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The Discovery Projects scheme reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to excellence in research by supporting grant funding to support research projects that may be undertaken by individual researchers or research teams.
The objectives of the Discovery Projects scheme are to:
Applications for funding commencing in 2023 opened on 22 March 2022 and closed on 17 May 2022. Applications were submitted through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Management System (RMS). This report outlines outcomes from the selection process for that round.
These recommendations are based on advice from the ARC Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) which:
and, advice from the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) Eligibility Committee which:
This report reflects the outcomes approved by the Minister. Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report exclude withdrawn applications.
All applications that meet the eligibility criteria for the Discovery Projects 2023 applications were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:
Describe:
Describe the:
Describe the potential benefits including the:
If the project involves research pertaining to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities describe:
The ARC assessment process for Discovery Projects 2023 involved 99 College of Experts members across five discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 7,804 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.
Funding of between $30,000 and $500,000 per annum for up to 5 consecutive years may be awarded for each Discovery Projects application.
The ARC received a total of 2,589 applications for Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2023, of which one application was withdrawn.
478 Discovery Projects are approved for funding commencing in 2023, shown in Table 1. The overall success rate for Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2023 is 18.5 per cent. A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 1.
Of the unsuccessful applications in 2023, 22 were found not to meet eligibility requirements.
Table 1. Comparison of application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Discovery Projects applications from 2022 to 2023
A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Application numbers, success rates and requested and allocated funds for approved Discovery Projects 2023 applications by discipline
* BSB – Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC – Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences, HCA – Humanities and Creative Arts; MPCE – Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences; SBE – Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences
A summary of outcomes by Science and Research Priorities is shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Approved funding and success rate for Discovery Projects 2023 applications by Science and Research Priorities
Applications
approved
A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Numbers of applications and success rates for approved Discovery Projects 2023 applications by Administering Organisation
Administering Organisation
Applications Considered
Applications Approved
Success rate (%)
Funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Australian Capital Territory
155
41
26.5
$18,726,821
The Australian National University
147
40
27.2
$18,382,134
University of Canberra
8
1
12.5
$344,687
New South Wales
824
142
17.2
$64,195,777
Australian Catholic University
7
3
42.9
$1,334,265
Charles Sturt University
5
0
0.0
$0
Macquarie University
90
15
16.7
$6,327,342
Southern Cross University
The University of New England
$545,925
The University of New South Wales
266
15.4
$17,528,505
The University of Newcastle
69
10
14.5
$4,852,275
The University of Sydney
204
34
$15,525,599
University of Technology Sydney
74
18
24.3
$9,140,649
University of Wollongong
61
14
23.0
$6,264,351
Western Sydney University
35
6
17.1
$2,676,866
Northern Territory
20.0
$313,544
Charles Darwin University
Queensland
482
93
19.3
$42,945,024
Bond University
4
25.0
$250,855
Central Queensland University
$347,427
Griffith University
17
24.6
$7,735,961
James Cook University
2
14.3
$861,364
Queensland University of Technology
95
17.9
$7,055,344
The University of Queensland
262
51
19.5
$25,138,578
University of Southern Queensland
22
13.6
$1,121,336
University of the Sunshine Coast
12
8.3
$434,159
South Australia
177
29
16.4
$13,266,783
Flinders University
37
11
29.7
$4,156,961
The University of Adelaide
14.7
$7,269,318
University of South Australia
45
8.9
$1,840,504
Tasmania
23.5
$3,753,489
University of Tasmania
Victoria
779
18.2
$67,507,810
Deakin University
60
11.7
$2,507,994
Federation University Australia
La Trobe University
47
25.5
$5,047,350
Monash University
283
46
16.3
$22,581,688
RMIT University
79
17.7
$5,507,506
Swinburne University of Technology
15.0
$3,273,386
The University of Melbourne
257
57
22.2
$28,589,886
Victoria University
9
Western Australia
132
$10,684,894
Curtin University
53
11.3
$2,757,957
Edith Cowan University
Murdoch University
The University of Western Australia
72
16
$7,926,937
Total
2588
478
18.5
$221,394,142
Of the 6,490 Chief Investigators (CIs), considered in this round, 2,111 were female, 4,349 were male, one was indeterminate/intersex and 29 chose not to specify their gender. The success rate for female, male, indeterminate/intersex, and unspecified CIs is 19.56 per cent, 18.92 per cent, 0 per cent, and 27.58 per cent respectively.
Success rates of CIs by career age and gender in Discovery Projects 2023 round are presented in Figure 1. CIs who did not provide gender information (0.43 per cent) and CIs who did not specify the date of completion of their PhD or equivalent or who do not hold a PhD (0.68 per cent) are not represented in the figure below.
Figure 1. Participation and success rate of CIs in Discovery Projects 2023 by gender and career age*^
* Career age is calculated as years since PhD based on the relevant qualification as selected in the application.
^ Calculated career age does not take career interruptions into consideration.
Among 2,588 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 3,741 instances of collaboration with researchers in 105 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, 478 foreshadowed 789 instances of collaboration with researchers in 61 overseas locations (Figure 2).
Figure 2. International collaborations by location in approved Discovery Projects 2023 applications*
*The top 10 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 2 and the remaining locations are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.