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Appeals

Introduction

• The funding rules for the various ARC funding schemes make provision for an appeals process, whereby appeals will be considered against administrative process issues.
• Appeals will be considered only against process issues and not against committee decisions or assessor ratings and comments.
• Appeals must be made on the appeals form available from the ARC's website. The form must be lodged through the relevant administering organisation's research office and be received, within 28 days of the date on the letter notifying the outcomes of proposals.
  
  Appeals Form
  PDF Format (17kb) - RTF Format (17kb)
   
• The appeals form is to be forwarded to:
  The Appeals Officer
  Australian Research Council
  GPO Box 2702
  Canberra ACT 2601
• Appellants should provide the ARC with all the information necessary to enable the appeal to be considered without the need for further written or oral explanation or reference to additional material.

Appeals Committee

The ARC appoints an Appeals Committee to hear appeals and make recommendations to the ARC's Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The current members of the Appeals Committee are:

• The Hon. Hadden Storey QC;
• Dr Judy West AO, CSIRO Plant Industry:
• Emeritus Professor Ron MacDonald, ex Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) The University of Newcastle; and
• Professor Peter Sheehan, retiring Vice-Chancellor, Australian Catholic University

Functions of the Appeals Committee

In general the functions of the Appeals Committee are:

• Consider valid appeals submitted to the ARC to determine whether there has been any error in the administrative process relating to the selection process;
• Determine whether any such errors led to a defect in decision-making by the ARC and/or the Minister which adversely affected the proposal;
• Recommend to the ARC whether to uphold or dismiss an appeal; and
• Provide advice to the ARC in relation to how its administrative processes could be modified or improved.

The processing of appeals submissions

• Following receipt of the appellants' submissions, the ARC prepares material for the Appeals Committee's consideration. This includes collating the appellant's submission and a submission from the ARC (generally the ARC's submission outlines relevant provisions of the funding rules and the processes which are applied during the selection process). The ARC provides the appellant with a copy of the material it is submitting to the Appeals Committee for information.
• The Appeals Committee meets two or three times per year (usually around July/August and again around December/January) to consider appeals arising from recent funding rounds.
• For each appeal the Appeals Committee will determine whether it believes that an error of process has occurred and make a recommendation to the ARC's CEO. The Appeals Committee may also make recommendations to the ARC about possible improvements to its documentation and its processes.
• The relevant research offices are subsequently notified of the outcome of the appeals process.