Selection process (Australia)

Australian grant guidelines must state which selection process is being used, and the label tells you a great deal about your realistic chances before you read anything else.

An OPEN COMPETITIVE process is what it sounds like: anyone eligible may apply, applications are assessed against published criteria and ranked. A TARGETED or restricted competitive process invites a defined group. A CLOSED non-competitive process approaches specific organisations directly. A DEMAND-DRIVEN process funds every applicant that meets the criteria, until the money runs out. A ONE-OFF or ad hoc grant is a single decision outside any competition.

Demand-driven is the one European applicants misread most often. There is no ranking and no competitor to beat (meeting the criteria is sufficient) but the budget is finite and applications are handled in order, so timing decides the outcome rather than quality. Applying late in a demand-driven programme is the whole risk.

Where the process is competitive, the guidelines state the criteria and usually their weightings, and the assessment follows them literally. Australian assessment is notably procedural: an argument that does not map to a stated criterion has nowhere to score.

The Commonwealth rules require that the process be described honestly and followed as described. That makes the label reliable in a way that informal descriptions elsewhere are not. If the guidelines say open competitive, it is.