Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships

Overview

What are the Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships?

The Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships aim to support breakthrough solutions to Australia’s most pressing social and environmental challenges and bring new talent to the social sector.

Fellows are offered the unique opportunity to take 12 months away from their current role to pursue big ideas that have the potential to achieve positive outcomes in the program themes of:

  • poverty and disadvantage
  • sustainability and environment
  • human, civil and legal rights.

The Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships provide recipients with time and support needed to develop their groundbreaking idea into a sustainable plan for action. Fellows will each receive $120,000 for their 12-month commitment to the program and an additional $30,000 will be available to each Fellow for approved expenses (incurred directly related to and upon commencement of the Fellowship) such as a separate work space, rent, travel and contracting of external expertise. 

We seek ideas that are:

  • high impact: likely to produce results in the areas of human, civil and legal rights, poverty and disadvantage, and/or sustainability and environment including climate change
  • unique: different from existing approaches
  • scalable and sustainable: the potential to scale up quickly and be sustainable over time.

And leaders who are:

  • experienced and entrepreneurial: a proven track record of achievement in their field and an appetite for risk-taking
  • passionate and connected: a genuine commitment and passion for their cause and the network to make it happen.

Selection Process

What is offered

Each year this program provides outstanding individuals with freedom from their day jobs to:

  • open productive new lines of inquiry
  • ask provocative questions
  • challenge conventional wisdom
  • develop new ideas, approaches and strategies.

Fellows will each receive $120,000 for their 12-month commitment to the program and an additional $30,000 will be available to each Fellow for approved expenses such as work space (if a new work space is required), travel and contracting of external expertise.

What are the eligibility criteria?

The applicant must:

  • be an Australian citizen or permanent resident
  • reside in Australia for the majority of the Fellowship period
  • be prepared to take a sabbatical from their current role for 12 months
  • have a proven track record of out-of-the-box thinking and risk-taking
  • have an ability to turn ideas into action
  • have well-developed networks within an area of the proposed project.

The proposed project must:

  • be based in Australia
  • be aligned with one or more of the subject areas of poverty & disadvantage, sustainability & environment including climate change, or human, civil and legal rights
  • have been in development for not longer than three years.

What are the funding exclusions?

The Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships program will not support the following:

  • benefits or fundraising events
  • capital or endowment campaigns
  • ongoing or one-off academic research or work towards higher degrees (including by coursework or dissertations)
  • medical research
  • initiatives focused on specific diseases
  • international projects
  • scholarships
  • sponsorships
  • funding hubs or accelerators
  • creative arts projects
  • collaborations between a number of individuals
  • projects that are focused on program or service delivery
  • projects that have been in development for more than three years
  • organisations.


Application timeline

Monday 31 July 2023

Expressions of interest open

11.59pm AEST Sunday 10 September 2023

Expressions of interest close

Week beginning Monday 13 November 2023

Shortlisted candidates invited to prepare a detailed application

By 11.59pm AEDT Sunday 7 January 2024

Closing date for detailed applications from shortlisted applicants

February 2024

Interviews for selected candidates

March 2024

Confirmation of 2024 Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellows


    Recent Awardees

    2023 Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellows


    Emma Cutting

    Emma’s Fellowship is focussing on the creation of the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor (MPC), an Australian-first ecology-centred, community-driven wildlife corridor for native pollinating insects. The eight kilometre-long corridor joins Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne to Westgate Park. The MPC is the current main focus of the charity that Emma founded, The Heart Gardening Project, which combines community, science and care to joyfully connect humans to humans, humans to nature and nature to nature through street gardening.

    Laura Simmons

    Laura is a dedicated paediatric occupational therapist who founded Theratrak, an innovative asynchronous telehealth platform. This platform allows allied health therapists to work together and collect meaningful information from therapy sessions. With Theratrak, they can monitor and track participant progress from a distance, helping children and families reach their independence goals. Laura's goal is to create technology that improves therapy accessibility and reduces the global economic impact of healthcare.

    Rebecca Scott

    Rebecca is the founder of Eazilee, a knowledge sharing platform which harnesses the power of clinical and user experience to guide the prescription of technology to solve everyday challenges. By paying forward the successes and challenges of others, Eazilee aims to enhance decision making, reduce technology abandonment, contribute to global assistive technology data and connect the global assistive technology community supporting all people to live everyday ‘easier’.

    FAQs

    If you are invited to prepare a detailed application, you will have the opportunity to submit such materials.

    We would consider a part-time Fellowship application in circumstances where the applicant has caring responsibilities. Applicants who wish to undertake the program part time whilst maintaining full, part-time, or casual employment would not be eligible.

    The selection process is a multi-stage process taking place over a number of months. It is usually completed by the end of March each year, with new Fellows generally announced in May each year.

    Fellows will be expected to provide a mid-term report to the Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships Committee via a personal presentation, and to provide a completion report to the Directors of The Myer Foundation, Trustees of the Sidney Myer Fund and the Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowship Committee via personal presentation.

    The Fellowship is a stipend that aims to cover the living expenses of the Fellow for the Fellowship year.

    An amount up to $30,000 will be available to each Fellow to cover expenditure associated with the Fellowship such as renting an office space (excluding existing spaces such as home office or if the Fellow is already renting an office or similar space), travel, convening, or purchasing of external expertise. We will not generally support professional development unless it will materially affect the development of the Fellow’s project. Applicants invited to prepare a detailed application will be asked to include an estimated project budget. 

    Expressions of Interest for the Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships 2023 have closed.

    Applicants are asked to identify outputs and outcomes expected from their Fellowship as part of the detailed application process.

    Fellows will have access to a support panel of experts, an individually matched mentor and specialist pitch training. They will have access to The Myer Foundation and Sidney Myer Fund’s program staff and the use, by arrangement, of our board room.

    The main responsibility of each Fellow is to develop the various aspects of their project. We ask Fellows to commit to the Support Panel meetings and trainings offered and to provide collegiate support to each other where possible during their tenure. Upon completion we ask Fellows to participate in an alumni event and to respond to a short completion survey.

    The Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships will not support the following projects or activities:

    • benefits or fundraising events
    • capital or endowment campaigns
    • ongoing or one-off academic research, or work towards higher degrees (including by coursework or dissertations)
    • medical research
    • initiatives focused on specific diseases
    • international projects
    • scholarships
    • sponsorships
    • social enterprise funding hubs or accelerators
    • creative arts projects
    • collaborations between a number of individuals
    • projects that are focused on program or service delivery
    • projects that have been in development for more than three years
    • organisations.

      See also Funding Exclusions on the Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships page here

        We will not generally support professional development as part of the Fellowship unless it will materially affect the development of the Fellow’s project.

        Yes, Fellowship proposals may align with more than one of these areas.