Alcohol and Other Drugs Linked Analyses

Prior to your application, you will need to collate the following essential information to support your application.

• Public Liability policy of insurance to the value of at least $10M
• Professional Indemnity insurance policy to the value of at least $10M
• Workers Compensation Insurance.

Applications are only eligible for consideration if they meet the following criteria:

1. The applicant was invited by the grantee to submit an application.
2. The research focus of the applicant is primarily alcohol and other drugs research.
3. The applicant is fully located in NSW.
4. The applicant is not-for-profit.
5. The applicant is, or is part of a parent organisation which is, a legal entity.

Applicants or their parent organisation must be a legal entity or, if a joint grant, consortium, collaboration or otherwise, be legal entities with the capacity to contract.  The Ministry will only enter into a Standard Grant Agreement with such legal entity or entities.

Any application which is submitted by a combination of two or more organisations, as a joint venture, a consortium, collaboration or otherwise, must include in the application:

• applicant information for each member of the group
• a clear statement of the nature of the association between the members of the group and the basis upon which they propose to enter into the agreement with the Ministry; and
• a statement that each member of the group is jointly and severally liable for the performance of the other members of the group under the resultant agreement or that one member of the group is fully liable for the performance of all members of the group.

The Ministry may ask an applicant to provide evidence of its legal status or capacity to contract.  If applications from entities propose to contract in their capacity as trustees, such evidence may include copies of the relevant trust deeds.

A legal entity may include:

• a Local Health District
• Specialty Health Network
• university or
• an independently constituted medical research institute.

An applicant may be

• A discrete, separately identifiable unit within a tertiary institution or Local Health District/ Specialty Health Network such as a research centre within a university. Note that a University Faculty, Department or School would not constitute a separately identifiable unit for the purposes of this grant.
• A discrete, separately identifiable unit within a larger parent organisation that is other than a tertiary institution or Local Health District/Specialty Health Network.
• A collaboration of organisations, or parts of organisations, that have come together to pursue prevention research. Collaborations must be genuine ventures to further ongoing research programs, not simply a 'coalition of convenience' to enable organisations to obtain this funding. Collaborations must have been demonstrably present and separately identifiable from member organisations since July 2017. Collaborations should be able to show that they contribute to the Program objectives, over and above the contributions made separately by their member organisations.

Assessment criteria have been developed to reflect the objectives and expected outcomes of this grant.  This assessment criteria will be as the basis for ranking and selection of successful applicants.

Criterion 1 – Demonstrated expertise in drug and alcohol research (MC1)

1: Applicants must demonstrate a significant track record related to alcohol and other drug (AOD) related research in general, and in particular research related to:

• AOD treatment patterns and outcomes (essential)
• AOD-related mortality (desirable).

2: Track records will be assessed on the basis of:

• number, type, quality and relevance of publications (particularly peer-reviewed publications)
• relevant research income (particularly income from peer-reviewed sources)
• nature, depth and importance of collaborative research ventures with relevant local, interstate, national and/or international partners.

Criterion 2 – High-level skills in epidemiological analysis of linked data (MC2)

Applicants must demonstrate their team has significant expertise in epidemiological analysis of linked data including:

• relevant qualifications
• practical experience
• related research outputs (as per criteria one).

Criterion 3 – Experience in working with relevant NSW health data collections (MC3)

Applicants must demonstrate their experience in the use of relevant NSW datasets including those pertaining to:

• Alcohol and Other Drugs treatment service use
• Tertiary care
• Mortality
• Mental health ambulatory care.

Criterion 4 – Demonstrated experience of working successfully in partnership with policy agencies to produce policy relevant outputs (MC4)

Applicants must:

• Provide evidence of outputs (papers, reports etc) produced in partnership with policy agencies.
• Provide two referees from policy agencies who have collaborated with members of the project team on policy-relevant analyses.

Criterion 5 – The applicant’s plan

For each objective, applicants must provide a high-level description of:

1. Proposed future activities of the applicant aimed at addressing the objective.
2. How funding will be used to support the proposed future activities.
3. Indicators against which achievement of these activities could be measured.
4. A rationale for how the proposed activities contribute to the objectives of NSW Health.
5. Identification of opportunities and methods for enhancing the capacity of Ministry staff to use the newly enhanced Mental Health Living Longer data asset.
6. Identification of opportunities to drive translation and impact of the research findings.