Selection Report: Early Career Industry Fellowships 2024

Overview

The primary goal of the Industry Fellowships Program is to create a pathway to support academic researchers in establishing careers in industry, and industry-based researchers to work in university settings, with the aim of increased two-way mobility and skill-building in research collaboration, translation and commercialisation. The Schemes will also drive research collaboration, translation and commercialisation outcomes across a range of industry settings.

The objectives of the Early Career Industry Fellowship scheme are to:

• develop the industry collaboration skills of Early Career researchers; and
• support early career researchers to achieve translatable and/or commercialisable outcomes and translation skills.

Selection process

Applications for funding commencing in 2024 opened on 6 September 2023 and closed on 1 November 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 recommendations are based on advice from the ARC Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) which:

• assessed applications and reviewed assessments made by independent assessors;
• ranked each application relative to the others on the basis of the application, and the independent assessors’ reports; and
• assessed and recommended budgets.

Advice was also provided from the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) Eligibility Committee which:

• considered eligibility issues identified by ARC staff, the members of the ARC SAC or independent assessors,
• where required, sought advice from the ARC’s Medical Research Advisory Group, and
• 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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report excludes withdrawn applications.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 meet the eligibility criteria for the Early Career Industry Fellowship 2024 were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:

• Impact (25%)

  • The significance of the industry challenge or opportunity being addressed in the research project and its relevance to industry partners;
  • The potential for short-, medium- or long-term outcomes, translation, adoption and/or commercialisation beyond the Fellowship completion; and
  • The appropriateness, completeness and effectiveness of proposed pathways to impact, and related activities to support research translation, adoption and/or commercialisation, including IP management.

• Commitment and Alignment (25%)

  • Demonstration of the mutual benefit to the Fellow and Key Industry Partner including potential to lead to longer-term collaboration;
  • Strength of engagement between the Fellow and Key Industry Partner, including previous projects (where applicable), and interactions to date on the proposed project; and
  • The extent to which all parties demonstrate a commitment to the success of the project and to expanding a collaborative relationship.

• Candidate Capability (25%)

  • The extent to which the candidate’s skills and experience, relative to opportunity, are aligned to the project;
  • The candidate’s demonstrated capability to undertake research projects in collaboration with industry and/or other research end-user groups; and
  • The appropriateness and effectiveness of the proposed career development plans for the Fellow, including to enhance their research translation and/or commercialisation skills.

• Research Quality and Innovation (25%)

  • The clarity and novelty of the aim and conceptual framework and the innovativeness of the research method(s) to the industry challenge or opportunity;
  • The novelty of the research in the context of previous research in the area;
  • The clear presence of the Key Industry Partner in the design, method and delivery of the research; and
  • The feasibility of the research in terms of the project’s design, participants, requested duration, required resources/facilities, risk management and appropriateness of the budget.

If the project involves Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander research, additional criteria include:

• The project’s level of collaboration, engagement, relationship building and benefit sharing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and First Nations Organisations and Communities;
• The project’s strategy and mechanisms for Indigenous research capacity building within the project;
• The project’s adherence to the Australian Indigenous Data Sovereignty Principles; and
• The project’s understanding of, and proposed strategies to adhere to, the AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research and NHMRC’s guidelines on Ethical conduct in research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and communities.

Assessment process

The ARC assessment process for the Early Career Industry Fellowships 2024 involved 31 Selection Advisory Committee members comprising of members from the ARC College of Experts and experts from industry across 3 discipline panels. The process was managed in RMS. In addition, independent assessors submitted a total of 639 reports to the ARC to support the assessment process.

Funding levels and duration

Early Career Industry Fellowships projects are funded for 1 to 3 years on a full-time basis, subject to sufficient scheme funding, the provisions of the Australian Research Council Act 2001 (the ARC Act) and continued satisfactory progress of the Early Career Industry Fellowships project.

It is a requirement of the Grant Guidelines for the Industry Fellowship Program (Variation No. 1, 2022 edition) for the Administering Organisation to employ an Early Career Industry Fellow at a minimum of Academic Level A (or equivalent) for the entire project activity period. The annual salary provided by the ARC of $112,897 (2023$) includes 30 per cent on-costs.

In addition to the Early Career Industry Fellowship salary and salary-related (on-cost) support, the ARC will provide Early Career Industry Fellows with project funding not exceeding $150,000 over the duration of the grant.

Summary of outcomes

The ARC received a total of 185 applications for Early Career Industry Fellowships for funding commencing in 2024.

50 Early Career Industry Fellows are approved for funding commencing in 2024, shown in Table 1. The overall success rate for Early Career Industry Fellowships for funding commencing in 2024 is 27.0%. The total indicative funding approved is $22.5 million over 3 financial years (Tables 2 and 3). A break-down of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 2.

Of the unsuccessful applications in 2024, 4 were found not to meet eligibility requirements.

Table 1.  Early Career Industry Fellows approved for funding commencing in 2024.

Table 2.    Application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Early Career Industry Fellowships applications from 2023 to 2024.

Table 3.    Indicative funds for approved Early Career Industry Fellowships 2024 applications.

Outcomes by discipline

A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 4.

Table 4.    Application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Early Career Industry Fellowships 2024 applications.

*BSB = Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC = Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences; HSE = Humanities and Creative Arts, Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences; MPCE = Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences.

Leverage of ARC Funding

In addition to the $22.5 million of ARC indicative funding approved, the 50 projects will also receive cash and in-kind contributions from their administering organisations and their Industry Partners. These participating organisations will contribute a total of $35.1 million.  

Outcomes by Administering Organisation

The Administering Organisations of the 50 applications approved for funding are:

Table 5.    Partner Organisation contributions for approved Early Career Industry Fellowships applications by Administering Organisation.

Industry Partners

Australian companies, government entities and non-profit organisations will participate in the approved projects as Key Industry and Other Industry Partners. International organisations will also contribute as Other Industry Partners.

In total, there are 81 unique Key Industry Partners or Other Industry Partners involved with the 50 projects approved for funding, giving an average of 1.70 Industry Partners involved in each project.

Together, they have pledged a total (cash and in-kind) of $18.3 million. This represents 81 cents from Industry Partners for every dollar funded by the ARC.

Table 6.    Partner Organisation contributions by sector for approved Early Career Industry Fellowships 2024 applications.

Note: All percentages are shown using rounded figures, and as such may not sum to 100%.

Gender

The genders of the applicants and awardees are:

Table 7.    Gender of Early Career Industry Fellowship 2024 candidates and approved awardees.

Note: All percentages are shown using rounded figures, and as such may not sum to 100%.

Attracting and retaining outstanding researchers

Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are world-class researchers of international repute, residing either within Australia or overseas (Table 8).

Table 8.    Citizenship/residency status of Early Career Industry Fellowships 2024 candidates and approved Awardees.

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

International collaboration

Among 185 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 151 instances of collaboration with researchers in 50 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, applicants foreshadowed 42 instances of collaboration with researchers in 17 overseas locations (Figure 2).

Figure 1.         International collaborations by location in approved Early Career Industry Fellowships 2024 applications

*The top 7 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 1 and the remaining are grouped in the 'Other' category.