ARC Updates University of Tasmania 16 June 2016 Professor Marian Simms Australian Research Council

Web: arc.gov.au I Overview 1.Funding Statistics 2.Assessment Cycle and issues 3.Interdisciplinary research 4.Continuous Linkage 5.College of Experts—call for nominations 6.HASS—Disciplinary success rates per funding scheme

2015–16 Federal Budget—$429 billion

2015–16 Federal Budget—R&D $9.7 billion

Web: arc.gov.au I Selected research agencies 2003–2016 funding ($m) Source: Science, Research and Innovation Budget Tables 2015–16

Web: arc.gov.au I Researchers by sector of employment Source: OECD, Research and Development Statistics Database, June 2013.

Web: arc.gov.au I ARC NCGP funding by scheme 2008–2015

Web: arc.gov.au I Linkage fraction vs Discovery fraction

Web: arc.gov.au I UTAS NCGP funding 2008–2015

Linkage Projects —UTAS Linkages Source data: Australian Research Council Higher Education Government Industry/business Non-profit/other 2011–2015

Web: arc.gov.au I Success in grants by gender

Web: arc.gov.au I DE 2016—Success—years since awarded PhD

Web: arc.gov.au I Average age of lead CIs in Future Fellowships, DP and DECRA 2002–2016

Web: arc.gov.au I ARC grants—overview All grants that are successful should provide exciting new outcomes and be excellent investments Decisions will align with Scheme Objectives Not all excellent proposals can achieve funding; most applicants will be disappointed

Web: arc.gov.au I Insights into the grants process Consider where to apply for funding; choose a scheme. Pay attention to eligibility and ARC ‘cross scheme limits’. The scheme objectives and the selection criteria—address every one of them Choosing Fields of Research Codes—assisting the ARC choose the right assessors Record and research and research-related outputs—career interruptions/industry and/or end-user experience—the ROPE provision Apply by yourself (DP, IN, DECRA, FT and FL) or as a team member… Seek mentors on writing good grant applications, and rejoinders! Your first grant application ̶ Write for your peers—write so that someone broadly in your field will understand your project ̶ Write for the public—write a plain English statement Don’t over-inflate authorship claims but don’t undersell yourself either

Web: arc.gov.au I Assessment Process 1.The external (detailed) assessor—1 or 2, or up to 5 or 6 proposals 2.The ARC panel member, depending on scheme—10–120 3.The ARC selection meeting—100–900 Detailed assessors are assessing a small volume of applications. Their comments are provided to applicants but not their grades The ARC provides detailed advice to assessors regarding the attributes of good quality (i.e. helpful) and reliable assessments The ARC aims for both a good volume of assessments, around 3 per application, and for good quality assessments

Web: arc.gov.au I Assessment Process—the rejoinder The rejoinder is provided to the panel members assigned to your proposal, NOT to the assessors It provides valuable additional insights into your proposal for consideration by the panel—you may clarify issues but not provide additional information At the selection meeting it is also available to all panel members in the room at the time (i.e. those not conflicted with the proposal).

Web: arc.gov.au I Selection Panels: Who, How, What and When Who Who: Panels are normally selected from members of the College of Experts whose expertise, including in cross-disciplinary fields, is most relevant to the scheme How How: For many schemes each proposal is assigned to two panel members, a first and second carriage What What: The first carriage assigns the detailed assessors, reads the proposal carefully and prepares a budget. After initial consideration they confer with the second carriage. They also have access to the rejoinder before providing scores to the ARC When When: Panels meet at specified times that are advertised on the ARC website

Web: arc.gov.au I The Assessment and Selection Process

Web: arc.gov.au I Disciplines and Panels The ARC recognises the need to have a flexible approach to suit volume and disciplinary spread in each scheme The number of discipline panels varies by scheme—funds are apportioned according to demand. For example, Discovery Projects typically has five panels: − BSB (Biological Sciences and Biotechnology) − EMI (Engineering, Mathematics and Information Sciences) − HCA (Humanities and Creative Arts) − PCE (Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences) − SBE (Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences) However, proposals can be assigned across two panels to ensure appropriate expertise, and assigned to a breadth of detailed reviewers Some other schemes use a single multi-disciplinary panel (e.g. Australian Laureate Fellowships, ITRP).

Web: arc.gov.au I Number of panels

Web: arc.gov.au I The Selection Meeting Typically all panels are addressed by the ARC CEO at the outset and reminded of the selection criteria and other key issues such as ROPE All panels selected for the same scheme, regardless of discipline, utilise the same selection criteria from the relevant funding rules A growing number of proposals are cross panel ones, i.e. the carriages are from different panels The ARC has asked applicants to provide information regarding whether their proposal is cross-disciplinary

Web: arc.gov.au I DP16 submission of detailed assessments

Web: arc.gov.au I Requests not to assess DP requests 1187 people excluded

Web: arc.gov.au I Interdisciplinary research (IDR) Interdisciplinary research (IDR) is becoming increasingly important to the national and international research effort From December 2015 the ARC has asked applicants to identify whether their research is interdisciplinary and in what way In the recent ARC Discovery round 60% of applications identified as IDR and 54% in DECRA The ARC is seeking information on IDR activity to understand the scope of interdisciplinary research in Australia, to more effectively assess and support it and to inform future policy development.

Web: arc.gov.au I Discovery Projects 17— ‘Is your project interdisciplinary?’ by 2-digit FoR code

Web: arc.gov.au I IDR—by type

Web: arc.gov.au I Gender of First CI: LP14 and 15

Web: arc.gov.au I Gender of First CI: LP16

Web: arc.gov.au I Participation and success rates by age and gender for Linkage Projects 2016 Source: LP Selection Report 2016, Fig 2.

Web: arc.gov.au I Comparison of Linkage Projects success rates between female and male participants from 2010 to 2016 Source: LP Selection Report 2016, Fig 3.

Web: arc.gov.au I Instances of international collaboration on approved proposals in Linkage Projects 2014

Web: arc.gov.au I Continuous Linkage: The Annual Cycle

Web: arc.gov.au I The Annual Cycle (2)

Web: arc.gov.au I Continuous application, assessment and funding process

Web: arc.gov.au I Assessment Scoring Grants will be assessed in the normal way, but “ranked” against previous history of applications Normalisation of scores of all assessors

Web: arc.gov.au I Issues and challenges Transitional −LP16 already underway! (Funding from July 2016) NO extra funding for continuous round Withhold a small amount from current round! Ongoing −Irregular demand cycles −Assessment (Scoring) −Recycling −Fast tracking.

Web: arc.gov.au I College of Experts 2017 Nominations for the 2017 College of Experts will be opening mid We are very keen for all the brightest researchers to come forward for our 2017 college. Information about college membership is on our website—new nominations info is with your university. Please approach your DVCR if you are interested.

Web: arc.gov.au I ARC Schemes Success Field of Research (FoR) 2 digit breakdown

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 12

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 13

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 14

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 15

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 16

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 17

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 18

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 19

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 20

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 21

Web: arc.gov.au I Success by scheme 2011–2015—FoR 22

Thank you! (attach a short bio and five recent, last five years scholarly/refereed publications).