Director

Dr Julie Summers BSc, MSc, PhD, former Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, UK, the University of Western Australia, and Senior Scientist in charge of Research and Development at a major teaching hospital.

Personal awards include the MG and WA Saw Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, the Endocrine Society of Australia Travel Scholarship, the Australian Brewers Award, academic scholarships for tertiary and postgraduate study, and a Recording Grant from the WA Arts Council.

Office Manager

Malcolm Murray BScSpecEd, Dip Ed, GradDipEducCouns, has 30 years' experience as a Maths and Science teacher. Following a stroke, he is now a functional quadriplegic, and performs his work using a whiz bang computer and what movement remains in his right hand. Cheerful despite adversity and delighted to have found employment which utilizes his considerable intellect, Malcolm is GrantSearch's 'right hand man'.

Support Staff

Data Entry Operators, Trade Representatives and Consultants provide assistance as required.

Company History

Research Grant Consultants was established in 1994, offering a service suite of funds location, application support and co-ordination of grant-seeking activities for health and medical researchers.

In response to consumer demand, GrantSearch was launched in 1995, with the aim of collecting and disseminating information about funding opportunities throughout Australia. The name was coined as a contraction of Research Grant Consultants, to more accurately reflect the nature of the service. Beginning with approximately 300 records obtained from a variety of printed material, the funding database rapidly expanded to include sources of funds for the arts, community and non-profit groups, businesses and students, and currently stands at over 3,000 records.
The GrantSearch database is compiled and entered by hand, with selection of keywords by experienced, qualified operators rather than by computer. This ensures that, unlike most databases, searching with specific keywords returns relevant entries, instead of a mass of unrelated material.

In 1997 a book contract was offered by Australian Scholarly Publishing, leading to publication of The Australian Grants Register in 1998. With endorsement by The Australian newspaper, it was reprinted 3 times before being sold out, and was purchased by libraries, universities, community groups, fundraisers and arts organisations around the country. After a year of preparation involving careful checking, editing and indexing of over 2,300 records, the second edition was published early in 2001, and it, too sold out.

With the opening of the GrantSearch web site in 1996, the fledgling power of the Internet was harnessed to reach expatriate Australians and foreign students desperate for funding. For the first time, a custom search service allowed postgraduate students anywhere in the world to obtain information about scholarships and fellowships to fund study or research in Australia. Many brilliant scholars, handicapped by circumstances, were able to achieve their goal of further study in an English-speaking country, with services often being provided pro bono to students from Ethiopa and Eastern Europe.

On-line searching of the GrantSearch database became possible in 1998, allowing subscribers immediate access and the ability to perform their own searches. Subscribers include government departments, non-profit organisations, tertiary institutions and libraries as well as individuals, both in Australia and overseas. Many who initially subscribe for a short time renew or extend their subscriptions, finding the service an essential tool in their grant-seeking activities.

The GrantSearch Philosophy

• to seek out all Australian funding opportunities
• to record this information accurately and in a timely fashion
• to disseminate this information so that it is accessible to all, regardless of geographical location or budget
• to promote a co-ordinated grant-seeking approach of:

• long-term planning
• track record building
• persistence
• excellence of presentation