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The Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme provides funding for early career researchers in both teaching and research, and research-only positions. It supports research in areas of critical national importance by enabling outstanding Australian and international early career researchers to conduct their research in Australia.
The objectives of Discovery Early Career Researcher Award scheme are to:
Applications for funding commencing in 2020 opened on 15 October 2018, and closed on 13 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.
Funding recommendations have been prepared for submission to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The outcomes are based on advice from the ARC Selection Advisory Committee which:
and, advice from ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) Eligibility Committee which:
This report reflects the outcomes approved by the Minister. Unless otherwise specified, figures presented in this report exclude withdrawn applications.
Assessment criteria and corresponding weightings for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2020 applications are:
The ARC assessment process for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2020 used 82 ARC Selection Advisory Committee members across five discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 4313 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards are funded for three consecutive years on a full-time basis. The annual salary contribution that may be awarded is fixed at $102,372 (2018$), including 30 per cent on-costs. In addition, the ARC may provide up to $40,000 in project costs per annum.
The ARC received a total of 1251 applications for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for funding commencing in 2020, of which three applications were withdrawn. This represents an increase from the 1165 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award applications received for funding commencing in 2019. Of the unsuccessful applications, 19 did not meet eligibility requirements.
The overall success rate for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for funding commencing in 2020 is 16.0 per cent, with a higher allocation of requested funds compared to funding that commenced in 2019. A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 1.
A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 2.
† BSB – Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC – Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences, MPCE – Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences; SBE – Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences; HCA – Humanities and Creative Arts
A summary of outcomes by Science and Research Priorities is shown in Table 3.
Applications
approved
A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 4.
Of the 1248 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award candidates in this round, 500 were female, 746 were male and two were unspecified. The success rate for female, male and unspecified Discovery Early Career Researcher Award candidates in this round is 16.4 per cent, 15.8 per cent and 0.0 per cent respectively.
Success rates of Discovery Early Career Researcher Award candidates by career age and gender in the current Discovery Early Career Researcher Award round are presented in Figure 1. Discovery Early Career Researcher Award candidates who did not provide gender information (0.16%) are not represented in the figure below.
At the closing time of submission of applications, of the 1248 candidates, 1035 were within five years of the award of their PhD and 213 candidates were beyond five years of the award of their PhD. To be eligible to apply for a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, the latter group of researchers had their significant career interruptions certified by their Administering Organisation.
Of the approved Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards, 160 candidates were within five years of the award of their PhD and 40 candidates were beyond five years of the award of their PhD.
* 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.
Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are promising early career researchers, resident either within Australia or overseas.
A summary of outcomes by citizenship/residency status is shown in Table 5.
Among 1248 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 2329 instances of collaboration with researchers in 103 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, 171 foreshadowed 406 instances of collaboration with researchers in 56 overseas locations (Figure 2).
*The top 12 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 2 and the remaining locations are grouped in the ‘Other’ category