Design Thinking Grant Program (Australia)

Deadline: 19-Sep-22

The Alastair Swayn Foundation is pleased to announce the Design Thinking Grant Program.

The Alastair Swayn Foundation encourages grant applications focused on architecture and design, which emphasise research and promote knowledge-sharing, demonstrate vision and innovation, and which have potential for further development and long-term outcomes.

Foundation’s Objectives

• The Alastair Swayn Foundation, was established for the public charitable objective of advancing design development, it continues to support and nurture the Australian architecture and design community by:
  • Exploring, presenting and promoting Australian design and its influences
  • Showcasing Australian leadership in design
  • Building public awareness and appreciation of the value of design
  • Stimulating and fostering research, design education and the exchange of ideas about design
  • Building international design exhibition connections
  • Complementing and extending the portfolio of national cultural exhibitions in Australia and overseas
  • Promoting, supporting and advising on the collection, conservation and display of design records
• Grants will be awarded accordingly to research, education, exhibition, or development activities, which demonstrate:
  • Innovative approaches that build knowledge in design
  • Implementing design ideas into practice
  • Future thinking for the design industry
  • Maximising national and global outreach

Principles

The Alastair Swayn Foundation is committed to five Guiding Principles that inform their funding strategy:

• Excellence
  • They support individuals, groups and organisations who are outstanding in their respective field of architecture and design.
• Innovation
  • They seek to fund projects that take a new approach to problem-solving, especially those that can be evaluated and have potential for expansion and further development within architecture and design practice. Supporting research is fundamental to this approach.
• Collaboration
  • They collaborate with recipients through knowledge sharing and advancing architecture design in Australia as outlined in their Open Access policy. Foundation fund receivers must publicly commit to this through submitting research publication funded by the Foundation in their open access research repository.
• Progress
  • They fund projects that will maximise impact well beyond the period of their grant. Long-term sustainability of the project is an important consideration for the Foundation. The subject of the proposed project is limitless provided a benefit to architecture and design is evident and a willingness to share the research findings with the Australian community through the Foundation’s platforms is displayed.
• Leadership
  • They aim to cultivate highly skilled leadership in the Australian architecture and design industries, positioning Australia as a leader in global design practice.

Funding Information

Design Thinking Grants $5,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Grants are offered to applicants over the age of 18 years.
• All grant applicants must have an ABN.
• Grants are awarded for the purpose of the advancement of architecture and design through research, education and exhibition. Grants are awarded to individuals, groups and organisations.
• Grant applications that focus solely on personal academic studies, or are for activities that are part of assessable coursework are unlikely to be successful. They do not support applications requesting the costs of academic fees or courses.
• Ensure that the grant reporting requirements have been met for any Foundation grants you have previously received.
• Only one application per grant type, per proposal will be accepted.
• They suggest that you apply to the funding area that seems to fit your proposal best and if necessary, their staff will redirect the application to a different funding area.

For more information, visit Alastair Swayn Foundation.

For more information, visit https://alastairswaynfoundation.org/grants/