[TOC]
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 2022 opened on 11 November 2020 and closed on 24 February 2021. Applications were submitted through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Management System (RMS). This report outlines recommendations 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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report exclude withdrawn applications.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 2022 applications were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:
Investigator(s)/Capability (35%)
Describe:
Project quality and innovation (40%)
Describe the:
Benefit (15%)
Describe the potential benefits including the:
Feasibility (10%)
If the project involves Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander research describe:
The ARC assessment process for Discovery Projects 2022 involved 80 College of Experts members across five discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 9,402 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.
Funding of between $30,000 and $500,000 per annum for up to five years may be awarded for each Discovery Project application.
The ARC received a total of 3096 applications for Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2022, of which one application was withdrawn.
The overall success rate for Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2022 is 19.0 per cent, with 587 Discovery Projects approved for funding. A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 1.
Of the unsuccessful applications in 2022, 51 were found not to meet eligibility requirements and 6 were recommended to, but not funded by the Minister.
Table 1. Comparison of application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Discovery Projects applications from 2021 to 2022*
Funding year
Applications considered
Applications approved
Success rate (%)
Requested funds over project life for all applications considered ($)
Requested funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Funds allocated over project life for approved applications ($)
Return rate for approved applications (%)
2021
3019
603
20.0
$1,760,327,397
$371,657,208
$260,034,079
70.0
2022
3095
587
19.0
$1,818,835,491
$362,221,320
$258,691,272
71.4
*May include indicative funding amounts
A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Application numbers, success rates and requested and allocated funds for approved Discovery Projects 2022 by discipline
Discipline *
Funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Return Rate for approved applications (%)
BSB
795
149
18.7
$557,360,733
$105,607,626
$77,223,571
73.1
EIC
788
18.9
$447,266,635
$91,619,693
$65,043,051
71.0
HCA
289
54
$137,025,052
$31,114,038
$21,939,205
70.5
MPCE
647
126
19.5
$382,803,334
$78,096,085
$54,628,894
SBE
576
109
$294,379,737
$55,783,878
$39,856,551
Total
*BSB – Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC – Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences, HCA – Humanities and Creative Arts; MPCE – Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences; SBE – Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences
A summary of outcomes by Science and Research Priorities is shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Approved funding and success rate for Discovery Projects 2022 applications by Science and Research Priorities
Science and Research Priorities
Applications
approved
Approved funds over project life ($)
Advanced manufacturing
496
88
17.7
$39,608,676
Cybersecurity
131
25
19.1
$10,197,926
Energy
162
32
19.8
$14,009,988
Environmental change
373
86
23.1
$38,025,019
Food
139
18
12.9
$8,849,441
Health
331
37
11.2
$17,049,878
Resources
68
16
23.5
$7,034,723
Soil and water
96
26.0
$11,081,279
Transport
87
20
23.0
$9,001,551
Unspecified
1212
240
$103,832,791
Total within Science and Research Priorities
1883
347
18.4
$154,858,481
Percentage within Science and Research Priorities (%)
60.8
59.1
59.9
A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Numbers of applications and success rates for approved Discovery Projects 2022 applications by Administering Organisation
Administering Organisation
Applications Considered
Applications Approved
Australian Capital Territory
165
31
18.8
$15,301,972
The Australian National University
154
29
$13,759,447
University of Canberra
11
2
18.2
$1,542,525
New South Wales
1003
207
20.6
$89,126,086
Australian Catholic University
14
14.3
$936,715
Charles Sturt University
6
0
0.0
$0
Macquarie University
103
17
16.5
$7,410,232
Southern Cross University
3
27.3
$1,261,118
The University of New England
$784,124
The University of New South Wales
297
65
21.9
$27,474,475
The University of Newcastle
13
14.8
$5,166,330
The University of Sydney
270
67
24.8
$30,052,390
University of Technology Sydney
$7,407,671
University of Wollongong
8
12.3
$3,381,735
Western Sydney University
42
12
28.6
$5,251,296
Northern Territory
10
$687,381
Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
1
Charles Darwin University
9
22.2
Queensland
530
19.4
$44,313,411
Bond University
Central Queensland University
4
Griffith University
$6,963,716
James Cook University
11.1
$761,000
Queensland University of Technology
19
$7,977,670
The University of Queensland
294
61
20.7
$27,229,842
University of Southern Queensland
15
26.7
$1,381,183
University of the Sunshine Coast
7
South Australia
241
39
16.2
$18,758,328
Flinders University
14.9
$5,491,549
The University of Adelaide
135
22
16.3
$10,189,703
Torrens University Australia
University of South Australia
38
$3,077,076
Tasmania
47
29.8
$5,536,642
University of Tasmania
Victoria
934
163
17.5
$72,135,170
Deakin University
17.6
$4,997,495
Federation University Australia
5
La Trobe University
59
15.3
$3,488,504
Monash University
341
$29,736,366
RMIT University
$6,472,032
Swinburne University of Technology
52
17.3
$4,479,000
The University of Melbourne
316
50
15.8
$22,496,773
Victoria University
$465,000
Western Australia
28
$12,832,282
Curtin University
55
16.4
$3,470,825
Edith Cowan University
$447,500
Murdoch University
$495,000
The University of Notre Dame Australia
The University of Western Australia.
95
17.9
$8,418,957
Of the 7392 Chief Investigators (CIs) named in applications in this round, 2297 were female, 5054 were male, two were indeterminate/intersex and 39 chose not to specify their gender. The success rate for female, male, indeterminate/intersex and unspecified CIs is 18.8 per cent, 19.6 per cent, 100 and 20.5 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 (0.5 per cent) and CIs who did not specify the date of completion of their PhD or who do not hold a PhD (0.6 per cent) are not represented in the figure below.
Figure 1. Participation and success rate of Chief Investigators in Discovery Projects 2022 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 2,247 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 4473 instances of collaboration with researchers in 107 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, 461 foreshadowed 978 instances of collaboration with researchers in 68 overseas locations (Figure 2).
Figure 2. International collaborations by location in approved Discovery Projects 2022 applications*
*The top 10 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 2 and the remaining locations are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.