Foundation for publication on Swayn Open Research. The grantee is to provide a tax invoice for payment.
Any proposed change to a successful project must be discussed with the Grants Manager and any change approved and confirmed in writing.
Grantees will be required to submit a mid Project Progress Report and an Acquittal Report by the due date.
The deliverables of each project must be provided to the Foundation for publication on Open Research by the due date. Failure to submit will result in the grant being forfeited, including the refund of grant funding already received.

Read more about the Recipient Obligation and Compliance Policy here.

Do you accept late applications?

No, online applications close at 11:59pm (AEST) on the closing date.

Can I appeal the decision in relation to the outcome of a selection process?

The Foundation ensures fair and equitable processes are employed in the assessment of grant applications, for this reason all decisions are final and the Foundation will not enter discussion for an appeal.

What happens if there are changes to the project?

The Foundation must be informed in writing of any proposed changes or delays to the project, including the budget, as soon as possible. If the change(s) are significant, it may require that the grant be forfeited.

Do I need to acknowledge the Foundation’s support?

Yes, it is a condition of your grant that you must acknowledge the Foundation’s support or your research and any output resulting from our funding.

The details of acknowledging the support of the Foundation will be found in your Grant Agreement.

If you have any questions, please contact office@alastairswaynfoundation.org.

Does the success of your project involve a collaboration with a university or other institution/organisation?

If yes, have you received the necessary in-principle agreement(s) from the relevant university or other institution/organisation? If so, you will need to provide evidence of the in-principle agreements(s) in your application.

If yes, have you received the necessary consent(s) from the relevant First Nation person and/or community? Will the project require any further consent(s) during the course of the project, or for the final deliverable/report? If so, you will need to provide evidence of the consent(s) in your application and also reflect this in your project timeline.

Advice for unsuccessful applicants

The Alastair Swayn Foundation grant program is highly competitive. While we receive many outstanding applications each round, the number of grants we can award is limited.

The Foundation does not provide individual feedback to applicants. Below are some common reasons applications may be unsuccessful.

There was strong competition among applicants
It was unclear how your project aligns with the Foundation outcomes
Your proposal was not compelling
Your topic lacked originality
The benefit to Australian architecture and design was unclear
Your application was incomplete or lacked required information
Your budget included items that could not be supported by Foundation funding
Your application appeared rushed

We appreciate the effort taken by all applicants. If you are unsuccessful, we encourage you to reapply in the future.

Grantee spotlight

Carol Marra

"The grant and support from the Alastair Swayn Foundation allowed me to turn research into practical outcomes, resulting in a knowledge resource that I’ve shared with colleagues, students, and the public. This research has also broadened my professional network, leading to new collaborations, including the launch of the inaugural Climate Futures Forum. The Foundation's support is really vital for small, independent practices like mine."
Carol Marra
MARRA + YEH ARCHITECTS

Read this funded research

Open Access Policy

The Alastair Swayn Foundation is a not for profit charitable organisation with the purpose of advancing knowledge and innovation for the benefit of the Australian architecture and design community by funding high-quality research.

The Foundation funds research and researchers through our grants program. The Foundation is committed to information sharing and transparency. We believe that research resulting from our grants program funding should be promptly and broadly disseminated. We have adopted an Open Access Policy that enables the unrestricted access and reuse of all research funded, in whole or in part, by the Foundation, including any underlying data sets.

Research funded in whole or in part by a Foundation grant is to be made discoverable and accessible online through our online repository. Publications will be deposited in the Foundation’s digital repository with proper tagging of metadata.

What are the requirements of the policy?

Research papers, journal articles or book chapters produced by individuals, groups or organisations who are funded in whole or in part by the Foundation must be published by depositing the accepted author manuscript into the Foundation’s digital open access repository.

Publications will be on ‘Open Access’ terms. All publications shall be published under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) or an equivalent licence. This will permit all users of the publication to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and transform and build upon the material, including for any purpose (excluding commercial) without further permission or fees being required. Appropriate attribution to the grantee and Foundation will be required and changes made to the work appropriately indicated.

If grantees or other funders of a multi-funded grant are concerned about adhering to the policy, the Foundation may engage in a discussion with the other funder to understand the concerns. Grantees can contact the Foundation at office@alastairswaynfoundation.org

Publications will be accessible and open when received by the Foundation, without any embargo period.

The aims of the Open Access policy are to mandate the open access sharing of publications and
encourage innovative open access to research data. When sharing data, researchers should ensure that appropriate metadata accompany the datasets. This will allow users of the data to wholly understand the data, the curation strategies, assumptions, experimental conditions and any other details relevant to the interpretation of the data.

This policy is subject to regular review by the Board of Directors.

Recipient Obligations

Policy Statement

Recipients of Alastair Swayn Foundation (Foundation) grants are responsible for managing grant funds in accordance with grant agreements and relevant Foundation policies.

The Foundation has adopted this policy, which sets out the procedures when a grant recipient does not comply with the terms of the grant and the associated agreement(s).

The Foundation understands that there can be many reasons why a grant recipient may become non-compliant with the terms of the grant and agreements, including as a result of simple misunderstandings. The majority of non-compliance occurrences are resolved without the need to resort to a formal corrective action plan.

When the Foundation is of the opinion that corrective actions are necessary, the first step is to work with the grant recipient to bring the matter back into compliance.

Non-compliance is generally identified by the Foundation during standard monitoring and review of the grant program, or during financial reconciliation.

Examples of non-compliance may include, but are not limited to, missing signatures or dates on agreements; lack of detail to justify an expense or payment; expenditure of funds outside the term of the grant agreement or for ineligible activities; incorrect, inadequate, or late reporting; and incomplete grant activity material being made available or presented.

Requirements when non-compliance is identified

When non-compliance is identified, a grant recipient will be notified in writing by the Foundation Grants Manager (the Manager) of the non-compliance. That is effected by email or letter.

The Manager will document the non-compliance and set out the corrective actions in order to bring the grant recipient back into compliance, which may include a requirement for repayment to the ASF of the whole or part of the grant funding.

Grant recipients are required to sign an agreement with the Foundation at the time of being awarded a grant, which includes references to the recipients obligations. The Alastair Swayn Foundation “Grants Program Information and Background” document refers to these obligations, including forfeiture or repayment of grant funding.

In the case of non-compliance, the grant recipient’s agreement with the Foundation authorises the Foundation to withhold payments on any or all grant funding, or to suspend execution of future grants. Withholding grant payments and the execution of future grants will be maintained until the recipient is compliant.

In the case of significant non-compliance, the Foundation also has authority to require repayment of the grant funds by the recipient, in which case the grant recipient must pay the funds in full directly to the Foundation or, upon written approval by the Foundation, may be allowed to repay the grant funds in instalments.

A determination by the Foundation that a grant recipient is non-complaint with the agreement and terms and conditions of a grant is at the sole discretion of the Foundation, and its determination is final and is not subject to appeal by the grant recipient.