Successful application library

Our Successful Applications Library contains winning applications to the NHMRC, ARC, MRFF, and Cancer Institute of NSW, all generously donated by recipients.

It is exclusively for staff and/or affiliates of the University of Sydney.

If you already have access, log in via SecureDocs.

Review and complete the Successful Applications Library access request form (UniKey required).

The Library is hosted by SecureDocs and allows you to view, but not to copy, save, print, or download applications. Usage of the Library is tracked and regularly audited.

Once your access request has been approved, you will receive an email from SecureDocs with an invitation sign into the ‘data room’ where the applications are housed. Use this link to activate your access. Make sure you sign in using SSO:

Login via SecureDocs using SSO to access the Successful Applications Library any time.

The Successful Applications Library is an excellent resource that you should definitely take advantage of, but there are two caveats.

Firstly, and more obviously, if a successful application is not in your discipline or field of research, then it may actually prove disadvantageous to use it as a model. Conventions and expectations vary considerably between research disciplines and fields. Also, what is innovative and exciting in one discipline might be old news in another.

Secondly, and more subtly, successful funding applications are not necessarily well written. Fellowships are a case in point: someone’s track record may have been so outstanding that their application, though rather poorly written, was successful regardless. There are also examples of funding applications that did not address the instructions properly and yet were still successful. You do not want to model your application on these – you may not be so lucky!

So, learn all you can from other people’s applications, but beware modelling your own on them too closely. It’s always best to ‘be yourself’.