Australian-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership: Grant Round 2

About the program

The $12.7 million Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership (AICCTP) contributes to Australian Government priorities to promote a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. The AICCTP complements the Australia-India Framework Arrangement on Cyber and Cyber-Enabled Critical Technology Cooperation signed by Australia’s former minister for Foreign Affairs Senator the Hon Marise Payne and India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar as part of the Australia-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership announced during the Leaders’ Virtual Summit on 4 June 2020.

AICCTP Grant Round 2 priority areas

The next generation of technological developments merges new discoveries in physical, digital, and biological systems. India and Australia have a key role to play in contributing to the global development of critical and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), next generation telecommunications (5G/6G), Internet of Things (IoT), quantum computing, synthetic biology, blockchain and big data.

The Partnership’s 2021-22 grant program (Grant Round 2) will consider proposals for practical cooperation and collaboration on cyber and critical technology, which will help shape a global technology environment that meets Australia and India’s shared vision of an open, free, rules-based Indo-Pacific region.

What activities are eligible for an AICCTP grant?

Grant Round 2 will prioritise emerging and critical technology-related proposals that focus on the following areas:

activities that facilitate Australia-India research partnerships, in particular involving academics and think tanks, to strengthen understanding of ethical frameworks for emerging and critical technologies, and the development of best practice on translating ethical frameworks (including existing global frameworks like the G20 AI Principles) into practical action;

initiatives that encourage the development of technical critical technology standards that advance Australia and India’s interests, and enable more meaningful engagement in international standards discussions; and

research on the trends shaping the global and technology marketplace or that assesses the opportunities and effectiveness of ethical frameworks or technical standards for emerging and critical technologies.

The AICCTP grant program guidelines (link below) set out the full details and requirements of Grant Round 2, including the assessment criteria.

Who can apply?

To be eligible you must:

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

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 acceptable.

Indian applicants should ensure they comply with the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) in relation to the project, including holding a FCRA certificate if applicable. Information supplied by applicants may be shared with Indian and Australia government agencies.

Funding and timeframes

Available funding

For any single grant proposal, the minimum is $150,000 per year and the maximum amount is $600,000 per year. Multiyear grants will be considered up to a maximum of $250,000 per year for up to three years from 2021-22 to 2023‑24. Grant funding for activities in 2022-23 will be contingent on funding becoming available to DFAT under the AICCTP.

In total, we anticipate that a total of up to $1.8 million in funding would be available for single-year and multi-year grant proposals awarded in grant round 2.

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.

Eligible expenditure

Grant Round 2 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 AICCTP grant applications must be submitted through our online grants management system SmartyGrants.

To apply you must:

have read and understand the AICCTP grant guidelines (DOCX/PDF)
complete the online application form on DFAT’s online grant application system SmartyGrants and provide all the information requested
- (Update: the online application form has been updated to allow the optional entry of FY23-24 financial information.)
submit your application/s by 17:00hrs AEDT (11:30hrs IST) on Monday 18 October 2021.

If you have any questions while completing your application, kindly contact [email protected]. Questions should be sent no later than 15:00 AEST (10:30hrs IST) on Friday 1 October 2021.

Please also refer to the following Q&A based on questions previously received:

AICCTP Round 2 grant application Q&As - part 1 DOCX/PDF

About previous grant rounds

The AICCTP Grant Round 1 was open from applications from 23 December 2020 to 5 February 2021. Australian Foreign Minister Payne announced a total of three successful projects on 21 April 2021. These included funding awarded to develop ethical frameworks and best practices for emerging quantum technologies, to operationalise ethical frameworks in the critical technology supply chains of global companies and to address privacy and security challenges in next generation telecommunications networks. We encourage potential applicants for Round 2 to read more about these successful projects on the DFAT website before applying.

Key reference documents

Archive: Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership: Grant Round 1

Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership: Grant Round 2