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The Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to excellence in research by supporting world-class researchers to conduct research in Australia.
The objectives of the Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme are to:
Applications for funding commencing in 2022 opened on 3 November 2021 and closed on 19 January 2022. 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 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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report exclude withdrawn applications.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 Australian Laureate Fellowships 2022 were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:
Describe the:
If the project involves Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research describe:
Describe the potential benefits including the:
Describe:
The ARC assessment process for Australian Laureate Fellowships 2022 involved 16 SAC members as part of one multidisciplinary panel and was managed in RMS. A total of 496 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.
Australian Laureate Fellowships projects are funded for 5 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 Australian Laureate Fellowships project.
It is a requirement of the Grant Guidelines for the Discovery Program (2021 edition) for the Administering Organisation to provide a Level E professorial appointment (or equivalent) and salary for the duration of the Australian Laureate Fellowship. The salary provided by the ARC of $172,208 (2021$) per annum including 30 per cent on-costs contributes to that salary.
In addition to the Australian Laureate Fellowship salary and salary-related (on-cost) support, the ARC also provides funding for 2 postdoctoral research associates for 5 years each and 2 postgraduate researchers for 4 years each, and may award project funding of up to $300,000 per annum (for up to 5 years).
The ARC received a total of 160 applications for Australian Laureate Fellowships for funding commencing in 2022, none of which were withdrawn.
Sixteen Australian Laureate Fellows are approved for funding commencing in 2022, shown in Table 1. The overall success rate for Australian Laureate Fellowships for funding commencing in 2022 is 10.0 per cent. The total indicative funding approved is $48.6 million over 5 financial years (Tables 2 and 4). A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 2.
Of the unsuccessful applications in 2022, 2 were found not to meet eligibility requirements.
Table 1. Australian Laureate Fellows approved for funding commencing in 2022
Fellowship candidate
Administering Organisation
Professor Timothy Bedding
The University of Sydney
Professor Larissa Behrendt
University of Technology Sydney
Professor David Bowman
University of Tasmania
Professor Cyrille Boyer
The University of New South Wales
Professor Anne Castles
Macquarie University
Professor Simon Driver
The University of Western Australia
Professor Joanne Etheridge
Monash University
Professor Alexander Fornito
Professor Andrew Hassell
The Australian National University
Professor Mark Krumholz
Professor Lidia Morawska
Queensland University of Technology
Professor Michael Stumpf
The University of Melbourne
Professor Karen Thorpe
The University of Queensland
Professor Matt Trau
Professor Peter Veth
Professor Nicolas Voelcker
* Biographies for the 16 Australian Laureate Fellows will be available on the ARC Website.
Table 2. Comparison of application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Australian Laureate Fellowships applications from 2021 to 2022.
Funding year
Applications considered
Applications approved
Success rate (%)
Requested funds over project life for all applications considered ($)
Requested funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Funds allocated over project life for approved applications ($)
Return rate for approved applications (%)
2021
170
17
10.0
$585,818,173
$59,759,625
$53,706,710
89.9
2022
160
16
$557,427,027
$55,280,449
$48,636,469
88.0
Of the 44 female Australian Laureate Fellowship candidates, 36 applied for a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship or a Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship.
The recipients of the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship (awarded to a highly ranked candidate from the Humanities, Arts and Social Science disciplines) and the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship (awarded to a highly ranked candidate from the Science and Technology disciplines) are provided with additional funding to undertake an ambassadorial role to promote women in research and to mentor early career researchers, particularly women, to encourage them to enter and establish careers in research in Australia.
The assessment for these prestigious Fellowships takes place in 2 stages. Applicants who have indicated interest in either a Georgina Sweet or Kathleen Fitzpatrick Fellowship must first be successful as an Australian Laureate Fellow. Only when the SAC has recommended them as Australian Laureate Fellows will an applicant be assessed for a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship or a Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship.
The 2022 recipients of the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. 2022 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship
Fellowship Type
Approved candidate
Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship
Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship
Table 4. Indicative funds for approved Australian Laureate Fellowships 2022 applications
Budget item
2022–2023
2023–2024
2024–2025
2025-2026
2026-2027
TOTAL
Laureate Salary including on-costs
$2,755,328
$13,776,640
ARC Postdoctoral Researchers
$3,383,424
$16,917,120
ARC Postgraduate Researchers
$686,688
$915,584
$228,896
$3,662,336
Project Funding
$3,026,370
$2,853,421
$2,822,741
$2,885,728
$2,692,113
$14,280,373
$9,851,810
$9,907,757
$9,877,077
$9,940,064
$9,059,761
A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 5.
Table 5. Application numbers, success rates and requested and allocated funds for Australian Laureate Fellowships 2022 by discipline
Discipline *
Funds over project life for approved applications ($)
Return Rate for approved applications (%)
BSB
27
2
7.4
$95,509,184
$6,960,594
$6,630,594
95.3
EIC
40
1
2.5
$139,440,509
$3,733,536
$3,450,896
92.4
HCA
20
5.0
$72,334,082
$3,641,856
$3,224,956
88.6
MPCE
46
8
17.4
$156,231,409
$26,060,253
$22,492,851
86.3
SBE
4
14.8
$93,911,843
$14,884,210
$12,837,172
86.2
Total
*BSB = Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC = Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences; HCA = Humanities and Creative Arts; MPCE = Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences; SBE = Social, Behavioural and Economics Sciences
A summary of outcomes by Science and Research Priorities is shown in Table 6.
Table 6. Approved funding and success rates for Australian Laureate Fellowships 2022 applications by Science and Research Priorities
Science and Research Priorities
Approved funds over project life ($)
Advanced Manufacturing
38
10.5
$12,167,680
Cybersecurity
11
0
0.0
-
Energy
6
Environmental Change
41
3
7.3
$10,036,838
Food
Health
19
15.8
$9,567,256
Resources
5
Soil and Water
Transport
None Selected
32
18.8
$16,864,695
Total within Science and Research Priorities
128
10
7.8
$31,771,774
Percentage within Science and Research Priorities (%)
80.0
62.5
65.3
The Administering Organisations of the 16 applications approved for funding are:
Of the 160 Australian Laureate Fellowship candidates in this round, 44 were female, 115 were male and 1 chose not to specify gender. The success rate for female, male and unspecified candidates in this round is 11.36 per cent, 9.57 per cent and 0.0 per cent respectively.
Success rates of Australian Laureate Fellowship candidates by career age and gender in the current Australian Laureate Fellowship round are presented in Figure 1. Candidates who did not provide gender information (0.6 per cent) and candidates who did not specify the date of completion of their PhD or who do not hold a PhD (0.6 per cent) are not represented in the figure below.
Figure 1. Participation and success rate of Australian Laureate Fellowships 2022 candidate by gender and career age*^
* Career age is calculated as years since PhD. The earliest PhD award date was used where there was more than 1 PhD. ^ Calculated career age does not take career interruptions into consideration.
Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are world-class researchers of international repute, resident either within Australia or overseas (Table 7).
Table 7. Citizenship/residency status of Australian Laureate Fellowships 2022 candidates and approved Awardees
Citizenship/residency status
% of Applications considered
Foreign Nationals
3.75
Resident Australians
150
93.75
10.67
Returning Australians
100
Note: All totals and percentages are shown using rounded figures, and as such may not sum.
Among 160 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 802 instances of collaboration with researchers in 82 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, 15 foreshadowed 57 instances of collaboration with researchers in 18 overseas locations (Figure 2).
Figure 2. International collaborations by location in approved Australian Laureate Fellowships 2022 applications*
*The top 12 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 2 and the remaining are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.