Selection Report: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2016

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Overview

The Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme is one element of the Discovery Programme. It aims to provide more focused support for researchers and create more opportunities for early-career researchers in both teaching and research, and research-only positions. It supports research in areas of critical national importance by enabling outstanding Australian and international early-career researchers to conduct their research in Australia.

The objectives of the DECRA scheme are to:

• support and advance promising early career researchers
• promote enhanced opportunities for diverse career pathways
• focus research effort in the Strategic Research Priority areas to improve research capacity and policy outcomes
• enable research and research training in high quality and supportive environments.

Selection Process

The closing date for proposals was 25 March 2015. Proposals were submitted through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Management System (RMS).

ARC Executive Directors, assisted by relevant ARC staff, prepared funding recommendations for submission to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The recommendations were based on advice from the ARC College of Experts which:

• assigned independent assessors to review the proposals
• assessed proposals and reviewed assessments made by independent assessors
• reviewed applicants’ comments on assessors’ reports
• ranked each proposal relative to the others on the basis of the proposal, the assessors’ reports and the applicant’s responses to those assessments
• assessed and recommended budgets

and, advice from the ARC Eligibility Committee which:

• considered eligibility issues identified by ARC staff, the ARC College of Experts or independent assessors
• sought advice from institutions with respect to issues raised
• made recommendations to the CEO in respect of ineligible proposals.

This report reflects the recommendations of the ARC CEO to the Minister. Unless otherwise specified, figures presented in this report exclude withdrawn proposals.

Selection Criteria

Selection criteria and corresponding weightings for DECRA proposals are:

• Project Quality and Innovation (40%)
• DECRA Candidate (35%)
• Research Environment (15%)
• Feasibility and Benefit (10%).

The ARC assessment and subsequent reporting process for DECRA 2016 was managed in the Research Management System (RMS), and used a total of 79 ARC College of Experts members on five discipline panels. In addition, a total of 4170 independent assessor reports were submitted to the ARC for DECRA 2016.

Summary of Outcomes

DECRA projects are funded for three consecutive years on a full-time basis. In addition to the annual salary contribution of $94 512 (2014$), including 28 per cent on-costs, the ARC may provide up to $40 000 in project costs per annum.

The ARC received a total of 1234 DECRA proposals for funding commencing in 2016, of which 14 were subsequently withdrawn by the Administering Organisations. This is a decrease from the 1404 proposals received for DECRA for funding commencing in 2015. Of the unsuccessful proposals, all met the eligibility requirements.

Table 1. Comparison of DECRA proposal numbers, success rates, requested and approved funding for successful proposals from 2012 to 2016

Funding Year	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate	Total requested funds (over project life)	Requested funds (over project life) of approved proposals	Funds allocated (over project life)	Allocation as a percentage of request
2012	2159	277	12.8%	$809,625,000	$103,875,000	$103,875,000	100.0%
2013	1281	200	15.6%	$459,934,037	$72,406,078	$72,321,876	99.9%
2014	1468	200	13.6%	$554,880,909	$75,869,611	$75,789,232	99.9%
2015	1394	200	14.3%	$534,829,398	$77,458,306	$70,567,494	91.1%
2016	1220	200	16.4%	$465,496,683	$77,377,579	$70,736,647	91.4%

 

Table 2. Indicative funds for DECRA proposals approved for funding commencing in 2016

	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19	Total
Indicative Funding	$11,904,628.00	$23,725,409.00	$23,463,695.50	$11,642,914.50	$70,736,647.00

ARC Discipline Groups

Table 3. Numbers and success rates for DECRA proposals approved for funding commencing in 2016, by Discipline Group

Panel*	Proposals considered	% of proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate	Allocated funds (over project life)
BSB	252	20.7%	42	16.7%	$15,300,571
EIC	274	22.5%	45	16.4%	$15,357,033
HCA	177	14.5%	29	16.4%	$10,074,940
MPCE	283	23.2%	46	16.3%	$16,260,723
SBE	234	19.2%	38	16.2%	$13,743,380
Total	1220	100.0%	200	16.4%	$70,736,647

^{*(BSB – Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC – Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences; MPCE – Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences; SBE – Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences; HCA – Humanities and Creative Arts)}

Strategic Research Priorities

Table 4. Numbers and success rates for DECRA proposals approved for funding commencing in 2016, by Strategic Research Priority

Strategic Research Priority	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate	Allocated funds (over project life)
Lifting productivity and economic growth	356	58	16.3%	$20,270,179
Living in a changing environment	278	40	14.4%	$14,376,943
Managing our food and water assets	58	9	15.5%	$3,270,242
Promoting population health and wellbeing	219	32	14.6%	$11,338,022
Securing Australia’s place in a changing world	152	23	15.1%	$7,975,189
None selected	157	38	24.2%	$13,506,072
Total proposals	1220	200	16.4%	$70,736,647
Total priority proposals	1063	162	15.2%	$57,230,575
% within priority area	87.1%	81.0%		80.9%

Attracting and retaining outstanding researchers

Proposals were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are promising early career researchers, resident either within Australia or overseas.

Table 5. Citizenship/residency status of DECRA Candidates and approved awardees for funding commencing in 2016

Citizenship/residency status	Proposals considered	% of proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate
Foreign Nationals	399	32.7%	62	15.5%
Resident Australians	752	61.6%	128	17.0%
Returning Australians	57	4.7%	9	15.8%
Unspecified	12	1%	1	8.3%
Total	1220	100.00%	200	16.4%

Time since PhD

At the closing time of submission of proposals, 1082 of all DECRA Candidates were within 5 years of the award of their PhD and 138 were within 5 to 9 years of the award of their PhD. Of the approved DECRA, 168 are within 5 years of the award of their PhD and 32 are within 5 to 9 years of the award of their PhD.

Table 6. Years since the award of PhD (at time of submission) for DECRA for funding commencing in 2016

Years since award of PhD	No. of considered proposals	% of considered proposals	No. of approved proposals	% of approved proposals
0–1	112	9.2%	20	10.0%
1–2	149	12.2%	29	14.5%
2–3	176	14.4%	26	13.0%
3–4	267	21.9%	31	15.5%
4–5	378	31%	62	31.0%
5–6	96	7.9%	23	11.5%
6–7	20	1.6%	4	2.0%
7–8	13	1.1%	4	2.0%
8–9	9	0.7%	1	0.5%
Total	1220		200

Gender of Candidates

Table 7. Numbers and success rates by gender for DECRA for funding commencing in 2016

Panel*	Number of female candidates	Number of approved female candidates	Female success rate	Number of male candidates	Number of approved male candidates	Male success rate
BSB	93	16	17.2%	158	26	16.5%
EIC	34	7	20.6%	240	38	15.8%
HCA	92	18	19.6%	84	11	13.1%
MPCE	75	12	16.0%	205	34	16.6%
SBE	108	18	16.7%	126	20	15.9%
Total	402	71	17.7%	813	129	15.9%

^{*(BSB – Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC – Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences; MPCE – Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences; SBE – Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences; HCA – Humanities and Creative Arts)}

Please note that five proposal participants’ gender was either indeterminate/intersex or they did not provide gender information and are not included in the above table.

Administering Organisation

Table 8. Number of approved DECRA proposals and success rates for funding commencing in 2016, by Administering Organisation

Administering Organisation	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate %	Allocated funding
Australian Capital Territory	93	21	22.6	$7,568,237
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies	2	0	0.0	$0
The Australian National University	88	21	23.9	$7,568,237
University of Canberra	3	0	0.0	$0
New South Wales	376	62	16.5	$21,640,529
Australian Catholic University	8	0	0.0	$0
Charles Sturt University	2	0	0.0	$0
Macquarie University	37	5	13.5	$1,802,463
Southern Cross University	9	1	11.1	$393,434
The University of New England	6	1	16.7	$372,000
The University of New South Wales	124	19	15.3	$6,567,157
The University of Newcastle	27	4	14.8	$1,346,623
The University of Sydney	78	16	20.5	$5,531,410
University of Technology, Sydney	21	4	19.0	$1,396,500
University of Western Sydney	22	3	13.6	1,099,470
University of Wollongong	42	9	21.4	$3,131,472
Northern Territory	4	0	0.0	$0
Charles Darwin University	4	0	0.0	$0
Queensland	221	40	18.1	$14,332,970
Central Queensland University	6	2	33.3	$733,536
Griffith University	19	1	5.3	$334,000
James Cook University	9	1	11.1	$366,000
Queensland University of Technology	49	8	16.3	$2,827,345
The University of Queensland	131	27	20.6	$9,698,553
University of the Sunshine Coast	7	1	14.3	$373,536
South Australia	78	15	19.2	$5,504,012
The Flinders University of South Australia	13	1	7.7	$353,706
The University of Adelaide	55	14	25.5	$5,150,306
University of South Australia	10	0	0.0	$0
Tasmania	14	0	0.0	$0
University of Tasmania	14	0	0.0	$0
Victoria	337	49	14.5	$17,071,513
Deakin University	29	5	17.2	$1,824,269
La Trobe University	26	3	11.5	$1,031,118
Monash University	84	15	17.9	$5,287,349
RMIT University	43	7	16.3	$2,323,018
Swinburne University of Technology	15	1	6.7	$373,500
The University of Melbourne	133	17	12.8	$5,860,041
Victoria University	7	1	14.3	$372,218
Western Australia	97	13	13.4	$4,619,386
Curtin University of Technology	43	6	14.0	$2,093,839
Edith Cowan University	5	0	0.0	$0
Murdoch University	2	1	50.0	$372,000
The University of Western Australia	47	6	12.8	$2,153,547
Total	1220	200	16.4%	$70,736,647