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                    Researching Melbourne

                    The City of Melbourne undertakes extensive data collection, research and analysis to support the organisation's policy making, planning and service delivery.

                    ​We examine the city's past and present, develop forecasts and projections for the future, benchmark Melbourne against other cities and explain the internal and external factors that shape Melbourne.

                    We develop and oversee in-house and external research projects regarding:

                    • land use and built space
                    • employment and business activity
                    • population, housing and other demographics
                    • who uses the municipality and why
                    • a range of social, cultural and community issues.

                    Our research service is available to businesses and the community.

                    Partnering with the City of Melbourne for research

                    The City of Melbourne welcomes opportunities to partner with researchers and other organisations to address the issues that face the municipality and directly contribute to the goals of the Council Plan.

                    Mechanisms for research

                    Three mechanisms are available for research:

                    • Australia Research Council (ARC) Linkage projects: The City of Melbourne provides annual funding as an industry partner to research institutions leading ARC Linkage projects.
                    • Collaborative research projects: Research collaboration involves the City of Melbourne and partners jointly assuming the roles of problem-holder and problem-solver while also shaping and resourcing the research process together. This has a number of benefits, including:
                      • providing greater impetus to attain research funding
                      • expanding available researcher expertise and capacity
                      • enabling resource sharing and access to people and places
                      • providing the opportunity to learn directly from partners during the research process.
                    • Student research: The City of Melbourne also encourages expressions of interest from Masters or PhD students undertaking research into our priority research requirements.

                    Application process

                    Expressions of interest (EOI) to partner with the City of Melbourne are invited throughout the year.

                    Research partnerships – EOI form (DOC 158 KB)

                    Your research proposal must address the selection criteria, and must:

                    • align with the goals and objectives of the City of Melbourne's Council Plan and/or priority research requirements
                    • aim to improve local government functions and public policy
                    • be of a high quality with a high standard of design, and have tangible outputs that can be readily transferred into the operations of the City of Melbourne
                    • exhibit your track record of research excellence.

                    Researcher expertise or experience in the priority research areas does not guarantee a commitment to partnership.

                    Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their EOI within 10 working days of submission. The City of Melbourne may require further information or request to meet with applicants during the evaluation process.

                    More information

                    ​The Australian Centre of Excellence in Local Government discusses the value of the City of Melbourne’s research capacity: Knowledge City – the difference an in-house research team made to a council (PDF 1.3 MB)

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