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The Discovery Projects scheme provides funding for excellent fundamental research projects that can be undertaken by individual researchers or research teams.
The objectives of Discovery Projects are to:
Applications for funding commencing in 2020 opened on 10 December 2018, and closed on 27 February 2019. Applications were submitted through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Management System (RMS). This report outlines recommendations from the ARC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to the Minister.
These recommendations are based on advice from the ARC Selection Advisory Committee which:
and, advice from the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) Eligibility Committee which:
This report reflect the funding recommendations to the Minister. Unless otherwise specified, data presented in this report exclude withdrawn applications.
Assessment criteria and corresponding weightings for Discovery Projects 2020 applications are:
The ARC assessment process for Discovery Projects 2020 used 80 ARC Selection Advisory Committee members across five discipline panels and was managed in the RMS. A total of 10,005 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.
Funding of between $30,000 and $500,000 per annum for up to five years may be awarded for each Discovery Project application.
The ARC received a total of 2877 applications for Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2020, of which two applications were withdrawn. This represents a 1.6 per cent decrease from the 2924 Discovery Project applications received for funding commencing in 2019. Of the unsuccessful applications, 46 did not meet eligibility requirements.
The overall success rate for Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2020 is 23.0 per cent, with a higher percentage of allocation of requested funds compared to funding that commenced in 2019. A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 1.
Funding year
Applications considered
Applications approved
Success rate (%)
Requested funds over project life for all applications considered ($)
Requested funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Funds allocated over project life for approved applications ($)
Return rate for approved applications (%)
2019
2,921
654
22.4
$1,621,899,946
$371,198,944
$262,590,367
70.7
2020
2,875
660
23.0
$1,641,948,285
$387,282,768
$284,952,924
73.6
A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 2.
Discipline †
Funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Return Rate for approved applications (%)
BSB
700
150
21.4
$467,381,014
$102,665,794
$77,894,232
75.9
EIC
743
169
22.7
$411,621,921
$99,068,951
$71,860,383
72.5
HCA
287
70
24.4
$135,957,239
$32,194,309
$23,356,618
MPCE
639
153
23.9
$365,943,319
$93,409,337
$68,033,262
72.8
SBE
506
118
23.3
$261,044,792
$59,944,377
$43,808,429
73.1
Total
2875
† 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.
Science and Research Priorities
Applications
approved
Approved funds over project life
Advanced manufacturing
467
101
21.6
$46,950,098
Cybersecurity
117
35
29.9
$14,605,975
Energy
142
33
23.2
$14,954,157
Environmental change
349
85
$36,300,596
Food
136
31
22.8
$14,800,730
Health
305
61
20
$26,198,112
Resources
75
23
30.7
$9,153,531
Soil and water
76
9
11.8
$4,265,370
Transport
73
19
26
$7,416,654
Unspecified
1135
263
$110,307,701
Total within Science and Research Priorities
1740
397
$174,645,223
Percentage within Science and Research Priorities (%)
60.5
60.2
61.3
A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 4.
Administering Organisation
Australian Capital Territory
172
55
32
$23,615,509
The Australian National University
164
33.5
University of Canberra
8
0
$0
New South Wales
945
218
23.1
$92,322,316
Australian Catholic University
2
22.2
$986,065
Charles Sturt University
4
Macquarie University
105
21.9
$9,662,148
Southern Cross University
10
$712,487
The University of New England
18
1
5.6
$351,803
The University of New South Wales
296
72
24.3
$30,818,887
The University of Newcastle
13
18.6
$5,327,689
The University of Sydney
239
58
$25,506,240
University of Technology Sydney
99
20.2
$8,533,546
University of Wollongong
$6,860,255
Western Sydney University
37
$3,563,196
Northern Territory
25
$348,536
Charles Darwin University
Queensland
420
95
22.6
$42,830,577
Central Queensland University
6
3
50
$1,494,719
Griffith University
63
7
11.1
$3,140,073
James Cook University
33.3
$1,375,082
Queensland University of Technology
82
22
$7,717,690
The University of Queensland
246
62
25.2
$28,216,725
University of Southern Queensland
University of the Sunshine Coast
$886,288
South Australia
193
40
20.7
$16,628,229
Flinders University
46
17.4
$3,830,011
The University of Adelaide
122
27
22.1
$10,887,021
University of South Australia
5
$1,911,197
Tasmania
57
11
19.3
$4,395,063
University of Tasmania
Victoria
875
198
$87,256,071
Deakin University
14.5
$3,294,577
Federation University Australia
La Trobe University
52
17.3
$3,349,187
Monash University
311
83
26.7
$36,452,728
RMIT University
17
23.6
$7,370,629
Swinburne University of Technology
17.7
$4,624,325
The University of Melbourne
308
65
21.1
$29,817,574
Victoria University
$2,347,051
Western Australia
209
42
20.1
$17,556,623
Curtin University
$3,921,531
Edith Cowan University
$380,000
Murdoch University
$1,018,071
The University of Western Australia
114
23.7
$12,237,021
Of the 6555 Chief Investigators (CIs) in this round, 1883 were female, 4654 were male and 18 were unspecified. The success rate for female, male and unspecified CIs in this round of Discovery Projects is 25.0 per cent, 22.7 per cent and 16.7 per cent respectively. Success rates of CIs by career age and gender in the current Discovery Projects round are presented in Figure 1. CIs who did not provide gender information (0.3 per cent) and CIs who did not specify the date of completion of their PhD or who do not hold a PhD (1.1 per cent) are not represented in the figure below.
*Career age is calculated as years since PhD based on most relevant qualification.
Among 2875 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 4469 instances of collaboration with researchers in 117 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, 523 foreshadowed 1114 instances of collaboration with researchers in 74 overseas locations (Figure 2).
*The top 10 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 2 and the remaining locations are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.
Discovery International Awards (DIAs) aim to enhance opportunities for collaboration among researchers, research teams and/or research centres in Australia and overseas, and to build Australia’s international research capability. A summary of the outcomes for DIA requests is shown in Table 5.
Number of submitted applications requesting one or more DIAs
Number of applications approved with one or more DIAs
609
115
521
98