INDUSTRY & RESEARCH campusreview. com. au
Funding’ 14 –’ 15
Australian research has garnered several money commitments for work that shows valuable benefits.
By Aidan Byrne
It has been an intense and interesting year for the higher education and research sectors. Of course, much of the focus has been on higher education deregulation and funding for research.
As chief executive of the Australian Research Council( ARC), I want to see a strong, vibrant and innovative research sector whose endeavours are adequately supported to ensure discoveries that produce national benefit and reach everyday Australians.
There has been much discussion about funding cuts to research, but I was pleased to see in the 2014 – 15 federal Budget a strong commitment to a number of areas of research and research infrastructure.
A critical and welcome new investment was the continuation of the ARC Future Fellowships scheme, which had previously received funding for only six rounds. It was given provision as an ongoing scheme with 100 four-year fellowships from 2015.
As of press time, the funding for this scheme is included in the Higher Education Research Reform Amendment Bill. It is essential for the future of mid-career researchers that the bill passes through parliament to allow this important scheme – one that is highly praised by the sector – to continue.
This is almost $ 140 million in new money for the ARC and provides long-term security, as it is an ongoing scheme.
I believe the government has sent a clear message that it is committed to a strong investment in research, which delivers for the nation and ensures Australia is competitive globally. The budget commitment of $ 150 million for a continuation of the NCRIS program is a further positive message.
The ARC, through the 2014 – 15 federal Budget, has taken on four new initiatives( totalling $ 127 million) in the areas of Type 1 juvenile diabetes, tropical health and medicine, Antarctic Gateway Partnership and dementia.
Whilst the funding for these initiatives has come from a reprioritisation of ARC funding, they are nonetheless important and worthy research projects, which focus on key priorities for the Australian Government, with the potential to deliver important outcomes. The ARC contribution to dementia research is part of a much larger, new contribution to research in this area, totalling $ 200 million, and we are working closely with our sister funding agency, the NHMRC, to deliver funding to this area. Projects associated with the other reprioritised areas have already commenced and we are looking forward to the outcomes in these important areas.
In November, the education minister, Christopher Pyne announced the funding outcomes for the ARC’ s 2015 major grants, encompassing four ARC funding schemes
( Discovery Projects, Discovery Indigenous, Discovery Early-Career Researcher Awards and Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities).
A total of $ 354 million was announced for 941 research projects across the four schemes. There was a great deal of interest in this announcement, not just from those who had applied for funding and their respective universities, but also from the broader sector in terms of the ARC success rates.
Whilst there has been some impact on success rates as a consequence of the reprioritisation and budget efficiency dividend, I was extremely pleased that the ARC was able to achieve a success rate of 18 per cent for our Discovery Projects scheme. This rate was about the same across all the discipline areas. It is down from the 19.9 per cent achieved last year, but just under half of this reduction is a consequence of increased application rates.
The success rate is slightly lower but it is important to note that this has occurred without affecting another important parameter, the return rate; that is, the funding approved for a project compared with the amount requested. For Discovery Projects commencing in 2015, the return rate is 64.2 per cent, which is slightly higher than the result of 63.8 per cent achieved in 2014.
One of the fine balancing acts required of our ARC panels is to get the right mix between supporting the maximum number
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