Eligible Costs

Staff Costs

Staff costs including basic salary, employer's contributions, statutory obligations, pension scheme costs and locally recognized allowances for both full and part-time staff working on a SEA DREAM funded project can be claimed proportionate to the time individual staff contributes to the project. Associated expenses such as visa, work permit and mandatory medical check-up for employment are also eligible. Additionally, cost for disability-related adjustment support as well as removal and relocation expenses can also be covered under this category if specific conditions are met.

Travel and Subsistence

Essential and justifiable travel costs can be claimed for staff employed on the grant or others (e.g., collaborators) contributing to the research to attend research meetings and conferences, policy dialogue, workshops, trainings, short-term study visits and other research-related travel.  

Childcare and any other caring responsibility costs for staff fully or partially employed on grant to attend a conference, policy dialogue, workshops, trainings, short-term study visits, or similar, that is directly related to the grant.  

Subsistence/per diem costs can be claimed for staff fully or partially employed under the grant or others contributing to the research to work away from employing organisation.  

If the employing organisation has a subsistence policy, those rates may apply as per the policy. All travel and subsistence costs must be auditable, and the employing organisation must be able to justify proposed travel and subsistence budget and rates. If the employing organisation does not have a subsistence/per diem policy, it is required to develop an appropriate policy upon installment of the grant. 

Furthermore, we also cover the cost of providing special needs education for long-term assignments.

Materials and Consumables

SEA DREAM will cover the cost of essential materials and consumables required to carry out the proposed research. These include but are not limited to: 

Key areas of focus may include research management, grantsmanship, and effective engagement with policymaking. Rather than merely allocating funding for training, a robust development program should be purposefully designed to empower researchers with the skills and tools needed to excel, contribute meaningfully, and drive impact within their disciplines and beyond. 

• Laboratory chemicals and supplies (e.g., reagents, enzymes, isotopes, antibodies, gases, cultures, plasticware, glassware) 
• Project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting 
• Research-related computing expenses (e.g., software licenses, computer consumables) 
• Shipping, delivery, and freight charges related to materials 
• Printing associated with fieldwork and empirical research

Equipment

SEA DREAM will fund the purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training for basic items of equipment that are essential to the success of the research project.

Maintenance costs: for equipment purchased on grants for the length of the award and existing equipment that is essential for the research activities and is environmentally sustainable and cost effective to maintain.

Procurement of computing equipment: can be requested for staff whose salary is fully or partially funded by the grant. This includes computing hardware, for example, laptops, up to a maximum of 2,000.00 USD for each item, unless more expensive items have been included in your award letter as well as software, software licenses and other recurring computing costs linked to the project. Items exceeding these limits require justification within the application.

Training and Development

Continuing professional development costs

Continuing professional development costs   

• Cost for Individuals can be claimed for:  
• Project-specific skills training as required by your research 
• Career-based continual professional development 
• Professional training and capacity development for research support staff  

Organisations can claim costs for conducting Training and Development Workshops and Meetings related to funded activities such as: 

• Research specific skills  
• Leadership and mentorship skills  
• Knowledge transfer  
• Cross-organizational and cross-sector learning

Research Master’s and PhD fees, and Fellowship related costs

Master’s and PhD

Studentship/scholarship costs for Research Master’s and PhDs directly related to the funded research activities such as:  

• Tuition fees 
• Stipend/living allowance  
• Research expenses or additional expenses related to dual/joint Master’s or PhD (e.g. travel, equipment, data access) if not already covered within other cost categories of the funded activities. 

Fellowships  

Post-Doctoral Fellows and Other research fellowships related to funded research activities including:  

• Stipends/living allowance, if no salary is provided   
• Research expenses (e.g. travel, equipment, data access) if not already covered within other cost categories of the funded activities.  
• Expenses for conference travel, or mentorship activities if not already covered within other cost categories of the funded activities.

Direct Research

SEA DREAM will cover the following costs to successfully contribute to research related activities: 

• Animal research costs 
• Clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies costs 
• Fieldwork costs 
• Subject and volunteer expenses 
• Communication and data collection devices   
• Data management and sharing plan costs 
• Ethical approval  
• Equipment access charges  
• Facility access charges 

Outreach and Dissemination

Research articles

SEA DREAM will fund reasonable article processing charges (APCs) for research articles published in fully Open Access (OA) journals or platforms that:  

• are indexed by Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) 
• have an agreement (Participation Agreements and Options or PMC) with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to deposit the Version of Record [PDF] in PMC and allow that content to be shared with Europe PMC. 

SEA DREAM will not cover the costs of open access publishing in subscription journals. Grant applicants cannot ask for these costs in their grant application, and grant holders will not be allowed to use their grant funds to pay for these costs. You cannot use this funding to cover any non-open access publication costs, including page and/or colour charges.

If your organisation receives open access block funding from other sources, you can ask them to cover eligible open access article processing charges.

Monographs and book chapters

SEA DREAM will also provide funds to support reasonable open access fees for monographs and book chapters. Additionally, project costs associated with producing posters, public engagement, patient involvement and research dissemination, can be included. 

The costs of hosting or contributing to the following outreach and dissemination focused activities can also be included: 

• a conference 
• a session within a conference  
• a policy dialogue  
• a symposium  
• a seminar series/webinar  
• advisory board meetings

Other Costs

SEA DREAM will cover other costs related to funded research activities such as: 

• Convening and catering costs 
• Furniture 
• Monitoring and Evaluation 
• Patent and registered design filing costs 
• Service charges and consultancy fees 
• Health and safety 
• Publication procurement costs (specialist publications) 
• Recruitment costs

Overheads

Up to a maximum of 20% of the total project costs that directly support the funded activities can be claimed as overheads. Eligible overhead costs may include but are not limited to:

• estates, for example building and premises.  
• utilities such as electricity, gas and water costs, and landline phone charges, based on an estimate proportionate to activities funded under the grant.  
• standard IT charges, based on an estimate proportionate to activities funded under the grant.  
• technical, administrative and institutional support services to the research activities, such as grant management costs, personnel, IT, procurement, finance, library, and room hire; not covered within staff costs. 

The full Cost Eligibility Guideline will be made available in January 2026.