Attachment C: Changes to the Australian Research Council's referred programmes and organisational arrangements

This paper has proposed reforms to the current array of research funding programmes which are referred to the Australian Research Council as well as to the organisational arrangements which underpin the peer review process used to allocate research funding to grant applicants. It is expected that the revised arrangements would begin in 2001. To enable informed consultation, the reforms are elaborated below.

For their duration, existing grants will continue to operate under current arrangements. Existing appeal and conflict of interest provisions would apply to the proposed arrangements.

National Competitive Grant Programme

Under the National Competitive Grant Programme there will be two programme elements, Discovery and Linkage, each of which will support people, projects and programmes and their related infrastructure, through a single application. A Centres of Excellence scheme will span both. The Linkage programme element will support collaborative national and international infrastructure.

Under these new arrangements applicants will need to identify the full cost of the proposals for which funding is sought, and indicate which of these are being sought from the Australian Research Council or other research funding agency and which are being provided by the host institution and other participants.

Discovery element

The objective of the Discovery programme element is to support excellent fundamental research by individuals and teams. Attachment B indicates which of the existing Australian Research Council referred programmes would be subsumed within the broad umbrella of this element of the National Competitive Grant Programme.

Funding under this element of the programme would be available for individuals (from Australian Research Council postdoctoral to Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow) and for projects and programmes of research (maximum funding of $500 000 for up to five years).

A new feature is the introduction of Prime Minister's Scholarships to support outstanding doctoral students who are associated with research that is funded under the Discovery programme element.

In summary, the new features are:

• a single new Discovery programme element;

• duration of grants increased to five years;

• introduction of programmes to support major research;

• increase in the number of fellows; and

• introduction of the Prime Minister's scholarships.

Linkage element

The objective of this programme element is to fund:

• collaborative research ventures, both national and international, between institutions and industry and research institutes such as CSIRO; and

• investment in strategic national and international infrastructure.

Attachment B indicates which of the existing Australian Research Council referred programmes would be subsumed within the broad umbrella of the Linkage element of the National Competitive Grant Programme.

As above for the Discovery element, applicants would choose from a menu of funding options for individuals (Australian Postgraduate Award Industry, Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship Industry); a new option of Australian Research Council Industry Fellows and Professorial Fellows); and project or programme (maximum of $500 000 for up to five years).

In summary, the new features are:

• grant duration increased to five years;

• introduction of programmes to support major research; and

• introduction of Industry Fellows and Professorial Fellows for movement between universities and industry for periods of up to one year.

The application procedure would be through a single generic application form for both the Discovery and Linkage programme elements, with applicants choosing from a menu of funding options. The selection criteria would be weighted to reflect the particular emphasis of the programme element—Discovery or Linkage.

Centres of Excellence

Key and Special Research Centres will be refocused into a single Centres of Excellence programme which spans both Discovery and Linkage and which supports significant national research. The programme would be directed at collaborative ventures involving universities, industry and research institutions such as CSIRO, with a multi-disciplinary focus. It is envisaged that the annual maximum government funding would be $1million for seven years, with matching contributions from the partners.

Other programme features

The current International Researcher Exchange Scheme would be incorporated into both the Discovery and Linkage elements to facilitate international research collaboration under the programme.

The Research Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Programme would be refocussed to support major national and international collaborative infrastructure under the Linkage element, on a matching funding basis.

As a further development, the Australian Research Council would also move to more than one application round per year for the Discovery and Linkage elements of the National Competitive Grant Programme.

In summary, the new features are:

• two programme elements, Discovery and Linkage;

• introduction of Centres of Excellence; and

• multiple application rounds.

Assessment of applications

Applications for funding under both the Discovery and Linkage programme elements (including the International Researcher Exchange Scheme and the Research Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Programme) would be considered by one of the following six programme committees:

• Biological Sciences and Biotechnology;

• Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences;

• Mathematics, Information and Communications Sciences;

• Physical Sciences;

• Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences; and

• Humanities.

A full-time programme manager, who would be a visiting expert researcher/research manager in the broad discipline area, would work with each committee, with the exception of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences and Humanities Committees which would share one programme manager.

The programme committees would consist of part-time members drawn from researchers and users of research who are recognised for their expertise and comprehensive understanding of the broad discipline area. In addition to the input provided by the programme manager, specific discipline expert assessment would be provided by a field of research readers, including international experts, who would provide electronically ranked assessments of all referred proposals in their specific field. Three paid readers will rank each application.

Based upon the collation of the readers' views and the judgement of the advisory committee, including the programme manager, funding recommendations would be made to the Council.

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