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Linkage Projects
Round 2
Selection Report for Funding Commencing in 2006

Overview
Selection process
Selection criteria
National Research Priorities
Summary of Funding
Approved funding
Project size
Components
Outcomes by Organisation

Overview

The Linkage Projects scheme funds collaborative projects between University researchers and Collaborating Organisations. Proposals in Round 2 for projects commencing in July 2006 closed on 25 November 2005. This report outlines approvals from the selection process for that round.

As indicated in the funding rules for this round (released in early 2005), Linkage Projects aims to:

  • encourage and develop long-term strategic research alliances between higher education organisations and other organisations, in order to apply advanced knowledge to problems and/or to provide opportunities to obtain national economic, social or cultural benefits;
  • support collaborative research on issues of benefit to regional and rural communities;
  • enhance the scale and focus of research in National Priority Areas;
  • foster opportunities for postdoctoral researchers to pursue internationally competitive research in collaboration with organisations outside the higher education sector, targeting those who have demonstrated a clear commitment to high-quality research;
  • provide outcome-oriented research training to prepare high-calibre postgraduate research students; and
  • produce a national pool of world-class researchers to meet the needs of the broader Australian innovation system.

Research project costs are supported under Linkage Projects, as well as:

  • Australian Postdoctoral Fellowships Industry (APDI) for researchers with less than three years' postdoctoral experience;
  • Australian Postgraduate Awards Industry (APAI, or known as APAI-IT for those in information technology) for postgraduate research students studying towards a Masters or PhD award; and
  • Linkage Industry Fellowships (LIF) which provide support for costs involved in a temporary transfer from one of the eligible higher education organisations listed on a proposal to one of the collaborating organisations on that proposal or vice versa.

A single proposal to Linkage Projects may contain research project costs and one or more of the component costs above.

This report includes summary statistics and approvals for those Linkage Projects proposals that involve project, APAI, and/or fellowship funding (LP proposals), as well as those proposals primarily seeking APAI stipends (so-called APAI-only, or LA proposals).

Selection process

The College of Experts assessed proposals in two ways depending on the level of support sought in the proposal.

Where an applicant sought funding from the ARC to support fellowships, project costs associated with personnel, equipment, maintenance and/or travel, of more than $150,000 over project life, the ARC and its College of Experts:

  • assigned independent readers/assessors to review proposals;
  • sought applicants' comments on assessors' reports;
  • ranked each proposal relative to the others on the basis of the proposal, the assessors' reports and applicant's response to these assessments; and
  • assessed and approved budgets, and prepared funding recommendations.

About 38% of proposals requested funding of less than $150,000 over the proposed project life. External assessment was not sought in these cases. The ARC and the College of Experts ranked each proposal relative to the others on the basis of the proposal and prepared funding recommendations.

Selection criteria

Selection criteria and corresponding weights for Linkage Projects proposals are:

  • investigators' track record (20%)
  • significance and innovation (25%)
  • approach and training (20%)
  • national benefit (10%)
  • commitment from collaborating organisation (25%)

National Research Priorities

Applicants in this round identified 530 out of a total of 577 proposals (92%) as in one of the national research priority areas. Within those approved for funding, proposals in priority areas represented 91% by number and account for 86% of total approved funding.

Table 1: Approved funding for Linkage Projects Round 2 2006 by National Research Priority

Priority Area
Proposals received*
Proposals funded
Success rate
Approved funds over project life**
None
47
19
40%
$7,399,094
An Environmentally Sustainable Australia
181
63
35%
$16,573,414
Promoting and Maintaining Good Health
159
50
31%
$10,259,164
Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries
149
57
38%
$15,952,810
Safeguarding Australia
41
17
41%
$3,795,833
Total priority proposals
577
206
36%
$53,980,315
% within priority areas
92%
91%
-
86%

* withdrawn proposal not included
** the figures do not include half-year APAI stipends for Year 4.

Summary of Funding

In this round, the ARC received a total of 578 proposals, of which 1 was withdrawn after the closing date. Of the 577 remaining proposals, 94 primarily sought an APAI stipend (APAI-only proposals) and 483 proposals sought substantial project support, as well as one or more APAI, APDI or LIF places. In the tables and text below, the following terms are used to distinguish components of the scheme:

LP - figures for the 483 project proposals
LA - figures for the 94 APAI-only proposals
Linkage - figures for entire Linkage Projects scheme

Approved funding

A total of 206 (35.7%) proposals are approved for funding, with an overall ARC commitment over their lives of $55.6M if all half-year APAI extensions are exercised. The overall success rate of 35.7% represents a slight decrease on the success rate of 36.7% in the previous Round.

Of the LP submitted, 186 of 483 (38.5 %) are funded and represent an ARC commitment of $52.4M. For APAI-only proposals (LA), 20 of 94 (21.3 %) are approved for funding and represent an ARC commitment of $1.56M over the life of these projects.

Table 2: Success rates for Linkage Projects Round 2 2006

Number of proposals
LP
LA
Linkage
Received*
483
94
577
Funded
186
20
206
Success Rate
38.5%
21.3%
35.7%

*withdrawn proposal not included

Table 3: Success rates for Linkage Projects Components Rounds 1 and 2 2006

Component
Round 1 for projects
commencing in January 2006
Round 2 for projects
commencing in July 2006
LP
40.8%
38.5%
LA
17.9%
21.3%
Linkage
36.7%
35.7%

Table 4: Approved Funding for Linkage Projects Round 2 2006 by Discipline Area

Discipline Group**
Proposals received*
Proposals Funded
Success rate
Requested funds over project life
Approved funds over project life**
BSB
120
42
35.0%
$37,084,350
$10,981,815
EE
129
43
33.3%
$34,548,863
$12,544,223
HCA
54
21
38.9%
$17,481,802
$5,242,697
MIC
59
26
44.1%
$14,314,909
$5,070,637
PCG
37
14
37.8%
$13,783,689
$4,394,484
SBE
178
60
33.7%
$41,745,360
$15,746,459
Total
577
206
35.7%
$158,958,973
$53,980,315

* withdrawn proposal not included
** These figures do not include half-year APAI stipends for Year 4.
** BSB = Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EE = Engineering and Environmental Sciences; HCA = Humanities and Creative Arts; MIC = Mathematics, Information and Communication Sciences; PCG = Physics, Chemistry and Geoscience; SBE = Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences

Project size

The average first-year funding per project for LP Round 2 is $93,644 (78.4% of average first-year request), and for LA is $27,442 (95.7% of average first-year request). The overall LP average first-year funding per project in Round 2 is $87,217 (78.8% of average first-year request). These figures are broadly similar to the last round. The average first-year project sizes have decreased slightly and the amount funded as a percentage of first-year request has decreased.

Table 5: Comparison of first-year funding, Linkage Projects Rounds 1 and 2 2006

Component
Round 1 for projects commencing in January 2006
Round 2 for projects commencing in July 2006
Average first year allocation
Percentage of average first year request
Average first year allocation
Percentage of average first year request
LP
$100,964
82.7%
$93,644
78.4%
LA
$31,337
95.8%
$27,442
95.7%
Linkage
$94,862
83.0%
$87,217
78.8%

Table 6: Average total project size for LP, LA and Linkage Projects Rounds 1 and 2 2006

Component
Round 1 for projects commencing in
January 2006
Round 2 for projects commencing in
July 2006
LP*
$320,105
$289,709
LA*
$109,757
$90,381
Linkage*
$301,672
$270,357

*These amounts include possible half-year APAI stipends for Year 4.

Components

The major components that can be funded in Linkage Projects include APAIs, APAI ITs, APDIs, Linkage Industry Fellowships (LIF) and other collaborative research grant (CRG) funding. The following table shows overall numbers and funding for these components.

Table 7: Linkage Projects Round 2 2006component data

Component
Number requested*
Number funded
Success rate
APAI
415
111
26.8%
APAI-IT
44
32
72.7%
APDI
37
19
51.4%
LIF
2
0
0.0%
CRG
489
177
36.2%

*withdrawn proposal not included

LIF
The Linkage Projects Round 2 proposals included 2 requests for Linkage Industry Fellowships (LIF). Neither proposal is approved for funding.

APDI
The Linkage Projects Round 2 proposals included requests for 37 APDI places, of which 19 proposals (51.4%) are approved for funding.

APAI-IT
Within Linkage Projects, there is a requirement to fund at least 50 APAI places in the fields of Information Technology and Communications. This requirement is to be filled over both selection rounds in 2006. In the previous round (LP06 Round 1), 24 places were funded. In this round (LP06 Round 2), 32 places are approved for funding, taking newly funded APAI-IT places in 2006 to a total of 56.

Outcomes by Organisation

Table 8 shows proposal numbers and total approved ARC funding by administering organisation for the Linkage Projects scheme.

Table 8: Outcomes by organisation for Linkage Projects Round 2 2006

Administering Organisation
Proposals Received*
Proposals approved
Success rate %
Approved funding over project life**
Total Collaborating Organisation Contribution
Australian Catholic University
1
0
0
$0
$0
Bond University
1
0
0
$0
$0
Central Queensland University
2
0
0
$0
$0
Charles Darwin University
9
3
33
$711,950
$873,860
Charles Sturt University
7
0
0
$0
$0
Curtin University of Technology
10
4
40
$1,056,950
$1,943,966
Deakin University
8
2
25
$483,681
$490,284
Edith Cowan University
3
1
33
$251,000
$457,350
Griffith University
22
4
18
$706,002
$1,814,394
James Cook University
5
2
40
$287,000
$695,802
La Trobe University
5
1
20
$240,000
$289,241
Macquarie University
6
2
33
$490,000
$1,120,000
Monash University
47
20
43
$5,084,707
$8,669,595
Murdoch University
14
4
29
$998,296
$1,424,884
Queensland University of Technology
45
16
36
$4,178,530
$7,260,090
RMIT University
13
2
15
$296,970
$571,854
Southern Cross University
3
1
33
$310,000
$765,837
Swinburne University of Technology
9
1
11
$235,000
$283,500
The Australian National University
17
9
53
$3,949,872
$5,389,090
The Flinders University of South Australia
14
5
36
$1,390,909
$2,136,203
The University of Adelaide
21
9
43
$1,965,835
$3,630,898
The University of Melbourne
40
20
50
$4,656,688
$5,630,076
The University of New England
7
0
0
$0
$0
The University of New South Wales
49
19
39
$3,889,759
$6,787,876
The University of Newcastle
7
4
57
$627,910
$960,768
The University of Queensland
37
13
35
$2,939,344
$4,308,188
The University of Sydney
50
22
44
$7,430,590
$15,048,128
The University of Western Australia
26
10
39
$3,654,278
$6,054,480
University of Ballarat
3
1
33
$156,000
$186,000
University of Canberra
1
0
0
$0
$0
University of South Australia
21
10
48
$2,306,572
$3,873,029
University of Southern Queensland
4
0
0
$0
$0
University of Tasmania
15
6
40
$1,594,120
$2,962,706
University of Technology, Sydney
6
3
50
$459,708
$607,570
University of the Sunshine Coast
4
0
0
$0
$0
University of Western Sydney
11
4
36
$566,950
$1,368,835
University of Wollongong
22
7
32
$2,971,835
$5,311,313
Victoria University
12
1
8
$89,859
$90,000
Total
577
206
36
$53,980,315
$91,005,817

*withdrawn proposal not included
**figures do not include half-year APAI stipends for Year 4.

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