R&D Career Grants: Resource hub

No - you must have secured the student first.

This means that the business must have:

• an in-house R&D programme
• a recent history of R&D activities over the preceding year and an R&D plan for the upcoming year; and
• a minimum of one R&D full time equivalent (FTE) employed by the business.

See our guide to describing your R&D. 

Two current R&D Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff are required for each student and this 2:1 ratio applies regardless of the type of grant (Fellowship Grant, Career Grant or Experience Grant). The exception is when the business has only one R&D FTE - in this case one student can be applied for. Refer to number of students guide as there is a cap.

If a business only qualifies for one student at a time due to having 1 R&D staff member, and the current grant is nearing completion, a business may apply for another student grant (Career or R&D Experience) provided the end date of the existing grant is no later than 2 months from the date of the new application. E.g. Fellowship grant will complete on 30 June, business may apply for another student grant no earlier than 1 May for a 1 July start date in order to maintain the 2:1 RDT FTE to student ratio.

Some international students may be eligible for an R&D Career internship provided they received their Masters or PhD from a New Zealand university and they have a valid visa allowing them to work in New Zealand for the duration of the placement.

The business is responsible for ensuring that the graduate can legally work in New Zealand before they start work.

The student cannot have been previously employed at the business unless this was short-term employment (e.g. over the summer break).

If the student has worked in the business as a paid employee for more than three months prior to submission date, on either a full-time or part-time basis, they are ineligible.

If circumstances change it is very important that you advise us. We’ll consider the impact of the changes on the grant criteria and discuss these with you.

Career Grant students must work full-time at the business for the duration of the placement. Students must work in the business, not in a university or at home, as the key to these grants is giving students exposure to a working R&D environment.

A start date in the future is allowed where the student has yet to submit their thesis or complete their course, and submission/course completion is expected to occur within the next month.

However, our grant funding is awarded on an annual basis and where an application is submitted prior to 30 June in any given year, the start date can be no later than 30 June. 

Standard term of the contract is six months, however the actual documented term is eight months to reduce the need for contract extension requests (e.g. due to annual leave).

The start date of the grant cannot be backdated to a date that is prior to submission of the application. The start date will usually be the Monday of the week of application approval (unless a forward dated start date is requested and approved).

There is no obligation for the company to retain the student beyond the six month contract.

Maximum amount of grant funding (excl GST) is $30,000 (Masters student) or $35,000 (PhD student) but may be a lower amount if the student graduate is being paid less than $60,000 pa (Masters student) or $70,000 pa (PhD student). 
Example: Salary is $50,000 pa so maximum funding available is $25,000 based on six months salary.

If the business chooses to pay the student a higher salary, they must still claim the funding over the six month term.

Example: Salary for Masters student is $120,000 pa and maximum funding available is $30,000. The amount of $30,000 will be paid over the six month term (i.e. the $30,000 cannot all be claimed within the first three months of the contract).

Proof of salary is required with the first claim.

The business is the primary contact, however, the student may also contact us at any time to discuss issues related to the grant and/or the project.

Applications need to be submitted in the portal by a “super user”. All other users are unable to view or use the “Submit” function.

There is no waitlist in place for Career grants.

There is no rule that prevents several businesses within a group from applying for a Career Grant or an Experience Grant.

For all student grants, the business must provide progress reports to Callaghan Innovation and a final report about the student’s involvement in the project. These reports are short and in the form of survey questions. From time to time, we may require the business and student to complete a survey after the completion of the grant. This survey helps to inform the design of future R&D grants.