Australia-India Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative Partnership: Grant Round 1

About the program

The Australia-India Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative Partnership (AIIPOIP) will help shape maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific to support an open, inclusive, resilient, prosperous and rules-based maritime order.

The AIIPOIP is a practical initiative under the Australia-India Joint Declaration on a Shared Vision for Maritime Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, as part of the Australia-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership announced during the Leaders’ Virtual Summit on 4 June 2020. India and Australia are committed to work together bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally, and in minilateral arrangements, to support regional architecture in line with their shared values and interests.

The AIIPOIP will help develop, with all interested partners, the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) announced by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 14th East Asia Summit on 4 November 2019 at Bangkok.

This is the first phase of the four-year (2020-2024) grant program under this Partnership.

About the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative

On 4 November 2019 Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) at the East Asia Summit. IPOI seeks to ensure security and stability of the regional maritime domain. IPOI is an open, non-treaty based initiative for countries to work together for cooperative and collaborative solutions to common challenges in the region.

IPOI draws on existing regional architecture and mechanisms to focus on seven pillars:

Maritime Security
Maritime Ecology
Maritime Resources
Capacity Building and Resource Sharing
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Science, Technology and Academic Cooperation
Trade Connectivity and Maritime Transport

Australia is the lead partner on the maritime ecology pillar and is looking to drive scientific collaboration and share best practice across the Indo-Pacific on reducing marine pollution, with a focus on plastic waste.

AIIPOIP Grant Round 1 priority areas

The AIIPOIP Grant: Round 1 will be commissioned in 2021. In this phase, the aim will be to generate ideas and cooperation to begin implementation of the IPOI.

We encourage applications that offer ways to advance Australia and India’s shared vision of an open, inclusive, resilient, prosperous rules-based Indo-Pacific region. The proposals should bring Australian and Indian stakeholders together - researchers, businesses and government – in a collaborative way to share expertise and resources. We welcome proposals that link Australian and Indian stakeholders with counterparts across the Indo-Pacific and nurture practical ideas that can link with existing regional mechanisms including, but not limited to, ASEAN, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

What activities are eligible for an AIIPOIP grant?

Round 1 will prioritise proposals that collaboratively work towards building maritime cooperation in the following areas:

activities that strengthen Australia-India cooperation by deepening institutional linkages between Australian and Indian researchers, businesses and government on maritime issues
initiatives that build regional consensus, generate ideas and advance practical cooperation under maritime ecology pillar of the IPOI, including on marine plastics; and
models that generate practical ideas for how the IPOI can link with existing regional mechanisms and arrangements, in particular ASEAN, IORA and the PIF.

The AIIPOIP grant program guidelines (link below) set out the full details and requirements of Round 1, including the assessment criteria.

Who can apply?

To be eligible you must:

be located in India and have a partner institution that is located in Australia for the purposes of the activity; and
be located in Australia and have a partner institution that is located in India for the purposes of the activity; or

Other project partners can be located in a third country

and be one of the following entity types:

a company incorporated in Australia or India
a company incorporated by guarantee
an incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust
an incorporated association
a partnership
a joint (consortia) application with a lead organisation
a not-for-profit organisation
a think tank or research organisation
an Australian state or territory government body
an Indian sub-national government body.

Joint applications involving more than one organisation are welcomed.　

Indian applicants should have a valid Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) certificate and comply with all its provisions including the latest amendments while delivering the project.

Funding and timeframes

Available Funding

The AIIPOIP’s competitive open call grant round 1 and subsequent rounds are anticipated to allocate up to around $1.4 million from 2020-21 to 2023-24. Up to $350,00 is anticipated to be available for allocation in 2020-21.

For any single grant application for 2020-21, the maximum budget is $116,500.

Prospective grantees cannot use funding from other Commonwealth, state, territory or local government sources to fund your share of eligible expenditure. DFAT reserves the right to offer less funding than that requested by the applicant. All applications will be assessed on competitive basis.

Eligible expenditure

Grant Round 1 can support:

Personnel - Eligible labour expenditure for the grant covers the direct labour costs of employees you directly employ on the core elements of the project.
- Direct costs of the eligible grant activities.
Travel - Costs for domestic and/or international economy class airfares and modest accommodation and per diems that are essential for delivery of the project.
Equipment - DFAT will only fund ‘small equipment’ or software specific to the project proposal. ‘Small equipment’ is defined as equipment under a total of $10,000 that is used collaboratively and, where possible, is Australian-made. Computing equipment or software should be specialised and required for the completion of the project.
Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) - As a key component of the program, costs associated with MEL processes and activities to inform program reporting and learning should be identified separately within the indicative budget outline.
Administrative support.

How to apply?

All AIIPOIP grant applications must be submitted through our online grants management system SmartyGrants.

To apply you must:

have read and understand the AIIPOIP grant guidelines
complete the online application form on DFAT’s online grant application system SmartyGrants and provide all the information requested
submit your application/s by 23.59 AEST on 17 May 2021.

If you have any questions while completing your application, kindly contact [email protected] 　

Key reference documents/links