How the ARC funds good research 8 July 2015 Professor Aidan
Byrne CEO, Australian Research Council
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Source: www.globalresearchcouncil.org Freedom, Flexibility and
Risk taking Diverse Portfolio Review and Evaluation Partnership
with stakeholders International collaboration Challenges!
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Outline (1) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape
Assessment Outcomes Evaluation
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R&D expenditure % GDP vs. researchers per million Bubble
size = GDP The Race to Innovate 19962012
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R&D expenditure % GDP vs. researchers per million Bubble
size = GDP The Race to Innovate 19962012 (2)
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R&D expenditure % GDP vs. GDP per Cap. Bubble size =
Researchers per million The Race to Innovate
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R&D expenditure % GDP vs. GDP per Cap. Bubble size =
Researchers per million The Race to Innovate
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Outline (2) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape
Assessment Outcomes Evaluation
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201415 Federal Budget (Approx. AU$415 billion) 2014-15 Federal
(Treasury omitted)
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201415 Federal Budget (Approx. AU$415 billion) Australian
Government support for science, research and innovation shown in
red (Treasury omitted)
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Commonwealth Investment in R&D 201415 ($m)
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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
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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)
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ARC NCGP funding by scheme 20062014
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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
Outline (3) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape
Assessment Process Outcomes Evaluation
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Source: www.smbc-comics.com Zach Weinersmith Dispelling the
myths!
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ARC Assessment Process Application Panel External Assessment
Selection Meeting Outcomes
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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
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Cross assignment between panels DP 2015 Assessing
Interdisciplinary research
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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:
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Safeguards Detailed Assessment Rejoinders ROPE Conflict of
interest Ministerial sign-off
Grants funding by institute (%) 19712014 ARC becomes a
statutory agency NICTA
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Average age of lead CIs in DP grants (+DECRA 20122014) DECRA
average age ~35
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Average age of lead CIs in DP grants (+DECRA 20122014 &
Futures 20092013)
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First-time awardees by scheme 200814
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Participation and success of CIs in DP13 and DP14 by gender and
career age
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Participation and success of Chief Investigators (CIs) in DP15
by gender and career age
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Outline (5) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape
Assessment Process Outcomes Evaluation
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Excellence in research for Australia
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Australia has one of the highest percentage outputs of
international collaboration YS Chi
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Aggregate National PerformanceCitations Michael West,
Benchmarking Australian Science Performance, Office of the Chief
Scientist Occasional Paper, Feb 2013.
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Source: www.globalresearchcouncil.org Freedom, Flexibility and
Risk taking Diverse Portfolio Review and Evaluation Partnership
with stakeholders International collaboration Challenges! (2)