KEY ISSUES
- The role of the Education Investment Fund (EIF) is to build a modern, productive, internationally competitive Australian economy by supporting world leading, strategically focused infrastructure investments that will transform Australian tertiary education and research.
- The EIF subsumed the Higher Education Endowment Fund and its 2008 funding round. The EIF is jointly administered by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR).
Background
The EIF, with the Building Australia Fund and the Health and Hospital Fund, constitute the three Nation building Funds established under the Nation-building Funds Act 2008.
The EIF Advisory Board
- The Board is jointly appointed by the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. The role of the Board includes:
Ensuring a rigorous and robust application of the evaluation process for the EIF funding program;
- Advising the relevant Minister in relation to making grants from the EIF; and
- Advising the Ministers on matters referred to it by the Ministers that relate to the object or operation of the EIF.
The board comprises:
- Mr Philip Clark AM (Chair)
- Professor Denise Bradley AC
- Mr Philip Bullock
- Dr Cherrell Hirst AO
- Mr John Ryan PSM
- Professor Margaret Seares AO
- Dr Michael Vertigan AC
- Ms Lisa Paul PSM, Secretary of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
- Mr Mark Paterson AO, Secretary of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.
Education Investment Fund Round 3 and the Sustainability Round
On 4 August 2009 Senator Carr and the Deputy Prime Minister announced the opening of Round 3 and the Sustainability Round of the EIF.
A two-stage assessment process has been introduced in the rounds in which expressions of interest are sought in the first stage, with second stage applications only being sought from short listed stage one applicants. It is anticipated that the projects to be funded will be announced by the government in early 2010.
Applications for the first stage of these rounds closed on 8 September 2009. On 10 November 2009, 48 short-listed applicants were invited to submit detailed stage 2 applications by 8 December 2009 and 47 applications were submitted.
As with Round 2, EIF Round 3 will seek to support infrastructure projects that are transformative in each of the three sectors (research, higher education and vocational education and training). There will be an increased emphasis on projects that support collaborative activities across several institutions and value for money.
The Sustainability Round will focus on advancing teaching and research in the areas of climate change and sustainability through projects that also showcase environmentally sustainable design. Some of these may act as demonstration sites for new and emerging technologies that can be tested at scale. Projects funded through the Sustainability Round will be assessed against all of the general EIF Round 3 Evaluation Criteria as well as specific sustainability criteria.
Previous Rounds
Education Investment Fund Round 1
On 12 December 2008, Senator Carr and the Deputy Prime Minister announced 11 successful EIF Round 1 projects as part of the Prime Minister's $4.7 billion nation-building infrastructure package. The projects and EIF funding are:
- *The Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing at the University of Adelaide – $28.8 million
- *New Horizons Centre at Monash University – $89.9 million
- The Centre for Obesity, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Sydney – $95 million
- The Peter Doherty Institute for Immunity and Infection at the University of Melbourne – $90 million
- The Hearing Hub at Macquarie University – $40 million
- The RMIT Design Hub at RMIT University – $28.6 million
- The Energy Technologies Building at the University of New South Wales – $75 million
- The International Microsimulation Centre at the University of Canberra – $11 million
- The Materials and Minerals Science Learning and Research Hub at the University of South Australia – $40 million
- The University of Queensland School of Veterinary Science at Gatton Campus – $47.2 million
- The SMART Infrastructure Facility at the University of Wollongong – $35 million
* Project being managed by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.
Education Investment Fund Round 2
On 12 May 2009 Senator Carr and the Deputy Prime Minister announced 31 successful EIF Round 2 projects.
Eight of these are research projects:
- Australian Institute for Innovation Materials (AIIM) at the University of Wollongong - $43.8 million
- Sydney Institute of Marine Science - $9.5 million
- The Centre of Climate Change and Energy Research at the University of Western Sydney - $40 million
- The National Centre for Synchrotron Science at the Australian Synchrotron - $36.78 million
- The Centre for Neural Engineering at the University of Melbourne - $17.515 million
- The Institute for Molecular Sciences at La Trobe University - $64.1 million
- The Smart State Medical Research Centre at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research - $55 million
- The Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania - $45 million
The successful research projects are being managed by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.
Eleven successful higher education projects and 12 successful vocational education and training projects were also announced. These projects are being managed by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.