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The Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme provides funding for research infrastructure, equipment and facilities to Eligible Organisations. It enables researchers to participate in cooperative initiatives so that expensive research infrastructure, equipment and facilities can be shared between higher education organisations and also with Industry. The scheme also fosters collaboration through its support of the cooperative use of international or national research facilities.
The objectives of the Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme are to:
Applications for funding commencing in 2020 opened on 23 January 2019, and closed on 20 March 2019. Applications were submitted through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Management System (RMS). This report outlines the outcomes from the selection process for that round.
The ARC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) provided recommendations to the Minister 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 Unless otherwise specified, data presented in this report exclude withdrawn applications.
Assessment criteria and corresponding weightings for Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities 2020 applications are:
Project Quality and Innovation
(25%)
Feasibility
Investigator(s)
(20%)
Benefit
(30%)
The ARC assessment process for Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities 2020 used 16 SAC members and was managed in the RMS. A total of 524 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.
The minimum level of funding provided by the ARC under Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities 2020 is $150,000 per annum and the maximum level of funding cannot exceed 75 per cent of the total direct cost of the eligible budget item(s). Funding is provided for up to one year; or, up to five consecutive years for construction of research infrastructure, or subscription or coordinated access to international facilities and major national facilities.
The ARC received a total of 164 applications for Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities for funding commencing in 2020. This represents a 14 per cent increase from the 144 Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities applications received for funding commencing in 2019. Of the unsuccessful applications, three did not meet eligibility requirements.
The overall success rate for Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities for funding commencing in 2020 is 28.7 per cent, with a similar percentage of allocation of requested funds compared to funding that commenced in 2019. A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 1.
Funding year
Applications considered
Applications approved
Success rate (%)
Requested funds over project life for all applications considered ($)
Requested funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Funds allocated over project life for approved applications*($)
Return rate for approved applications (%)
2019
144
36
25.0
$111,480,217
$29,520,578
$27,421,223
92.9
2020
164
47
28.7
$116,305,596
$33,144,068
$30,672,752
92.5
*May include indicative funds
A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 2.
Discipline *
Funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Return Rate for approved applications (%)
BSB
31
8
25.8
$21,837,505
$6,798,747
$6,173,000
90.8
EIC
53
14
26.4
$36,217,638
$8,238,788
$7,723,750
93.7
HCA
1
12.5
$5,800,943
$1,228,182
$1,100,000
89.6
MPCE
67
23
34.3
$48,771,989
$16,258,934
$15,096,002
92.8
SBE
5
20.0
$3,677,521
$619,417
$580,000
93.6
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.
Science and Research Priorities
Advanced manufacturing
63
21
33.3
$14,678,752
Cybersecurity
2
0
-
Energy
13
3
23.1
$1,743,000
Environmental change
18
4
22.2
$1,900,000
Food
60.0
$2,945,000
Health
9
$2,425,000
Resources
12
16.7
$1,310,000
Soil and water
7
28.6
$860,000
Transport
6
$475,000
Unspecified
29
27.6
$4,336,000
Total within Science and Research Priorities
135
39
28.9
$26,336,752
Percentage within Science and Research Priorities (%)
82.3
83.0
85.9
A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 4.
Administering Organisation
Australian Capital Territory
10
$1,232,000
The Australian National University
New South Wales
55
17
30.9
$10,067,697
Macquarie University
Southern Cross University
$1,320,000
The University of New South Wales
35.3
$4,422,947
The University of Newcastle
40.0
$1,160,000
The University of Sydney
$1,989,000
University of Technology Sydney
$400,000
University of Wollongong
$245,750
Western Sydney University
50.0
$530,000
Queensland
16
18.8
$2,309,000
Griffith University
100
$744,000
Queensland University of Technology
The University of Queensland
$1,565,000
University of Southern Queensland
South Australia
$950,000
Flinders University
The University of Adelaide
University of South Australia
Tasmania
$420,000
University of Tasmania
Victoria
30.2
$10,820,055
Deakin University
Federation University Australia
La Trobe University
$1,700,000
Monash University
22
27.3
$3,943,000
RMIT University
11.1
$535,000
Swinburne University of Technology
The University of Melbourne
35.7
$3,587,055
Western Australia
43.8
$4,874,000
Curtin University
$1,480,000
The University of Western Australia
11
36.4
$3,394,000
Of the 1675 Chief Investigators (CIs) in this round, 357 were female CIs and 1318 were male CIs. The success rate for female and male CIs in this round of Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities is 30.5 per cent and 28.1 per cent respectively.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities applications are expected to develop collaborative arrangements with Other Eligible Organisations and/or Partner Organisations and Other Organisations.
The success rate for applications with one Eligible Organisation (the Administering Organisation) is 14.3 per cent. A summary of success rates by number of Eligible Organisations is shown in Table 5.
Number of Eligible Organisations
Number of applications considered
Number of applications approved
Success rate within band (%)
1*
14.3
19
42.1
32.3
33
* An application with only one Eligible Organisation (the Administering Organisation) may or may not include Partner Organisations and/or Other Organisations.
A summary of application success rates by number of collaborating organisations is shown in Table 6. Applications involving collaboration with five Eligible Organisations, Partner Organisations and/or Other Organisations have the highest success rate - 54.8 per cent.
Number of collaborating organisations*
30.8
25
26
54.8
16.0
* Collaborating organisations include the Administering Organisation, Other Eligible Organisations, Partner Organisations and Other Organisations. There were no applications with 13 collaborating organisations.
Among 164 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 288 instances of collaboration with researchers in 42 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, 25 foreshadowed 80 instances of collaboration with researchers in 21 overseas locations (Figure 1).
*The top 13 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 1 and the remaining locations are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.
On Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities 2020 applications approved for funding, for every dollar funded by the ARC the proposed dollar contribution of the collaborating organisations listed on these applications is $1.46. The leverage of ARC funds for approved applications is shown in Table 7.
Approved ARC funding
Number of unique collaborating organisations*
Incidence of involvement of collaborating organisations*
Collaborating organisation* Cash and In-kind contribution
Leverage (Collaborating organisation* contribution/ARC approved funding)
61
249
$44,775,762
$1.46
*Collaborating organisations include the Administering Organisation, Other Eligible Organisations, Partner Organisations and Other Organisations.
A summary of the Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities applications approved for funding commencing in 2020, by Administering Organisation is outlined in Table 8. The application titles indicate the variety of equipment, infrastructure and facilities supported in this scheme round.
Applications approved for funding
Lead CI
A particle detector array for the Murchison Widefield Array
Dr Clancy James
Returning WA Rapid Acquisition Fluorescent Microscopy to the cutting edge.
Prof John Mamo
WA CRC-MC-ICPMS for Earth, Planetary and Environmental science
Prof Noreen Evans
A high-payload, high-fidelity haptically-enabled motion simulation facility
Prof Saeid Nahavandi
Multi-kilohertz laser for attosecond and ultrafast science
A/Prof Igor Litvinyuk
A platform consortium for integrated 'systems-omics' research
Prof Tony Bacic
X-Ray Nanolithography Facility: Towards the ultimate resolution
Dr Grant Van Riessen
A facility for quantification and isotopic analysis of trace gases
Prof Perran Cook
A triple beam microscope: new frontiers in materials nanocharacterisation
Dr Amelia Liu
Fast Disk Storage to Enable Big Data Science in Weather, Oceans and Climate
Prof Michael Reeder
Integrated Functional Printing Facility for Advanced Material Technologies
Prof Mainak Majumder
New generation direct electron detector for cryo-electron microscopy
Dr Georg Ramm
The 3D Nanofabrication Facility
Prof Nicolas Voelcker
Photonic Chip Integration Facility
Prof Arnan Mitchell
A 4D habitat-modelling facility to support marine ecological research
Prof Brendan Kelaher
An Equilibrium Inlet-Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometer
Prof Bradley Eyre
New frontier in Geoscience: A tandem trace element and isotopes facility
Dr Renaud Joannes-Boyau
Data Co-operative Platform for Social Impact and Wellbeing
Prof Jane Farmer
Advanced Multifunctional Electro-Opto-Magneto-Mechanical Analysis Platform
A/Prof Yuerui Lu
Exploring the Dynamic Universe with DREAMS
Prof Anna Moore
Crossing the biology meso-nanoscale divide by scanning electron microscopy
Prof Geoffrey McFadden
Live Cell Super Resolution Imaging Facility
Prof Frank Caruso
National Facility for Quantum Diamond
Dr David Simpson
Single Particle Elemental Analysis – Imaging Mass Cytometer Facility
Prof Amanda Ellis
Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy Facility
A/Prof Trevor Smith
A 4-D X-Ray Microscopy Laboratory
Prof Klaus Regenauer-Lieb
Australian Rheo-Scattering Facilities
A/Prof Patrick Spicer
Cryogenic Scanning Microwave Measurement Facility for Quantum Materials
Prof Alexander Hamilton
High Performance Solid State NMR Spectroscopy for Materials Research
Prof Martina Stenzel
In situ Environmental Electron Microscope Facility
Prof Richard Tilley
Next generation facility to measure microfluidic flows
Dr Charitha de Silva
Adaptive Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography for Multiphase Flows
Prof Behdad Moghtaderi
Synthetic Biology: from Genomics to Valuable Bioproducts
Prof Brett Neilan
Electrophysiology Platform for Ion-channel Characterisation
Prof Glenn King
An integrated, multi-nodal bio-layer interferometry facility
A/Prof Bryan Fry
High Resolution PET-CT for Small Animal Molecular and Anatomical Imaging
Prof Steven Meikle
Rapid Molecular (Bio)material Imaging by Infrared and Raman Microscopies
Prof Peter Lay
Whopping Volta GPU Cluster – Transforming Artificial Intelligence Research
Prof Dacheng Tao
A next-generation receiver for Radio Astronomy
Prof Lister Staveley-Smith
Australian Seismic Imaging Array
Prof Li Ju
Quantitative Movies of Nanoscale Dynamics by Video Atomic Force Microscopy
Prof Rob Atkin
The Digitisation Centre of Western Australia (Phase 1)
Prof Benjamin Smith
Protein Quantitation Centre of South Australia renewal for Systems Biology
Prof Peter Hoffmann
Rapid Deployment Seismic Recorders for Interdisciplinary Antarctic Research
Prof Anya Reading
3D Nanofabrication and Nanocharacterisation facility
Prof Igor Aharonovich
An upgraded nanoindenter facility with in-situ Raman at high temperature
Prof Kiet Tieu
A major upgrade to the Australia Telescope Compact Array
Prof Raymond Norris