Selection Report: Australian Laureate Fellowships 2025

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Overview

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: 

• attract and retain outstanding researchers and research leaders of international reputation, with exceptional ability to lead, collaborate, mentor and supervise, and enhance their capacity to create an enduring legacy;
• build focus and scale in research by forging new links among researchers, the international research community and/or industry and other research end-users;
• support a program of innovative and ground-breaking research that addresses a significant problem or gap in knowledge;
• create a cohesive research program and implementation plan that represents value for money;
• provide an excellent research training environment and exemplary opportunity to nurture early or mid-career researchers;
• produce new or advanced knowledge resulting from the outcomes of the research with economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia, and to enhance research in Australian Government priority areas.

Selection process

Applications for funding commencing in 2025 opened on 22 August 2024 and closed on 2 October 2024. 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 SAC which: 

• assessed applications and reviewed assessments made by independent assessors
• reviewed applicants’ comments on assessors’ reports
• ranked each application relative to the others on the basis of the application, the assessors’ reports and applicants’ 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 SAC or independent assessors
• where required, sought advice from the ARC’s Medical Research Advisory Group
• made decisions with respect to the eligibility of applications.

This report reflects the funding outcomes approved by the ARC Board. Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report excludes withdrawn applications.

Assessment criteria

All applications that meet the eligibility criteria for the Australian Laureate Fellowships 2025 applications were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:

a. Investigator/Capability (40%)

Describe the:

• Research Opportunity and Performance Evidence (ROPE) including:
  • outstanding research outputs and achievements taking into account research opportunity;
  • evidence for and/or potential to undertake ground-breaking research;
  • leadership ability and plans to build world class research capacity and diverse teams; and
  • potential to create an enduring legacy.
• extent to which the candidate will build collaborations across research organisations and/or industry and/or with other disciplines both within Australia and internationally.

b. Project quality and innovation (25%)

Describe the:

• contribution to an important gap in knowledge or significant problem;
• innovation of the research program 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);
• extent to which the research has the potential to enhance international collaboration; and
• extent to which the research will be cost-effective and represents value for money.

If the project involves Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander research additional criteria include:

• the project’s level of collaboration, engagement, relationship building and benefit sharing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and First Nations Organisations and Communities;
• the project’s strategy and mechanisms for Indigenous research capacity building within the project;
• the project’s level of internal leadership of Indigenous research;
• The project’s adherence to the Australian Indigenous Data Sovereignty Principles (2018); and
• The project’s understanding of, and proposed strategies to adhere to, the AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research (2020) and NHMRC’s guidelines on Ethical conduct in research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and communities (2018).

c. Benefit (10%)

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.

d. Mentoring and capacity building (25%) 

Describe: 

Mentoring, including the extent to which the candidate demonstrates: 

• exceptional ability to supervise and mentor postdoctoral researchers and other early-mid career researchers; and
• they will be providing a suitable environment for postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

Capacity building, including:

• the extent to which the project will build new teams and create world-class research capacity, collaboration and innovation;
• the extent to which the candidate demonstrates exceptional leadership and the organisational ability to ensure the development of focus and scale in research;
• evidence of the project’s and researcher’s potential to attract financial resources to enhance research capacity; and
• the extent to which this research builds new international research collaboration or links between research and industry.

Assessment process

The ARC assessment process for Australian Laureate Fellowships 2025 involved 15 SAC members on one multi-discipline panel and was managed in RMS. A total of 591 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.

Funding levels and duration

Australian Laureate Fellowships projects are funded for 5 years on a full-time basis.

It is a requirement of the Discovery Program Grant Guidelines - Fellowships (2024 edition) for the Administering Organisation to provide a salary of Level E professorial appointment (or equivalent) to the Australian Laureate Fellowship. The salary provided by the ARC of $193,868 (2024$) per annum including 30 per cent on-costs contributes to that salary.

In addition, the ARC will provide Australian Laureate Fellows with:

a. additional funding for 2 postdoctoral research associates for 5 years, each is $119,031 (2024$) including 30 per cent on-costs per annum, and 2 postgraduate researchers for 4 years each is $32,212 (2024$) including 30 per cent on-costs per annum; and

b. project funding of up to $300,000 per annum for 5 years.

c. up to $20,000 per year additional to project funding to support the ambassadorial role of named Laureate Fellows to promote women in research, for the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship.

Summary of outcomes

The ARC received a total of 136 applications for Australian Laureate Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025. 

Seventeen Australian Laureate Fellows are approved for funding commencing in 2025, shown in Table 1. The overall success rate for Australian Laureate Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025 is 12.5 per cent. The total indicative funding approved is $65.3 million over 5 financial years (Tables 2 and 4). A break-down of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 2.

Of the unsuccessful applications in 2025, one was found not to meet eligibility requirements.

Table 1.  Australian Laureate Fellows approved for funding commencing in 2025.

*Biographies for the 17 Australian Laureate Fellows will be available on the ARC website.

Table 2.   Application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Australian Laureate Fellowships applications from 2024 to 2025.

Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship

Of the 41 female Australian Laureate Fellowship participants, 33 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 participant from the Humanities, Arts and Social Science disciplines) and the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship (awarded to a highly ranked participant 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 two 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 2025 recipients of the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship are shown in Table 3.

Table 3.  2025 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship

Funding

Table 4. Funds for approved Australian Laureate Fellowships 2025 applications

Outcomes by discipline

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 2025 by discipline.

*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  

Outcomes by Administering Organisation

The Administering Organisations of the 17 applications approved for funding are: 

• Flinders University (1)
• Monash University (3)
• The Australian National University (1)
• The University of Melbourne (1)
• The University of New South Wales (3)
• The University of Queensland (3)
• The University of Sydney (1)
• The University of Western Australia (1)
• University of Tasmania (2)
• University of Technology Sydney (1)

Career age and gender

Of the 136 Australian Laureate Fellowship participants in this round, 41 were woman or female, 94 were man or male and 1 identified as non-binary. The success rate for woman or female, man or male and non-binary participants in this round is 14.6 per cent, 11.7 per cent and 0.0 per cent respectively. 

Success rates of Australian Laureate Fellowship participants by career age and gender in the current Australian Laureate Fellowship round are presented in Figure 1. 

Figure 1.  Participation and success rate of Australian Laureate Fellowships 2025 participants 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 one PhD. 

^ Calculated career age does not take career interruptions into consideration.

Gender by project discipline

Table 6. Australian Laureate Fellowship 2025: Gender by project discipline – submission and approved numbers, and success rates

Note: Project discipline is determined by the primary FoR codes provided in the application.

Figure 2. Participation and success rates of Australian Laureate Fellowship 2025 participants by gender and project discipline 

Note: Project Discipline is determined by the primary FoR codes provided in the application.

Attracting and retaining outstanding researchers

Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate participants 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 2025 participants and approved Awardees

Note: All totals and percentages are shown using rounded figures, and as such may not sum.

International collaboration

Among 136 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 642 instances of collaboration with researchers in 58 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, 17 foreshadowed 80 instances of collaboration with researchers in 26 overseas locations (Figure 3).

Figure 3. International collaborations by location in approved Australian Laureate Fellowships 2025 applications*

*The top 10 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 3 and the remaining are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.