The Criminology Research Grants (CRG) program is a procurement exercise administered by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), taking into account the advice of the Criminology Research Advisory Council. Funding for the program comes from Commonwealth, state and territory governments and is administered in line with Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
The objectives of the CRG program are to support research relevant to current and future public policy issues, to foster quality criminological research and to ensure that funded research is disseminated effectively.
The Criminology Research Advisory Council provides a forum for Attorneys-General and their representatives around Australia to assess needs in the field of criminological research and to fund specific research projects in universities, government agencies and elsewhere. The Advisory Council meets each year to determine research priorities for the following round of funding.
Each CRG funded project culminates in a report to be published on this website and disseminated by the AIC library. The library lists these reports on Libraries Australia and also on CINCH, the Australian criminology database, which is publicly available online. With hundreds of libraries Australia-wide participating in Libraries Australia, reports receive wide coverage.
With permission from the AIC, CRG recipients may also distribute their final report themselves. Many researchers choose to publish in the form of books and journal articles, making their research readily available to the broader community. They also distribute copies to relevant government departments and agencies.
Funding recipients must provide a summary paper which will be peer reviewed and may be published as part of the AIC's Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice series.