OTA Research Foundation

Research and the publication of evidence for occupational therapy is crucial to all three of the current strategic plan pillars.

Our strategy includes the funding of research grants, provision of awards and recognition to our researchers and to publish research in the Australian Journal of Occupational Therapy.

The Occupational Therapy Australia Research Foundation (OTARF) commenced in 2012 and supports the first two activities of this strategy.

Mission

The mission of OTARF is to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians by supporting occupational therapists to engage in, produce, disseminate, and promote occupational therapy research, which will inform occupational therapy practice, policy, and education.

The Foundation solely supports occupational therapy research that addresses the promotion, maintenance, and enhancement of health status and wellbeing of people in line with the Australian Department of industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education’s National Research Priorities and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Health Priority Areas.

It endorses research conducted across World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health levels to understand, measure, and enable engagement in occupation.

The Foundation is a public ancillary fund with deductible gift recipient status. Funds are administered through a trust deed. All donations and bequests made to the Foundation are tax deductible.

To donate to OTARF please contact OTA.

Grants

Direct Gift Recipient (DGR) grants

The OTARF grants scheme stimulates new research knowledge and supports the career development and capacity of researchers.

Priority will be given to those applicants who:

• Have an emergent rather than established research and publication track record
• Have to date not obtained large, national, international competitive research grant funding
• May have experienced interruptions to research track record dur to carer or other responsibilities/circumstances
• Will actively benefit from research team interaction and monitoring

For this research grant process, no priority areas of research have been determined. However, consistent with the goals of the scheme to generate new occupational therapy research knowledge, the primary project aim must be to address an aspect of occupational therapy.

This award is run annually. In 2024-2025, there is up to $14,500 available for distribution.

If you would like more information about the award, you can download the award guidelines (PDF, 147 KB). If you would like to apply for the award, please download the application form (WORD, 97.9 KB).

Applications for this award are now open and close at 5:00pm (AEDT) on Friday, 14 February 2025. Application forms with additional documents as listed in the Guidelines are to be submitted to awards@otaus.com.au.