Slide 1

How the ARC funds good research 8 July 2015 Professor Aidan Byrne CEO, Australian Research Council

Slide 2

Source: www.globalresearchcouncil.org Freedom, Flexibility and Risk taking Diverse Portfolio Review and Evaluation Partnership with stakeholders International collaboration Challenges!

Slide 3

Outline (1) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Outcomes Evaluation

Slide 4

R&D expenditure % GDP vs. researchers per million Bubble size = GDP The Race to Innovate 19962012

Slide 5

R&D expenditure % GDP vs. researchers per million Bubble size = GDP The Race to Innovate 19962012 (2)

Slide 6

R&D expenditure % GDP vs. GDP per Cap. Bubble size = Researchers per million The Race to Innovate

Slide 7

R&D expenditure % GDP vs. GDP per Cap. Bubble size = Researchers per million The Race to Innovate

Slide 8

Outline (2) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Outcomes Evaluation

Slide 9

201415 Federal Budget (Approx. AU$415 billion) 2014-15 Federal (Treasury omitted)

Slide 10

201415 Federal Budget (Approx. AU$415 billion) Australian Government support for science, research and innovation shown in red (Treasury omitted)

Slide 11

Commonwealth Investment in R&D 201415 ($m)

Slide 12

Focusing Government Investment Research Priorities The Australian Government has developed a set of Science and Research Priorities, they are: - soil and water - transport - cybersecurity - energy - resources - advanced manufacturing - environmental change - Health More information at www.science.gov.au

Slide 13

National Competitive Grants Program Discovery ProgramsLinkage Programs Laureate Fellowships Future Fellowships DECRA Discovery Projects Centres of Excellence SRIs ITRP Linkage Projects Other Fellowships Area of box represents $$ awarded over the period 20092014. N.B. - Centres of Excellence, SRIs, not awarded in every year. - ITRP & DECRA only funding since 2012 LIEF Other Linkage (incl. NICTA)

Slide 14

ARC NCGP funding by scheme 20062014

Slide 15

ARC NCGP funding* by Fields of Research 20022014 *All grants, excluding NICTA and some co-funded centres and SRIs where Field of Research was not nominated

Slide 16

FOR Network mapping STEM disciplines highlighted Source data: ARC Grants Search

Slide 17

Outline (3) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Process Outcomes Evaluation

Slide 18

Source: www.smbc-comics.com Zach Weinersmith Dispelling the myths!

Slide 19

ARC Assessment Process Application Panel External Assessment Selection Meeting Outcomes

Slide 20

Proposal assessmentoverview The peer review process is designed to be fair, thorough and transparent All proposals are assessed against the selection criteria, and in accordance with the weightings for that scheme Proposals are generally assigned to two types of assessors: two College of Experts members (General assessors), and at least two Detailed assessors ARC staff assess eligibility etc., but do not decide which proposals should be funded

Slide 21

Cross assignment between panels DP 2015 Assessing Interdisciplinary research

Slide 22

Detailed Assessment numbers some examples Scheme Detailed assessments Proposals Average assessments per proposal DECRA 2015457813943.3 Discovery Projects 2015 12,17336893.3 Linkage Projects 201522947103.2 The ARC is grateful to a large number of extremely hard-working assessors who conduct the peer review process:

Slide 23

Safeguards Detailed Assessment Rejoinders ROPE Conflict of interest Ministerial sign-off

Slide 24

ARC Meeting Process Funded application Highly Funded application ranked Funded application Uncertain application 1 Funded application Uncertain application 2 UncertaintyUncertain application 3 bandUncertain application 4 Uncertain application 5 Uncertain application 6 Unfunded application Lowly Unfunded application ranked Uncertain application 7 Unfunded application Final recommendation Uncertain application 1Fund NominalUncertain application 4Fund fundingUncertain application 3Fund line --------->Uncertain application 2Fund Uncertain application 7Reserve Uncertain application 5Not fund Uncertain application 6Not fund Initial Ranking Shortlisting Funding Voting

Slide 25

Alternative Processes! Source: BMJ Open, http://bmjopen.bmj.com

Slide 26

Outline (4) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Process Outcomes Evaluation

Slide 27

Histogram of Rank

Slide 28

Discovery Projects grants outcomes DP15 Success rates Institution

Slide 29

Grants funding by institute (%) 19712014 ARC becomes a statutory agency NICTA

Slide 30

Average age of lead CIs in DP grants (+DECRA 20122014) DECRA average age ~35

Slide 31

Average age of lead CIs in DP grants (+DECRA 20122014 & Futures 20092013)

Slide 32

First-time awardees by scheme 200814

Slide 33

Participation and success of CIs in DP13 and DP14 by gender and career age

Slide 34

Participation and success of Chief Investigators (CIs) in DP15 by gender and career age

Slide 35

Outline (5) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Process Outcomes Evaluation

Slide 36

Excellence in research for Australia

Slide 37

Australia has one of the highest percentage outputs of international collaboration YS Chi

Slide 38

Aggregate National PerformanceCitations Michael West, Benchmarking Australian Science Performance, Office of the Chief Scientist Occasional Paper, Feb 2013.

Slide 39

Source: www.globalresearchcouncil.org Freedom, Flexibility and Risk taking Diverse Portfolio Review and Evaluation Partnership with stakeholders International collaboration Challenges! (2)

Slide 40

Discussion/questions