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Media Release
$300 million to strengthen Australia's innovation system
26 September 2007
Innovation and research received a major boost today when the Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, announced that 878 new projects would receive more than $300 million over the next five years under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects scheme.
“The Howard Government continues to provide strong support for Australia research and innovation, which supports the development of new employment opportunities, economic growth and our quality of life,” Minister Bishop said.
“In this technology and information age, it is vital that our researchers are supported to ensure Australia remains competitive internationally.”
Minister Bishop said the projects would include collaborations with researchers in 75 countries, including the USA, UK, Germany, Canada, France, China, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Russia.
The projects, which will begin next year, include research to:
- identify and date evidence for past tsunamis on the coasts of NSW and New Zealand to guide tsunami risk management practices in vulnerable areas and help underpin development of the Australian Tsunami Warning System (Macquarie University);
- separate the factors that may influence or have an impact on climate change, leading to improved accuracy in seasonal climate predictions and economic benefits for the agricultural sector (Monash University);
- study evaporative demand (the rate of evaporation of water from a metal pan), using a new purpose-built evaporation pan, to provide better information and policy advice about changes in water availability with climate change (The Australian National University);
- discover the basic mechanisms that underlie learning and memory storage and how these are modulated in an emotional context to gain greater insight into many age-related degenerative disorders, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress and enhance our ability to develop treatments (The University of Queensland);
- evaluate Aboriginal and Western scientific knowledge of spinifex grasses to identify environmentally sustainable technological uses for it in the building industry and develop a new economic enterprise for remote area groups (The University of Queensland); and
- quantify how oceans absorb carbon dioxide to improve understanding of the role oceans play in the effects of climate change on coral reef degradation and coastal erosion (The University of New South Wales).
The Discovery Projects scheme is funded under the Australian Government’s 10-year $8.3 billion commitment to innovation, Backing Australia’s Ability.
Attached is a statistical overview of the funding round. For more information, visit www.arc.gov.au.
Media Contacts: Ms Bishop’s Office: Murray Hansen 0417 886 155
Australian Research Council: Fiona Skivington 0412 623 057
ATTACHMENT
Discovery Projects funding statistics: Projects commencing in 2008
Overview
|
Number of proposals (includes nine proposals subsequently withdrawn) |
4,121 |
|
Number of funded projects |
878 |
|
Total funding |
$300,796,403 over five years |
|
Average funding per project |
$342,593 |
|
Number of funded projects in which international collaboration is foreshadowed |
517 |
|
Number of instances of foreshadowed international collaboration |
1,135 |
|
Number of countries with which collaboration is foreshadowed |
75 |
|
Country with which the majority of researcher collaborations will take place |
USA |
|
Success rates of proposals involving one or more Early-Career Researchers (five years or less from completion of their PhD) |
19.3% |
|
Overall success rate for proposals |
21.4% |
|
Overall success rate for female investigators |
21.0% |
|
Number of Fellowships awarded |
206 |
Funding by ARC discipline groupings
Projects classified in the ARC disciplinary grouping Physics, Chemistry and Geoscience will receive the highest funding at $62,626,088.
|
Discipline Grouping |
Funding
($) |
Success rate
(%) |
|
Biological Sciences and Biotechnology |
60,201,607 |
21.4 |
|
Engineering and Environmental Sciences |
43,784,915 |
19.6 |
|
Humanities and Creative Arts |
42,323,739 |
21.0 |
|
Mathematics, Information and Communication Sciences |
43,103,236 |
21.2 |
|
Physics, Chemistry and Geoscience |
62,626,088 |
22.6 |
|
Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences |
48,756,818 |
21.7 |
|
TOTAL |
300,796,403 |
21.4 |
Projects in National Research Priority areas
86.2 per cent of successful proposals are considered by the applicants to lie in the National Research Priority areas.
|
National Research Priority |
Funding
($) |
Number of projects |
|
An Environmentally Sustainable Australia |
52,534,346 |
140 |
|
Promoting and Maintaining Good Health |
50,014,130 |
170 |
|
Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries |
127,126,140 |
328 |
|
Safeguarding Australia |
35,760,959 |
119 |
|
Total National Research Priorities |
265,435,575 |
757 |
Administering organisation outcomes
The University of Melbourne will receive the highest Discovery Projects funding in this round at $38,004,295 followed by The University of Sydney ($34,497,035) and The Australian National University ($30,827,792).
|
Administering organisation |
Funded projects |
Indicative funding over project life ($) |
Success rate
(%) |
|
Charles Darwin University |
2 |
585,000 |
40.0 |
|
Charles Sturt University |
3 |
662,196 |
12.5 |
|
CSIRO |
1 |
586,530 |
50.0 |
|
Curtin University of Technology |
9 |
3,070,697 |
9.8 |
|
Deakin University |
4 |
1,533,040 |
4.8 |
|
Edith Cowan University |
1 |
202,593 |
5.6 |
|
Flinders University |
9 |
3,047,575 |
14.1 |
|
Griffith University |
23 |
6,623,272 |
20.5 |
|
James Cook University |
11 |
3.543,124 |
23.9 |
|
La Trobe University |
15 |
4,677,494 |
19.7 |
|
Macquarie University |
36 |
11,048,597 |
25.4 |
|
Monash University |
75 |
27,659,169 |
20.9 |
|
Murdoch University |
5 |
1,293,166 |
13.2 |
|
Queensland University of Technology |
24 |
7,287,572 |
24.7 |
|
RMIT University |
5 |
1,066,444 |
9.1 |
|
Southern Cross University |
2 |
660,000 |
22.2 |
|
Swinburne University of Technology |
12 |
4,222,240 |
18.8 |
|
The Australian National University |
78 |
30,827,792 |
27.3 |
|
The University of Adelaide |
41 |
14,143,514 |
26.1 |
|
The University of Melbourne |
112 |
38,004,295 |
27.6 |
|
The University of New England |
2 |
402,062 |
7.7 |
|
The University of New South Wales |
87 |
26,004,779 |
22.3 |
|
The University of Newcastle |
31 |
10,353,165 |
23.5 |
|
The University of Queensland |
71 |
28,724,683 |
19.7 |
|
The University of Sydney |
98 |
34,497,035 |
25.1 |
|
The University of Western Australia |
35 |
13,089,935 |
21.1 |
|
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research |
3 |
965,103 |
25.0 |
|
University of Canberra |
2 |
555,934 |
40.0 |
|
University of South Australia |
14 |
3,555,526 |
20.6 |
|
University of Southern Queensland |
1 |
187,000 |
3.2 |
|
University of Tasmania |
10 |
2,850,581 |
13.5 |
|
University of Technology, Sydney |
12 |
3,773,676 |
13.3 |
|
University of Western Sydney |
12 |
3,755,509 |
28.6 |
|
University of Wollongong |
32 |
11,337,105 |
24.2 |
|
Total |
878 |
300,796,403 |
21.4 |
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