Selection Report: Future Fellowships for funding commencing in 2024.

Overview

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: 

• support outstanding mid-career researchers, with demonstrated capacity for high-quality research, leadership, research training and mentoring;
• support excellent basic and applied research by outstanding mid-career researchers to be recruited and retained by universities in continuing academic positions;
• foster national and international research collaboration;
• support excellent and innovative research that addresses a significant problem or gap in knowledge and represents value for money;
• create new or advanced knowledge resulting from the outcomes of the research with economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia, and enhances the scale and focus of research in Australian Government priority areas.

Selection process

Applications for funding commencing in 2024 opened on 5 October 2023 and closed on 23 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: 

• assigned independent assessors to review the applications
• assessed applications and reviewed assessments made by independent assessors
• reviewed candidates’ comments on assessors’ reports
• ranked each application relative to the others on the basis of the application, the assessors’ reports and candidates’ responses to those assessments
• assessed and recommended budgets; 

and, advice from the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) Eligibility Committee which:

• considered eligibility issues identified by ARC staff, the members of 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 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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report excludes withdrawn applications.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 Future Fellowships 2024 applications were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:

1. Investigator/Capability (50%)

Describe the quality of the candidate as per the relevant section in Table 1.

Table 1: Future Fellowship candidate.

2. Project quality and innovation (25%)

Describe the:

• contribution to an important gap in knowledge or significant problem;
• innovation of the research in the context of recent international advances in research in this area);
• clarity of the major research questions;
• cohesiveness of the project design and implementation plan (including the appropriateness of the aim, conceptual framework, method, data and/or analyses); and
• extent to which the research has the potential to enhance international collaboration.

If the project involves research pertaining to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities describe:

• the strategies for enabling collaboration with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities (for example, dialogue/collaboration with an Indigenous cultural mentor);
• any existing or developing, supportive and high-quality relationships with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities; and
• any personal affiliations with local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities that can facilitate the proposed research.
   

3. Benefit (15%)

Describe the potential benefits including the:

• new or advanced knowledge resulting from outcomes of the research;
• economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia and international communities; and
• potential contribution to capacity in the Australian Government priority areas.
   

4. Feasibility and strategic alignment (10%)

Describe the:

• cost effectiveness of the research and its value for money;
• extent to which the Future Fellowship candidate aligns with and/or complements the core or developing research strengths and staffing profile of Your organisation;
• availability of the necessary facilities to conduct the research;
• resources You will provide to support the Future Fellowship candidate during her/his Future Fellowship; and
• capacity within Your organisation to transition the candidate at the end of the Future Fellowship to a continuing position.

Assessment process

The ARC assessment process for Future Fellowships 2024 involved 51 Selection Advisory Committee members across four discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 1,486 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.

Funding levels and duration

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 $170,848, $206,818 or $242,783 (2023$) including 30 per cent on-costs. In addition, the ARC may provide up to $60,000 in project costs per annum.

Summary of outcomes

The ARC received a total of 603 applications for Future Fellowships for funding commencing in 2024, of which one application was withdrawn. 

One hundred Future Fellows are approved for funding commencing in 2024, shown in Table 2. The overall success rate for Future Fellowships for funding commencing in 2024 is 16.6 per cent. 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.

Of the unsuccessful applications in 2024, 2 were found not to meet eligibility requirements.

Table 2. Comparison of application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships applications from 2023 to 2024.

Table 3. Application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships applications 2024.

Outcomes by discipline

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

Table 4. Application numbers, success rates and requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships 2024 applications by discipline.

*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

Outcomes by Administering Organisation

A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Number of applications and success rates for approved Future Fellowships 2024 applications by Administering Organisation

Career age and gender

Of the 602 Future Fellowship candidates in this round, 224 were female, 372 were male, 1 was Indeterminate/Intersex and 5 chose not to specify their gender. The success rate for female, male, Indeterminate/Intersex and unspecified candidates in this round is 15.2 per cent, 17.7 per cent, 0.0 per cent and 0.0 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. 

At the closing time of submission of applications, of the 602 candidates, 513 were between 5 and 15 years of the award of their PhD and 89 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, 84 candidates were between 5 and 15 years of the award of their PhD and 16 were beyond 15 years of the award of their PhD. 

Figure 1. Participation and success rate of Future Fellowships 2024 candidate 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.

Gender by Panel

Table 6. Future Fellowship 2024: Gender by Discipline Panel - submission and award numbers, and success rates

*Ind/Int – Indeterminate/Intersex; Unsp - Unspecified

Figure 2. Participation and success rate of Future Fellowships 2024 candidate by gender and panel

FT Level by Panel

Table 7.  Future Fellowship Level by Discipline Panel - submission and award numbers, and success rates

Figure 3. Participation and success rate of Future Fellowships 2024 candidate by FT Level and panel

Attracting and retaining outstanding researchers

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 8).

Table 8. Citizenship/residency status of Future 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 602 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 1,672 instances of collaboration with researchers in 96 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, applicants foreshadowed 298 instances of collaboration with researchers in 52 overseas locations (Figure 4).

Figure 4. International collaborations by location in approved Future Fellowships 2024 applications*

*The top 10 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 4 and the remaining are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.