Selection Report: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for Funding Commencing in 2019

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Overview

The Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme provides funding 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 excellent basic and applied research by early career researchers
• advance promising early career researchers and promote enhanced opportunities for diverse career pathways
• enable research and research training in high quality and supportive environments
• expand Australia’s knowledge base and research capability
• enhance the scale and focus of research in the Science and Research Priorities.

Selection Process

Proposals for funding commencing in 2019 opened on 8 January 2018, and closed on 14 March 2018. Proposals were submitted through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Management System (RMS).

The ARC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) provided recommendations to the Minister based on advice from ARC Selection Advisory Committees (SACs) which:

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

and advice from the NCGP Eligibility Committee which:

• considered eligibility issues identified by ARC staff, the ARC College of Experts or independent assessors
• where required, sought advice from the ARC’s Medical Research Advisory Group
• made recommendations to the CEO in respect of ineligible proposals.

This report reflects the outcomes approved by the Minister. Unless otherwise specified, data presented in this report excludes withdrawn proposals.

Selection Criteria

Selection criteria and corresponding weightings for DECRA 2019 proposals are:

• Proposed Project Quality and Innovation (35%)
• DECRA Candidate (40%)
• Feasibility (10%)
• Benefit and Collaboration (15%)

The ARC assessment process for DECRA 2019 used 80 SAC members across five discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 3,859 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.

Funding levels and duration

DECRA recipients are funded for three consecutive years on a full-time basis. In addition to the annual salary contribution of $100,858 (2017$), including 30 per cent on-costs, the ARC may provide up to $40,000 in project costs per annum.

Summary of Outcomes

The ARC received a total of 1165 DECRA proposals for funding commencing in 2019, of which three proposals were withdrawn. This represents a four per cent decrease from the 1212 DECRA proposals received for funding commencing in 2018. Of the unsuccessful proposals, ten did not meet eligibility requirements.

The overall success rate for DECRA for funding commencing in 2019 is 17.2 per cent, with a slightly higher percentage of allocation of requested funds compared to funding that commenced in 2018. A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Comparison of proposal numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved DECRA proposals in 2018 and 2019.

Funding year	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate (%)	Requested funds over project life for all proposals considered	Requested funds over project life for approved proposals	Funds over project life for approved proposals	Return rate for approved proposals (%)
2018	1212	197	16.3	$481,296,036	$79,023,114	$70,940,411	89.8
2019	1162	200	17.2	$464,976,543	$80,100,931	$76,912,659	96.0

Outcomes by discipline panels

A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Proposal numbers, success rates and requested and allocated funds for approved DECRA 2019 proposals by discipline panel.

Panel †	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate (%)	Requested funds over project life for all proposals considered	Requested funds over project life for approved proposals	Funds over project life for approved proposals	Return rate for approved proposals
BSB	228	35	15.4	$93,288,569	$14,287,673	$14,060,491	98.4%
EIC	290	50	17.2	$115,688,087	$20,080,335	$19,462,228	96.9%
HCA	153	26	17.0	$60,360,469	$10,283,017	$10,054,488	97.8%
MPCE	247	46	18.6	$97,656,995	$18,212,083	$17,180,461	94.3%
SBE	244	43	17.6	$97,982,423	$17,237,823	$16,154,991	93.7%
Total	1162	200	17.2	$464,976,543	$80,100,931	$76,912,659	96.0%

^{† 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.}

Outcomes by Science and Research Priorities

A summary of outcomes by Science and Research Priorities is shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Approved funding and success rate for DECRA 2019 proposals by Science and Research Priorities.

Science and Research Priorities	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate (%)	Approved funds over project life
Advanced manufacturing	165	34	20.6	$13,293,623
Cybersecurity	41	6	14.6	$2,252,402
Energy	72	11	15.3	$4,381,552
Environmental change	141	22	15.6	$8,393,152
Food	36	5	13.9	$1,969,717
Health	144	17	11.8	$6,482,140
Resources	38	5	13.2	$1,900,814
Soil and water	29	2	6.9	$777,202
Transport	36	7	19.4	$2,658,886
Unspecified	460	91	19.8	$34,803,171
Total	1162	200	17.2	$76,912,659
Total within Science and Research Priorities	702	109	15.5	$42,109,488
Percentage within Science and Research Priorities (%)	60.4	54.5		54.7

Outcomes by Administering Organisation

A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Numbers of proposals and success rates for approved DECRA 2019 proposals by Administering Organisation.

Administering Organisation	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate (%)	Funds over project life for approved proposals
Australian Capital Territory	103	22	21.4	$8,471,330
The Australian National University	98	22	22.4	$8,471,330
University of Canberra	5	0	0	$0
New South Wales	347	62	17.9	$23,823,357
Australian Catholic University	6	1	16.7	$379,000
Macquarie University	43	12	27.9	$4,591,206
Southern Cross University	5	0	0	$0
The University of New England	9	1	11.1	$370,000
The University of New South Wales	93	19	20.4	$7,330,098
The University of Newcastle	33	2	6.1	$750,338
The University of Sydney	87	15	17.2	$5,718,846
University of Technology Sydney	30	6	20.0	$2,427,258
University of Wollongong	32	5	15.6	$1,836,174
Western Sydney University	9	1	11.1	$420,437
Northern Territory	3	0	0	$0
Charles Darwin University	3	0	0	$0
Queensland	206	35	17.0	$13,490,598
Bond University	1	0	0	$0
Central Queensland University	2	0	0	$0
Griffith University	20	3	15.0	$1,184,667
James Cook University	10	1	10.0	$370,000
Queensland University of Technology	22	4	18.2	$1,517,016
The University of Queensland	145	25	17.2	$9,632,341
University of Southern Queensland	2	1	50.0	$407,000
University of the Sunshine Coast	4	1	25.0	$379,574
South Australia	75	5	6.7	$1,990,863
Flinders University	10	1	10.0	$387,863
The University of Adelaide	43	4	9.3	$1,603,000
University of South Australia	22	0	0	$0
Tasmania	29	2	6.9	$770,478
University of Tasmania	29	2	6.9	$770,478
Victoria	329	62	18.8	$23,868,966
Deakin University	30	8	26.7	$3,015,321
Federation University Australia	3	0	0	$0
La Trobe University	22	4	18.2	$1,549,688
Monash University	107	22	20.6	$8,510,994
RMIT University	23	5	21.7	$1,968,372
Swinburne University of Technology	23	1	4.3	$408,000
The University of Melbourne	118	22	18.6	$8,416,591
Victoria University	3	0	0	$0
Western Australia	70	12	17.1	$4,497,067
Curtin University	21	3	14.3	$1,148,632
Edith Cowan University	7	0	0	$0
Murdoch University	3	1	33.3	$372,014
The University of Notre Dame Australia	1	0	0	$0
The University of Western Australia.	38	8	21.1	$2,976,421
Total	1162	200	17.2	$76,912,659

Career age and gender

Of the 1162 DECRA candidates in this round, 469 were female, 691 were male and two were unspecified. The success rate for female, male and unspecified DECRA candidates in this round were 19.2 per cent, 15.9 per cent and 0 per cent, respectively.

At the closing time of submission of proposals, of the 1162 candidates, 1001 were within five years of the award of their PhD and 161 candidates were beyond five years of the award of their PhD. To be eligible to apply for DECRA, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) from their Administering Organisation certified the latter group of researchers experienced significant career interruptions.

Of the approved DECRA recipients, 170 candidates were within five years of the award of their PhD and 30 candidates were beyond five years of the award of their PhD.

Success rates of DECRA candidates by career age and gender in the current DECRA round are presented in Figure 1. DECRA candidates who did not provide gender information are not represented in the figure.

Figure 1. Participation and success rate of DECRA 2019 candidates by gender and career age*

^{* Career age is calculated as years since PhD based on the relevant qualification.}

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.

A summary of outcomes by citizenship/residency status is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Citizenship/residency status of DECRA 2019 Candidates and approved recipients.

Citizenship/residency status	Number of proposals considered	Percentage of proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate (%)
Foreign Nationals	374	32.2	63	16.8
Resident Australians	745	64.1	131	17.6
Returning Australians	43	3.7	6	14.0
Total	1162		200

International Collaboration

Among 941 of the 1162 proposals considered, applicants foreshadowed 2124 instances of collaboration with researchers in 97 overseas locations. Of the proposals approved for funding, 175 foreshadowed 471 instances of collaboration with researchers in 58 overseas locations (Figure 2).

Figure 2.  International collaborations by location in approved DECRA 2019 proposals*

*The top 11 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 2 and the remaining locations are grouped in the ‘other’ category

• United States of America, 105
• England, 61
• China (excludes SARs and Taiwan), 37
• Germany, 32
• France, 23
• Canada, 21
• New Zealand, 19
• Belgium, 12
• Singapore, 12
• Spain, 10
• Sweden, 10
• Others, 129