To be eligible for funding, your project must take place in Victoria and include research expertise on your project team.

Your organisation must be Victorian based and one of the following:

• hospital
• rehabilitation service
• post-hospital service
• primary health care service
• disability service provider
• disability and/or self-advocacy group
• disability social enterprise
• charity or not for profit organisation registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)

Applicants who successfully proceed through the Expression of Interest (EOI) stage will be invited to submit an application for project funding to the TAC.

Applicants must nominate a Chief Investigator who will be responsible for submitting the EOI, application, conducting the project, and reporting as required under the Funding Agreement.

The TAC will accept multiple EOIs from a single organisation, however each EOI must nominate a different Chief Investigator to lead each project. Each project must be inherently different.

We are seeking research projects that address an identified gap in the quality of health and disability services delivered to TAC clients.

This means projects that:

• respond to client needs and expectations
• leverage and apply existing evidence of best practice
• empower clients to take an active role
• build the capability of service providers
• improve the efficiency of the service environment
• measure client experience and outcomes
• address health inequity.

Projects funded through this program must deliver a tangible product to assist the implementation of findings into practice. Products may be, but are not limited to, one or more of the following:

• intervention protocol
• best practice guideline
• resources for client education
• framework or strategy
• business case
• animated video.

This program offers grants of between $50,000 and $200,000 (exclusive of GST) over a 24-month period.

The TAC is unable to assist with participant recruitment for your project. This includes recruiting TAC clients.

One of the most common reasons for project delays is difficulty meeting participant recruitment targets, so ensure you include strategies to achieve your sample size without support from the TAC.

More information about your project will be needed to answer this question. Please contact the Research team via research@tac.vic.gov.au to discuss specific details of your project and the options available.

This grant program isn’t suitable for PhD projects due to the 24-month funding period.

The TAC exists to support the Victorian community – therefore to be eligible for funding, organisations must be located in Victoria and proposing projects that will benefit the Victorian community.

The TAC Best Client Outcomes Grant program is new in 2025, however projects funded through the previous Value-based Healthcare Innovation and Small Grants programs are similar to the projects we are seeking in this program.

Projects from the 2024 Value-based Healthcare Innovation Grant Program include:

• Austin Health: Implementing positive behaviour support in the acute hospital for people with spinal cord injury.
• Northern Health: Co-creating a perioperative digital care pathway to improve orthopaedic patient surgical outcomes.
• Alfred Health: Enhancing Victoria’s state trauma guidelines for the transfer of major trauma patients.
• Melbourne Health: Co-designing an interdisciplinary care pathway to support people with concussion.

Projects from the 2023 Value-based Healthcare Innovation Grant Program include:

• Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne): Co-designing and piloting the implementation of an Australian customisation of Teach-ABI in the hospital-to-school reintegration pathways of Victorian children with ABI.
• Gippsland Lakes Complete Health: Trialling the inclusion of a Pain Educator for clients that have experienced traumatic and painful injuries or live with chronic pain. The role will support care coordination, deliver pain education and provide evidence-based care, while keeping the client and their desired outcomes as the central focus.
• Allied Health Professions Australia: Using the existing PX Accelerator online learning program to upskill TAC allied health practitioners in the essential elements of value-based health care, and applying the learning to improve patient experiences and outcomes.
• Psychology Outcomes: Measuring the efficiency, effectiveness and scalability of private psychology organisations treating chronic pain, trauma and mental health via a unique patient-provider matching process.

Projects from past Small Grants Program include:

• All Things Equal: Co-designing and delivering a pilot pre-employment program for TAC clients and other Victorians with disability looking to (re)enter the hospitality workforce, and sharing the learnings with the TAC and across the hospitality and disability sectors.
• Back to Back Theatre: Creating a short film that utilises the skills of a multitude of people with disability.
• The Sonicrats: Enhancing the wellbeing and social integration of people with disabilities through innovative and accessible music-making workshops.
• Barwon Valley School: Using smart technology devices to increase student participation in physical activity, reduce sedentary behaviour and increase the intensity of exercises to meet WHO guidelines of moderate to vigorous intensity.
• Care Companions Monash: Improving the quality of life and overall inclusion of TAC clients and Victorians with a disability from a Chinese background through the power of music and community.
• EnAccess Maps: Encouraging people with disability and TAC clients to actively engage with their surroundings and increase their community participation by improving accessibility, accuracy and user-friendliness of the EnAccess Maps platform.
• Inclusion Melbourne: Creating a freely available practice and resourcing guide for people with ABI, their families, supporters and service providers to create Circles of Support.
• Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability (VALID): Meeting a critical, unmet need in Victoria for advocacy support for people with acquired brain injury, including TAC clients.

You can contact the TAC Research and Evaluation team at research@tac.vic.gov.au with any questions about the grant program.