The UTS Social Impact Grants are facilitated by the UTS Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion. These grants aim to create social change at UTS and in the broader community and are aligned to the priority focus areas within the UTS Social Impact Framework: Equity and Inclusion and Healthy Communities. They also encourage collaboration across faculties and disciplines and partnerships between the university and the community. 
 
Individual grants of $5,000 are available. Applications for 2027 grants open on 1 September 2026 and close on 26 October 2026 at 12.59pm.
 
Applications are submitted via an external platform called Good Grants. 

 

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Please read the information on this webpage carefully before applying, as the grants are competitive. For more information or any other inquiries, please contact socialimpactgrants@uts.edu.au

Social Impact Grant thumbnail - red thumbprint on black background

ZOZAN: We will give it a couple more minutes but welcome to the Social Impact Grant info session. We'll just give it a couple more minutes and we will also have live captioning. There will be a link in the chat. There it is. So if you would like to follow along with live captions, please use that link. Thank you so much. For posterity, this will be recorded. If you don't want your face recorded, that's totally fine. You can switch off your camera. This is so that people who are unable to make it can watch it later, but also if you want to rewatch it because you had so much fun, you can do that later on as well. So that will be put up on the website as well.

If that's OK with everyone, we might get started and we will record. Can you confirm that everyone can see my screen? Yes? Fantastic. It's working like a well-oiled machine.

If you see me moving wildly with my mouse, I am probably still letting in participants who might be in the waiting room. Lisa, could I make you co-host so you can let in participants? Is that alright?

LISA: No problem.

ZOZAN: Thank you. Thank you so much. Welcome, everybody, to the UTS Social Impact Grants info session. As I mentioned before, this will be recorded. Today the idea is that we go through the scheme. I'm hoping to give you all the information you need but if there is anything that you still would like to ask or if there is any question I am not answering, there will be plenty of time at the end for Q&A, so please rest assured we will answer all your questions.

We will do an Acknowledgement of Country. I will pop over to Lisa because I am actually overseas so I thought let's have a local person do that.

LISA: Thank you. I would like to acknowledge today that I am working from Gadigal land and extend the acknowledgement to all the lands on which you are working from today as well. I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the connection to land, sea and community of our Aboriginal peoples and acknowledge that this land always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

I really want to acknowledge the work we do within these grants. Our Aboriginal communities, my community itself, is Dharug community, and has a lot of connection into community. These Social Impact Grants have a large portion of their work going straight back into community, whether it's within UTS or outside of UTS as well. Acknowledging that this work has been done on these lands for thousands and thousands of years, and more to come.

ZOZAN: Thank you so much and let's get through the agenda for today. I will give you a bit of an overview of the grants program, the themes for this year and some basic information. We will talk through eligibility and the assessment criteria. I'll also provide you with a couple of case studies from past years, just so you can see what a project could look like, and then we will briefly talk about how to apply before moving to Q&A.

I do want to say the slides are heavily packed with text. This is not because I think this is good practice for a PowerPoint presentation but rather so you have all the information available. When we put the slides online, you'll have everything there. I'm not going to read every single line. It is there so you can refer to it afterwards.

Let's talk briefly about the history and purpose of the grants. The Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion runs these grants.

LISA: We can't see your slides for some reason. No, OK. Sorry, ignore me. I had a different screen.

ZOZAN: OK. It's our annual grant program and the aim of the grant scheme is to fund projects which create social change, either at UTS or in the broader community. An important aspect of the grants is that they encourage collaboration, both across disciplines and through partnerships within and beyond the university.

Having a partner is very important as part of this grant scheme. I'll talk you through what kinds of partnerships are encouraged and eligible. Since 2017, we have had over 85 grants awarded across 10 faculties and centres. It is quite competitive and we have worked hard to make the process as easy as possible.

The basic information about the grants is that we will be giving out 12 grants of $5,000 each. You must align with one of the two themes. This year's themes are Equity and Inclusion and Healthy Communities. I will talk through those themes in a moment.

The grants are open to all UTS staff and students at all stages of career or study. It can be both a research initiative or a practical initiative. All faculties will be matching grants this year, which means successful applicants will receive $5,000 from the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion and a further $5,000 from their faculty, for a total of $10,000.

There are no limitations on what stage of your project you are spending it on. It can fund an entire project if it fits within the budget or a specific aspect of a larger project. It is a very flexible scheme.

Let's talk through the themes. The first theme is Equity and Inclusion. The goal is to support UTS students and staff from a range of equity groups by developing projects and collaborations that promote equity, accessibility and inclusion. Projects should remove barriers and enable full participation at university or in society, regardless of background, lived experience or identity.

Equity groups may include but are not limited to students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, rural and regional students, First Nations students and staff, and culturally and racially marginalised communities. We encourage applicants to take an intersectional approach.

If you are doing an internal project, you must have a partner from another faculty, unit or area of the university. The aim is to encourage interdisciplinarity and collaboration.

This year, two of the 12 grants will be dedicated to advancing anti-racism at UTS in alignment with the University's Cultural Diversity and Anti-Racism Action Plan. We are seeking proposals that address systemic racism, support culturally and racially marginalised staff and students, and strengthen inclusion, belonging and intercultural connection.

The second theme is Healthy Communities. This supports projects that foster health, belonging and social resilience with an external partner. The idea is that you co-create solutions for a community issue through reciprocal partnership with the community.

Community partners may include NGOs, charities, advocacy groups, activist groups, grassroots organisations, Traditional Owners, Elders, individual community members or schools. Commercial organisations, industry partners and academic institutions are not considered community partners for this theme.

Applicants under this theme must provide a short letter of endorsement from the community partner.

Who can apply? UTS staff members, including academic and professional staff, whether full-time, part-time, casual or sessional. UTS students can also apply, including undergraduate and HDR students, but students must identify a staff supervisor who will take joint responsibility for the project and manage the funds.

Applications are encouraged from researchers and practitioners across the university, including early-career researchers and HDR students.

All applications must have a UTS staff member as project lead. Partnerships are strongly encouraged, including collaborations across faculties, universities, community organisations and industry.

Staff working within the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion are not eligible for funding. Applicants can be active members of partner organisations but cannot apply on behalf of their own organisation.

Previous grant recipients may apply again, but only for a new project aligned with this year's themes.

All projects require endorsement from the Dean or relevant senior leader. Business School applicants must also secure endorsement from the relevant Associate Dean.

Applications under Healthy Communities require a community partner endorsement letter. We also encourage seeking feedback from your Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

There are no restrictions on how grant funds may be used, but applications must clearly outline how the funds will be allocated.

Successful applicants will be required to attend a two-hour evaluation workshop in early 2027. Funds must be spent by December 2027 and project outcomes should be near completion by January 2028.

Recipients must complete a final project report and work with the communications team to develop a case study for the website.

Selection criteria include social impact, feasibility, expertise, engagement, risk management, dissemination and endorsement.

Applications will be reviewed by a panel comprising the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Justice and Inclusion), a professional staff member, two faculty representatives and an external community member.

Successful applicants will be notified in mid-December and funds will be released in early 2027.

 

Social Impact Grants

For further information or assistance, please email socialimpactgrants@uts.edu.au