Selection Report: Discovery Projects for Funding Commencing in 2019 (as at 27 November 2018)

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Overview

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:

• support excellent basic and applied research by individuals and teams
• encourage high-quality research and research training
• enhance international collaboration in research
• 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 13 November 2017, and closed on 21 February 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 the ARC Selection Advisory Committees (SAC) 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 applicants 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 Unless otherwise specified, data presented in this report exclude withdrawn proposals.

Selection Criteria

Selection criteria and corresponding weightings for 2019 Discovery Project proposals are:

Investigator(s)	35%
Proposed Project Quality and Innovation	40%
Feasibility	10%
Benefit	15%

The ARC assessment process for 2019 used 80 SAC members across five discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 9,384 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.

Funding levels and duration

Funding of between $30,000 and $500,000 per annum for up to five years may be awarded for each Discovery Project proposal.

Summary of Outcomes

The ARC received 2,924 proposals for Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2019, of which three proposals were withdrawn. This represents a 7 per cent decrease from the 3,136 Discovery Projects proposals received for funding commencing in 2018. Of the unsuccessful proposals, 58 did not meet eligibility requirements.

The overall success rate for Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2019 is 22.4 per cent, with a 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 Discovery Project proposals from 2018 to 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 allocated over project life for approved proposals	Return rate for approved proposals (%)
2018	3,136	594	18.9	$1,657,932,048	$331,144,352	$225,661,033	68.1
2019	2,921	653	22.4	$1,621,899,946	$370,665,250	$262,180,367	70.7

Outcomes by discipline panel

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 Discovery Projects 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	738	159	21.5	$471,093,339	$100,565,916	$73,338,915	72.9
EIC	725	159	21.9	$400,394,231	$94,117,458	$64,775,263	68.8
HCA	303	75	24.8	$136,380,209	$34,210,172	$23,305,852	68.1
MPCE	624	145	23.2	$349,208,359	$85,945,204	$60,209,074	70.1
SBE	531	115	21.7	$264,823,808	$55,826,500	$40,551,263	72.6
Total	2921	653	22.4	$1,621,899,946	$370,665,250	$262,180,367	70.7

^{† 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 Discovery Projects 2019 proposals by Science and Research Priorities

Science and Research Priorities	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate (%)	Approved funds over project life
Advanced manufacturing	427	93	21.8	$39,028,078
Cybersecurity	100	24	24.0	$10,105,999
Energy	142	26	18.3	$11,055,709
Environmental change	361	84	23.3	$35,845,966
Food	125	25	20.0	$11,181,712
Health	328	63	19.2	$25,471,056
Resources	91	21	23.1	$7,965,411
Soil and water	77	20	26.0	$7,858,576
Transport	66	15	22.7	$5,962,410
Unspecified	1204	282	23.4	$107,705,450
Total	2,921	653	22.4	$262,180,367
Total within Science and Research Priorities	1,717	371	21.6	$154,474,917
Percentage within Science and Research Priorities (%)	58.8	56.8		58.9

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 Discovery Projects 2019 proposals by Administering Organisation

Administering Organisation	Proposals considered	Proposals approved	Success rate (%)	Funds over project life for approved proposals
Australian Capital Territory	207	59	28.5	$24,018,720
The Australian National University	199	56	28.1	$23,066,855
The University of Canberra	8	3	37.5	$951,865
New South Wales	997	229	23.0	$91,477,417
Australian Catholic University	17	2	11.8	$807,214
Charles Sturt University	8	0	0.0	$0
Macquarie University	117	25	21.4	$9,051,915
Southern Cross University	10	0	0.0	$0
The University of New England	16	3	18.8	$1,065,731
The University of New South Wales	317	88	27.8	$34,864,756
The University of Newcastle	84	17	20.2	$7,084,471
The University of Sydney	250	62	24.8	$26,777,612
University of Technology Sydney	85	12	14.1	$4,353,367
University of Wollongong	58	10	17.2	$4,105,030
Western Sydney University	35	10	28.6	$3,367,321
Northern Territory	10	1	10.0	$322,500
Charles Darwin University	10	1	10.0	$322,500
Queensland	447	101	22.6	$41,561,056
Bond University	6	0	0.0	$0
Central Queensland University	10	1	10.0	$626,825
Griffith University	61	12	19.7	$4,006,600
James Cook University	9	3	33.3	$1,355,000
Queensland University of Technology	85	15	17.6	$6,637,981
The University of Queensland	258	67	26.0	$27,616,903
University of Southern Queensland	8	3	37.5	$1,317,747
University of the Sunshine Coast	10	0	0.0	$0
South Australia	203	51	25.1	$19,981,880
Flinders University	52	15	28.8	$6,196,991
The University of Adelaide	120	29	24.2	$10,845,889
The University of South Australia	31	7	22.6	$2,939,000
Tasmania	58	13	22.4	$5,336,757
University of Tasmania	58	13	22.4	$5,336,757
Victoria	771	160	20.8	$63,910,203
Deakin University	48	15	31.3	$5,406,833
Federation University Australia	5	1	20.0	$330,000
La Trobe University	49	6	12.2	$2,340,700
Monash University	274	65	23.7	$26,309,266
RMIT	61	9	14.8	$3,300,000
Swinburne University	54	6	11.1	$2,458,401
The University of Melbourne	272	57	21.0	$23,462,503
Victoria University	8	1	12.5	$302,500
Western Australia	228	39	17.1	$15,571,834
Curtin University	95	13	13.7	$4,936,580
Edith Cowan University	12	1	8.3	$375,000
Murdoch University	6	0	0.0	$0
The University of Notre Dame	2	0	0.0	$0
The University of Western Australia	113	25	22.1	$10,260,254
Total	2,921	653	22.4	$262,180,367

Career age and gender

Of the 6,585 Chief Investigators (CIs) in this round, 1,885 were female CIs, 4,686 were male CIs and 14 were unspecified. The success rate for female, male and unspecified CIs in this round of Discovery Projects is 23.6 per cent, 22.0 per cent and 28.6 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 (0.2 per cent) and CIs who did not specify the date of completion of their PhD or who do not hold a PhD (1.4 per cent) are not represented in the figure below.

Figure 1. Participation and success rate of Chief Investigators (CIs) in Discovery Projects 2019 by gender and career age*

^{* Career age is calculated as years since PhD.}

International Collaboration

Among 2,921 of the proposals considered, applicants foreshadowed 4,501 instances of collaboration with researchers in 116 overseas locations. Of the proposals approved for funding, 555 foreshadowed 1,137 instances of collaboration with researchers in 69 overseas locations (Figure 2).

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

*The Top 12 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 2 and the remaining locations are grouped in the ‘other category.

• United States of America, 280
• England, 157
• Germany, 104
• China (excludes SARs and Taiwan), 79
• Canada, 56
• France, 56
• Japan, 38
• Italy, 26
• Netherlands, 25
• Denmark, 20
• Scotland, 20
• Singapore, 20
• Others, 256

Discovery International Awards

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.

Table 5.  Number of Discovery Projects 2019 proposals approved for one or more Discovery International Awards (DIAs)

Funding year	Number of submitted Proposals requesting one or more DIAs	Number of Proposals approved with one or more DIAs
2018	591	101
2019	609	115