Linkage Projects 2020 Round 3 Announcement Banner

Special Research Initiatives

The Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Special Research Initiatives (SRI) scheme provides funding for new and emerging fields of research and builds capacity in strategically important areas to improve Australia’s global competitiveness. The SRI scheme is an integral part of the ARC’s Linkage Program which promotes national and international collaboration and research partnerships between key stakeholders in research and innovation, including higher education providers, government, business, industry and end users. Through these partnerships, the ARC encourages the transfer of skills, knowledge and ideas as a basis for securing commercial and other benefits of research.

Funding supports cooperative development, including: 

  • activities between researchers 
  • research of national and international linkages 
  • innovative research areas 
  • building the scale and focus of research training 
  • any other activities consistent with the scheme’s objectives. 

The objective of the SRI scheme is to support high-quality research which will assist in advancing Australia’s research excellence to be globally competitive and deliver benefits to the community. This extends, but is not limited, to supporting research-related activities which will respond to emerging opportunities or changing government priorities. 

The SRI scheme provides funding to support cooperative activities amongst researchers; cooperative development of national and international linkages; cooperative development of innovative research areas; activities aimed at building the scale and focus of research and research training; and other activities that the ARC judges to be consistent with the scheme’s objectives. 

Funding may also be used to develop networks and initiate collaborations that would be unlikely to occur otherwise and, where appropriate, disseminate the outcomes of the collaborative activities funded under the scheme. Funding under the SRI scheme is available to support activities related to high-quality research in all or any fields of research supported by the ARC.