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The Future Fellowships scheme reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to excellence in research by supporting excellent mid-career researchers to undertake high quality research in areas of national and international benefit.
The objectives of the Future Fellowships scheme are to:
Applications for funding commencing in 2021 opened on 14 October 2020 and closed on 9 December 2020. Applications were submitted through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Management System (RMS). This report outlines outcomes from the ARC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to the Minister.
These outcomes 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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report exclude withdrawn applications.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 Future Fellowships 2021 applications were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:
Investigator/Capability (50%)
Describe the quality of the candidate as per the relevant section in Table 1.
Table 1. Future Fellowship candidate.
Project quality and innovation (25%)
Describe the:
Benefit (15%)
Describe the potential benefits including the:
Feasibility and strategic alignment (10%)
If the project involves Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research:
The ARC assessment process for Future Fellowships 2021 involved 54 College of Experts members across four discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 1989 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.
Future Fellowships are funded for four consecutive years on a full-time basis. The annual salary contribution may be awarded at one of three salary levels, either $160,705, $194,540 or $228,370, (2020$) including 30 per cent on-costs. In addition, the ARC may provide up to $60,000 in project costs per annum.
The ARC received a total of 677 applications for Future Fellowships for funding commencing in 2021, of which 2 applications were withdrawn.
One hundred Future Fellows are approved for funding commencing in 2021, shown in Table 2. The overall success rate for Future Fellowships for funding commencing in 2021 is 14.8%.
Of the unsuccessful applications in 2021, 27 were found not to meet eligibility requirements.
A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 2 and the overall success rate by salary level is shown in Table 3.
Table 2. Comparison of application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships applications from 2020 to 2021
Funding year
Applications considered
Applications approved
Success rate (%)
Requested funds over project life for all applications considered ($)
Requested funds over project life approved applications ($)
Funds allocated over project life approved applications ($)
Return rate for approved applications (%)
2020
689
100
14.5
$669,985,169
$97,817,158
$90,512,393
92.5
2021
675
14.8
$676,822,277
$100,291,555
$93,020,678
92.8
Table 3. Application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships applications 2021
Salary Level
Level 1
182
27
$154,851,531
$22,588,816
$20,948,975
92.7
Level 2
243
35
14.4
$240,472,450
$34,938,325
$32,318,504
Level 3
250
38
15.2
$281,498,296
$42,764,414
$39,753,199
93.0
Total
A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Number of applications, success rates and requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships 2021 applications by discipline
Discipline*
Requested funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Return Rate for approved applications (%)
BSB
144
22
15.3
$140,847,938
$21,679,872
$20,039,700
92.4
EIC
154
21
13.6
$153,834,100
$21,075,389
$19,625,376
93.1
HSE
229
34
$240,706,393
$35,728,227
$33,168,395
MPCE
148
23
15.5
$141,433,846
$21,808,067
$20,187,207
92.6
*BSB - Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC – Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences; HSE – Humanities and Creative Arts, Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences; MPCE – Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
A summary of outcomes by Science and Research Priorities is shown in Table 5.
Table 5. Approved funding and success rates for Future Fellowships 2021 applications by Science and Research Priorities
Science and Research Priorities
Approved funds over project life ($)
Advanced Manufacturing
101
14
13.9
$12,513,365
Cybersecurity
4
$3,952,143
Energy
42
5
11.9
$4,273,917
Environmental Change
99
15
$14,110,612
Food
32
7
21.9
$6,502,450
Health
90
9
10.0
$8,907,418
Resources
16
6
37.5
$5,692,718
Soil and Water
20
20.0
$3,310,219
Transport
11
36.4
$4,055,318
None Selected
237
13.5
$29,702,518
Total within Science and Research Priorities
438
68
$63,318,160
Percentage within Science and Research Priorities (%)
64.9
68.0
68.1
A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 6.
Table 6. Number of applications and success rates for approved Future Fellowships 2021 applications by Administering Organisation
Australian Capital Territory
$6,786,943
The Australian National University
31
22.6
University of Canberra
1
0
$0
New South Wales
225
29
12.9
$27,290,686
Australian Catholic University
Macquarie University
30.0
$5,357,710
Southern Cross University
2
The University of New England
100.0
$900,000
The University of New South Wales
71
10
14.1
$9,783,083
The University of Newcastle
The University of Sydney
69
13.0
$8,582,700
University of Technology Sydney
4.3
$840,905
University of Wollongong
9.1
$802,288
Western Sydney University
14.3
$1,024,000
Northern Territory
Charles Darwin University
Queensland
128
15.6
$18,514,779
Central Queensland University
$1,099,480
Griffith University
23.8
$4,926,499
James Cook University
3
Queensland University of Technology
39
17.9
$6,556,000
The University of Queensland
57
12.3
$5,932,800
University of Southern Queensland
University of the Sunshine Coast
South Australia
40
17.5
$6,190,641
Flinders University
22.2
$1,667,300
The University of Adelaide
25
$4,523,341
University of South Australia
Tasmania
13
15.4
$2,008,498
University of Tasmania
Victoria
194
$24,603,443
Deakin University
19
10.5
$1,828,866
La Trobe University
13.3
$1,822,573
Monash University
49
10.2
$4,643,078
RMIT University
9.5
$1,745,146
Swinburne University of Technology
17.4
$4,266,308
The University of Melbourne
67
12
$10,297,472
Western Australia
8
19.0
$7,625,688
Curtin University
27.3
$5,712,998
Edith Cowan University
The University of Western Australia
$1,912,690
Of the 675 Future Fellowship candidates in this round, 257 were female, 411 were male and 7 chose not to specify gender. The success rate for female, male and unspecified candidates in this round is 16.3 per cent, 13.9 per cent and 14.3 per cent respectively.
Success rates of Future Fellowship candidates by career age and gender in the current Future Fellowship round are presented in Figure 1. Candidates who did not provide gender information (1.0 per cent) are not represented in the figure below.
At the closing time of submission of applications, of the 675 candidates, 600 were between 5 and 15 years of the award of their PhD and 73 were beyond 15 years of the award of their PhD. To be eligible to apply for Future Fellowships, the latter group of researchers had their significant career interruptions certified by their Administering Organisation.
Of the approved Future Fellows, 91 candidates were between 5 and 15 years of the award of their PhD and 9 were beyond 15 years of the award of their PhD.
Figure 1. Participation and success rate of Future Fellowships 2021 candidate by gender and career age*
Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are outstanding mid-career researchers of international repute, resident either within Australia or overseas (Table 7).
Table 7. Citizenship/residency status of Future Fellowships 2021 candidates and approved Awardees
Citizenship/residency status
% of Applications considered
Foreign Nationals
60
8.9
8.3
Resident Australians
590
87.4
89
15.1
Returning Australians
3.7
24.0
Note: All totals and percentages are shown using rounded figures, and as such may not sum.
Among 675 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 1888 instances of collaboration with researchers in 99 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, 97 foreshadowed 348 instances of collaboration with researchers in 60 overseas locations (Figure 2).
Figure 2. International collaborations by location in approved Future Fellowships 2021 applications*
*The top 9 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 2 and the remaining are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.