Application Guide Candidate Development Award (CDA) This guide will help you through the application process. Read the Guide completely before you begin the application process. Please note the screenshots used in this guide are for information only, and may vary from what you actually view when completing the application. Step 1 Check eligibility and terms and conditions Read the Eligibility Guidelines, and Terms and Conditions carefully before you begin. Step 2 Check visa requirements, travel warnings, and insurance requirements Ensure you have checked the visa requirements (and associated costs, if any), travel advice, and insurance requirements for any overseas country or countries to which you wish to travel. Step 3 Collate information Collect quotes and documents to support and justify your application and funding request. a. You will need a quote for your largest expenditure (for example airfare); b. You will need to provide other supporting documents to evidence your engagement in activities (for example letters of admission to workshops, acceptance of abstract for conference presentation, letters of invitation for a placement.). Note: these documents will eventually need to be combined into a single (1) PDF document for submission. See Step 12. Step 4 Complete the budget Download the budget spreadsheet from the CDA Scholarship website and complete it, detailing all expenditure. If you do not have quotes for all items, for example meals or day to day travel costs, estimate the cost (estimated daily cost x number of days of travel). The budget is designed to assist you in planning and managing finances as part of an award (or grant) application process. Please complete this carefully. You will need to include all costs, even if they will not be covered as part of the Award. This will help you to determine any additional funding you might require. The budget spreadsheet will calculate automatically except for the amount you are applying for under the award. You will need to fill this in in the space provided once you have completed the rest of the spreadsheet. [This amount will be also need to be included on the Application Form.]
EXAMPLE: Step 5 Save your Budget spreadsheet as: FAMILY NAME STUDENT NUMBER_budget. For example: BROWN 42345678_budget Complete the application form. Download the application form from the CDA Scholarship website and save it as FAMILY NAME STUDENT NUMBER_application. For example: BROWN 42345678_application Step 6 Complete the relevant information and draft your response to Section 3, Development Activity Justification The Candidate Development Award is designed to support experiences that offer you the opportunity to develop your professional and transferrable skills during your training as a researcher. As such, one of the critical criteria for your application is your response Section 3; particularly the second question. Consider the two questions carefully and prepare your responses. We recommend preparing these in a separate document first so you can make changes/edits easily and then copy/paste into the Application form. For the second question, include specific examples where possible to show how the experience will contribute to your professional development. Your responses to this section will contribute significantly to your success in receiving a CDA. Keep your responses for each question to a maximum of 250 words. (You can check word count in Word.)
Step 7 Insert prepared responses to Section 3: Justification Add your response to justification. Remember, 500 words in total for your justification. Step 8 Complete Section 4: CDF activities Participation in the listed CDF activities will improve the competitiveness of your application. The CDF activities have been purposefully selected: do not change or amend this section to include other CDF activities. Insert the date as accurately as possible. Participation will be checked against Graduate School registration records. If you have not participated in one of the listed sessions at the time of the application but you plan to attend one in the future and prior to the date of travel - put the date you intend to participate. You can find dates of future sessions in the CDF Events list on the Graduate School website. Step 9 At Section 5: Add funding request Add the amount of funding you are requesting. This amount should be the same as the amount on the Budget Spreadsheet. (Refer to Step 4) Step 10 Step 11 Review your application and budget spreadsheet Combine supporting documents into a single (1) PDF file This does not include the Budget spreadsheet. The budget spreadsheet should be uploaded as a separate file. Please use the file naming conventions as above using _support for supporting documentation. For example: BROWN 42345678_support Step 12 Are you ready to submit your application? You should have three documents for submission: 1. Application form completed; 2. Budget spreadsheet completed; 3. a single PDF file of your supporting documentation. All documents must be saved with the naming conventions stated above. Step 13 Note: Files over 5MB will not be able to be uploaded. Please ensure the files are smaller than this. Go to the CDA Scholarship page and click on the Apply Now button. This will take you to my.uq portal. Log in (using your student username and password) and you will be at the application site within the portal. Step 14 Step 15 Note: The best browsers to use are Google Chrome and Firefox Note: Files over 5MB will not be able to be uploaded. Please ensure the files are smaller than this. On the My Requests page select Candidate Development Award and check the information under Policies and guidelines. You are now ready to upload your documents as follows:
1. At Request Details upload your completed CDA Application Form. 2. In the Additional comments box you must include the following instruction for your Principal Advisor: Please check the Request Documents tab to access my CDA Application Form. 3. At Supporting documents add document (type Budget) and upload the completed budget spreadsheet 4. At Supporting documents add another document (type Other) and upload additional documentation in a single (1) PDF file. Step 16 Step 17 Complete the acknowledgment and submit. Principal Advisor approval You should already have discussed your travel plans and budget with your Principal Advisor to get approval for your trip. Your Principal Advisor will need to approve your travel within my.uq. This will happen automatically when your Principal Advisor will receives an email requesting them to review the request via the Request Detail tab.
However, you need to include in Additional Comments that they must access the actual Application Form through the Request Documents tab. Please refer to Step 15.2 for instructions. Step 18 Closing date and Advice Submissions uploaded after the last day for submission* will not be considered. When outcomes are announced*, you will have either an Approved or a Not Approved status beside your application. If your application is approved you will receive an email with additional information. *Refer to the CDA website How To Apply section for relevant dates for the round. Tips for the completing application: Make sure your writing is clear and concise. Your application will be reviewed by academic staff who may not be within your discipline, and non-academic staff, so your use of language should be appropriate for a nonspecialist audience. Provide clear examples of how the travel will enhance your professional development as a researcher. Have a defined plan, with specific dates and locations; an unclear plan will not be viewed favourably. Get the details right in your application. If there is lack of clarity in your application, we will not be contacting you for clarification. If you are waiting on supporting documentation, then wait as long as possible so that your application is as complete as possible. General advice: Incomplete applications will not be considered and the Graduate School will not follow up with individual students regarding incomplete applications. Save a copy of all documents before submitting. Attendance/engagement at a range of events over a period of weeks will improve the strength of your application and make success more likely. Travelling overseas for four days to present at a conference is less likely to be successful than travelling overseas for two weeks, presenting at the conference, working within an industry organisation for a week and attending a networking event. DO NOT rely on a successful CDA outcome. CDA funding is highly competitive and the number of applications far outweighs available funds. Apply for alternative sources of funding to supplement your travel; check with your enrolling unit and Advisor as to whether supplementary funding is available to support your travel. Alternative funding sources will strengthen your application as it shows that others see your proposal as valuable. Ensure you have back up funding in case it is required; you may not be approved for the full amount of funding you have applied for. If you make a mistake with submission of documents, you have the option in the portal to withdraw your application and resubmit. If you are not successful, the status will show as Not Accepted, which means you were unsuccessful. There is no additional information for unsuccessful applications.