The FATES program is a competitive annual grant opportunity for specialist medical colleges that runs annually over 4 years from 2021 to 2025.

FATES offers an innovative funding pool to encourage projects that support:

• flexible specialist training
• training support
• accreditation practices.

The grant opportunity enhances quality and capacity for non-GP specialist medical training activities and supports specialist medical college projects that address priority areas and actions identified in the National Medical Workforce Strategy (NMWS) while complimenting the Specialist Training Program.

FATES objectives are to:

• improve and promote a positive regional, rural, and remote medical education culture and support quality specialist medical training in rural and remote Australia
• reduce barriers and improve incentives for entering regional, rural, and remote medical practice
• improve the imbalance of distribution of the non-GP specialist medical training arrangements and workforce
• attract and support First Nations trainees to grow the First Nations workforce towards population parity.

Find out more about RACP's Regional, Rural and Remote Physician Strategy (PDF).

Contact us for updates on current or upcoming grant rounds.

Eligibility

Individuals and organisations are eligible if:

• you submit your application through one of the 13 eligible medical colleges
• you enter into a consortium arrangement with the college that you have applied with, or a joint consortium arrangement with more than one of the medical colleges.

You're not eligible if:

• your organisation, or your project partner is an organisation, on the National Redress Scheme list of ‘Institutions that have not joined or signified their intent to join the Scheme’.

Application process

We assist the Department of Health and Aged Care to deliver the FATES program.

1. You must read the Grant Opportunity Guidelines (PDF)^* before applying.
2. You complete the Application Pack (DOC)
3. You submit your application pack and supporting documentation with the online application form, addressing all the assessment criteria.
4. We assess and submit your grant application to the Department of Health and Aged Care.
5. We notify you of the outcome.

^* A revised Round 4 Grant Opportunity Guidelines will be released by the Department in August 2024.

Assessment criteria

You must address all the following assessment criteria in your application:

• which FATES priority area/s relate to your application
• which MM classification/s apply to your application
• which National Medical Workforce Strategy (NMWS) priority/s areas relate to your application.

Only eligible applications that meet the specified criteria move to the selection process.

Selection process

Your application will be assessed on its merits and against other applications, based on:

• how well it meets the criteria
• if it provides value and is cost effective
• if there is any duplication of activities between other applications or existing Commonwealth and State programs or initiatives
• the distribution of activities across geographic locations (MM 2-7 and regionally)
• scalability or sustainability of projects to be transferred across to other colleges and implemented.

Reporting

You must submit reports in line with the grant agreement.

Your progress reports must:

• include evidence of your progress towards completion of agreed activities and outcomes
• show the total eligible expenditure incurred to date
• include evidence of expenditure
• be submitted by the report due date (you can submit reports ahead of time if you have completed relevant activities).

The amount of detail you provide in your reports should be relative to the size, complexity and total grant amount approved for the project.

We provide detailed updates to the Department of Health and Aged Care on the progress of all approved FATES projects through a Performance Report when required.

We may occasionally request additional project updates to support relevant reporting and internal updates.

Apply

Applications for FATES Round 4 funding are now closed.