Selection Report: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for funding commencing in 2025

Overview

The Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme provides focused research support for early career researchers in both teaching and research, and research-only positions.

The objectives of the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award scheme are to:

• support outstanding early-career researchers with demonstrated capacity for high-quality research and emerging capability for leadership and supervision;
• foster collaboration, with national or international researchers;
• support excellent and innovative research that addresses a significant problem or gap in knowledge and represents value for money;
• create new or advanced knowledge resulting from the outcomes of the research with economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia; and
• advance promising early career researchers and promote enhanced opportunities for diverse career pathways in high-quality and supportive environments.

Selection process

Applications for funding commencing in 2025 opened on 12 October 2023 and closed on 7 December 2023. 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 outcomes are based on advice from the ARC Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) which: 

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

and, advice from the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) Eligibility Committee which:

• considered eligibility issues identified by ARC staff, the members of 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 applications.

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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report excludes withdrawn applications.

Assessment criteria

All applications that met the eligibility criteria for the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2025 were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:

1. Investigator/Capability (35%)

Describe the:

• Research Opportunity and Performance Evidence (ROPE) including record of high-quality research outputs appropriate to the discipline/s.
• capability of candidate to build collaborations both within Australia and internationally.

2. Project quality and innovation (35%)

Describe the:

• contribution to an important gap in knowledge or significant problem;
• innovation of the research in the context of recent international advances in research in this area);
• clarity of the major research questions;
• cohesiveness of the project design and implementation plan (including the appropriateness of the aim, conceptual framework, method, data and/or analyses); and
• extent to which the research has the potential to enhance international collaboration.

If the project involves research pertaining to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities describe:

• the strategies for enabling collaboration with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities (for example, dialogue/collaboration with an Indigenous cultural mentor);
• any existing or developing, supportive and high-quality relationships with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities; and
• any personal affiliations with local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities that can facilitate the proposed research.

3. Benefit (15%)

Describe the potential benefits including the:

• new or advanced knowledge resulting from outcomes of the research;
• economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia and international communities; and
• potential contribution to capacity in the Australian Government priority areas.

4. Feasibility (15%)

Describe the:

• cost effectiveness of the research and its value for money;
• feasibility of the research (including contribution of the project’s design and participants and resources to the timely completion of the project);
• supportive environment for the DECRA candidate and their project including resources and development opportunities the organisation will provide for the candidate; and
• availability of the necessary facilities to complete the project.

Assessment process

The ARC assessment process for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2025 involved 69 Selection Advisory Committee members across five discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 2,273 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.

Funding levels and duration

Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards are funded for three consecutive years on a full-time basis. The annual salary contribution is fixed at $112,897 (2023$) including 30 per cent on-costs. In addition, the ARC may provide up to $50,000 in project costs per annum.

Summary of outcomes

The ARC received a total of 1124 applications for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for funding commencing in 2025, of which four applications were withdrawn.

Two hundred Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards are approved for funding commencing in 2025, shown in Table 1. The overall success rate for Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards for funding commencing in 2025 is 17.9 per cent. A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 1.

Of the unsuccessful applications in 2025, five were found not to meet eligibility requirements.

Table 1. Comparison of application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Discovery Early Career Researcher Award applications from 2024 to 2025.

Outcomes by discipline

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 Early Career Researcher Award 2025 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 

Outcomes by Administering Organisation

A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Number of applications and success rates for approved Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2025 applications by Administering Organisation

Career age and gender

Of the 1120 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award candidates in this round, 443 were female, 659 were male, and 18 chose not to specify their gender. The success rate for female, male, and unspecified candidates in this round is 18.5 per cent, 17.5 per cent and 16.7 per cent respectively. 

Success rates of Discovery Early Career Researcher Award candidates by career age and gender in the current Discovery Early Career Researcher Award round are presented in Figure 1. 

At the closing time of submission of applications, of the 1120 candidates, 841 were within five years of the award of their PhD and 279 were beyond 5 years of the award of their PhD. One applicant did not hold a PhD but did hold an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) equivalent qualification. This applicant is represented in the 0-1 Year category in Figure 1. Of the approved Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards, 154 candidates were within five years of the award of their PhD and 46 were beyond five years of the award of their PhD. To be eligible to apply for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, the latter group of researchers had their significant career interruptions certified by their Administering Organisation.

Figure 1. Participation and success rate of candidates in Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2025 by gender and career age*^

* Career age is calculated as years since PhD based on the earliest qualification held by the participant.
^ Calculated career age does not take career interruptions into consideration.

Gender by Panel

Table 4. Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2025: Gender by Discipline Panel - submission and award numbers, and success rates

#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

Figure 2. Participation and success rate of Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2025 candidates by gender and panel#

#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

Attracting and retaining outstanding researchers

Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are promising early career researchers, resident either within Australia or overseas (Table 5).

Table 5. Citizenship/residency status of Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2025 candidates and approved Awardees

Note: All totals and percentages are shown using rounded figures, and as such may not sum.

International collaboration

Among 1120 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 2,191 instances of collaboration with researchers in 106 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, applicants foreshadowed 495 instances of collaboration with researchers in 61 overseas locations (Figure 3). 

Figure 3. International collaborations by location in approved Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards 2025 applications*

*The top 11 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 3 and the remaining are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.