FELLOWSHIP INFORMATION

1. General

1.1 Citizenship. Churchill Fellowships are confined to Australian Citizens.

1.2 Age. Awards are granted to applicants over the age of 18 years. No upper age limit is prescribed but generally awards will be made to those whose major contribution to their field lies before them.

1.3 Tertiary Qualifications. Fellowships will not be awarded to enable the applicant to obtain tertiary qualifications.

1.4 Nature of Project. Churchill Fellowships will be awarded for the purpose of pursuing an overseas investigative project of a kind that is not readily available in Australia.

1.5 Opportunity. Fellowships will not ordinarily be awarded to those in a vocation which offers special opportunities for overseas research or experience, or to those employees in the public and private sectors where regular programmes for overseas research or experience are available to the applicant.

1.6 Submission of Application. The application must be submitted in the State or Territory of residence of the applicant, irrespective of the place of employment. An application can be submitted in one State or Territory only.

1.7 Interviews. Applicants must be available to attend an interview in person if required. Telephone interviews are not acceptable.

1.8 Citizens Overseas. Applicants who are Australian Citizens temporarily overseas will be considered for Fellowships if they will be available to attend an interview in Australia and are prepared to return to Australia on completion of their Fellowship.

1.9 Joint and Multiple Applications. Fellowships are awarded to individual applicants only and for individual projects only. An applicant may submit only one application per year.

1.10 Amount of Award. The value of every Fellowship is different as it is calculated based on the number of countries visited, the duration of the approved Fellowship and an estimated airfare. The average is currently well in excess of $20,000. See point 3 for more detail.

1.11 Support From Other Sources. The Trust will take account of any other existing sources of support for a project and will normally avoid duplicating the activities of other bodies. Only in special circumstances may a Fellowship be held concurrently with another award. In such circumstances the Trust may reduce the amount of its Award by the amount received from another source.

1.12 Duration of Fellowships. A Churchill Fellowship is usually a minimum of four weeks and generally a maximum of approximately six weeks although longer itineraries are not precluded if this can be justified. Any additional time outside of the approved Fellowship itinerary will be at the Fellow's own expense.

1.13 Sponsored Fellowships. A number of sponsored Churchill Fellowships are offered each year, usually confined to a particular field of endeavour. All applicants with an appropriate project are considered for the award of a sponsored Churchill Fellowship as well as a non-sponsored Churchill Fellowship. A list of all current Sponsored Fellowships is available here.

2. Conditions of Award

Contract. The award of a Churchill Fellowship is subject to the Fellow agreeing to be bound by the conditions laid down in a Contract document signed between the Churchill Trust and the Fellow. A Fellowship cannot commence until the Trust receives an executed copy of the Contract document from the Fellow.

3. Fellowship Travel and Basic Allowances

Travel and Basic Allowances are granted as follows:

3.1 Fellowship Travel. The Trust will pay for all approved Fellowship travel and, whenever possible, arrange for tickets to be issued to a Fellow before departure.

3.1.1 Major Travel. All major travel will be by economy class air. Travel will begin and terminate at the major airport nearest to the Fellow’s home address. The route and/or sequence of places to be visited may be varied to reduce costs.

3.1.2 Supplementary Travel. Surface travel may be authorised to supplement air travel.

3.1.3 Internal Travel Allowances. If it is not possible to prepurchase tickets to cover all travel, an Internal Travel Allowance will be paid in advance to allow the Fellow to purchase the necessary tickets.

3.2 Basic Fellowship Allowances. The Trust will pay in advance to all Fellows:

3.2.1 Incidental Travel Allowance. A fixed allowance to assist with incidental travel expenses.

3.2.2 Internal Travel Allowance. A variable allowance which is payable under the conditions in paragraph 3.1.3 Above.

3.2.3 Overseas Living Allowance. A variable allowance to assist with a Fellow’s living expenses while overseas.

4. Supplementary Fellowship Allowances

The following allowances may also be granted:

4.1 Miscellaneous Expense Allowance. To cover part or all of the cost of approved fees or tuition. Fees/Tuition not included on the initial application cannot be approved. Requests for fees above $AUD 1,000 must be accompanied by formal documentation at the time of application.

4.2 Dependant’s Allowance. To help support a Fellow’s dependants when neither the Fellow nor the partner has sufficient means to meet this commitment whilst the Fellow is overseas.

The allowance will only be considered if:

• You will lose 50% or more of your present income while overseas, and

• No dependant(s) accompany the Fellow on any part of the overseas travel or within three months of the completion of the Churchill Fellowship programme.

5. Calculation and Payment of Allowances

Allowances are calculated and paid on the following basis:

5.1 Income. No account is taken of a Fellow’s family income in calculating any allowances other than Dependant's Allowance.

5.2 Amount. Allowances are calculated based on the number of weeks of the approved Fellowship.

5.3 Overseas Living Allowance. An allowance as a contribution towards overseas living costs will be paid and will vary with the country/ies visited and length of stay.

5.4 Deductions. The allowances paid to a Fellow by the Trust may be abated by the amount received under an award from another source.

5.5 Savings. Unexpended amounts of an allowance granted for one purpose are not transferable to another purpose.

5.6 Payment. Allowances will be paid after approval of the Final Programme or 2–4 weeks before the Fellow’s departure date, whichever is the later. Miscellaneous Expense Allowance will be paid up to the total amount granted upon presentation to the Trust of appropriate receipts, or the account will be paid directly by the Trust, on presentation of a formal invoice.

6. Tax Implications for Churchill Fellows

6.1 Income Tax. The liability of a Fellow for Income Tax is a matter for decision by the Commissioner of Taxation and the Trust has no responsibility or authority in the matter. Any allowances paid to Churchill Fellows are likely to be treated as assessable income. The Trust recommends that Fellows keep receipts for all expenditure during their Fellowship and seek independent advice with respect to their eligibility for claiming tax deductions.

6.2 GST Liability. There may be GST implications for allowances paid to some Churchill Fellows who are self-employed or hold an ABN. Any GST liability will be borne by the Trust and will not affect the amount of funds allocated to the Fellow for their Fellowship.

7. Application Form

The purpose of the Application Form is to enable the Trust to assess the applicant and the outline of the proposed project in order to draw up short-lists for interview. All applications must be made on the Application Form provided.

8. Referee’s Reports

An applicant is required to obtain two different references from different individuals, one on each of the two Referee Forms provided. Performing artists should include at least one reference from a recognised authority eg. School of Music. The referee reports should be returned to the applicant for submission with their application. Applications submitted without the two supporting references will not be accepted. It is preferable to use Australian Citizens as referees.

9. Application Papers - Retention/Destruction

All papers forwarded by applicants for a Churchill Fellowship become the property of the Churchill Trust and unsuccessful applications will be destroyed.

10. Competition and Further Application

The awarding of Churchill Fellowships is a competitive process with over 1,000 applications being received each year. Unsuccessful applicants are sometimes encouraged to re-apply in subsequent years