Selection Report: Early Career Industry Fellowships

Overview

The primary goal of the Industry Fellowship Program is to create a pathway to support academic researchers in establishing careers in industry, and industry-based researchers to work in university settings, with the aim of increased two-way mobility and skill-building in research collaboration, translation and commercialisation across a range of industry settings. 

The objectives of the Early Career Industry Fellowship scheme are to: 

• develop the industry collaboration skills of early career researchers;
• support early career researchers to achieve translatable and/or commercialisable outcomes for industry; and
• deliver actionable outcomes for industry partners and research end-users.

Selection process

Applications for Early Career Industry Fellowships 2025 opened on 24 September 2024 and closed on 12 November 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 ARC SAC which: 

• assigned independent assessors to review the applications;
• assessed applications and reviewed assessments made by independent assessors;
• ranked each application relative to the others based on the application and the independent assessors’ reports;
• assessed and recommended budgets.

Advice was also provided 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, and
• 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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report excludes withdrawn applications.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 Early Career Industry Fellowships 2025 were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:

a. Investigator/Capability (35%)

• Research Opportunity and Performance Evidence (ROPE), including a demonstrated track-record of high-quality research outputs appropriate to the discipline/s
• Demonstrated capability to undertake research projects in collaboration with industry and/or other research end-user groups; and
• Alignment of the candidate’s skills and experience to the project.

b. Project Quality and Innovation (35%)

• Contribution of the project to address an important gap in knowledge or significant problem identified by the Key Industry Partner;
• Novelty and innovation of the project in the context of previous research in the area;
• Cohesiveness and clarity of the project design and implementation plan (including the appropriateness of the aim(s), conceptual framework, method, data and/or analyses); and
• The clear presence of the Key Industry Partner in the design, method and delivery of the research.

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 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. Feasibility and Strategic Alignment (15%)

• Strength of engagement between the candidate and the Key Industry Partner, including previous projects (where applicable), and interactions to date on the proposed project;
• The extent to which all parties demonstrate a commitment to the success of the project, and to developing and expanding a collaborative relationship, including the necessary facilities, resources and development opportunities that the organisations will provide for the candidate; and
• The feasibility of the research in terms of the project’s design, participants, requested duration, required resources/facilities, risk management, and cost-effectiveness of the budget.

d. Benefit (15%)

• Delivery of actionable outcomes for the industry partner(s) and other research end-users;
• New or advanced knowledge expected to result from the project;
• Appropriateness, completeness and effectiveness of proposed pathways for short-, medium- or long-term adoption, translation, and/or commercialisation of the project outcomes, including IP management, by the industry partner(s) beyond the Fellowship completion;
• Demonstration of the mutual benefit to the candidate and the Key Industry Partner including potential to lead to longer-term collaboration; and
• The potential for economic, commercial, environmental, cultural and/or social benefit for Australia.

Assessment process

The ARC assessment process for Early Career Industry Fellowships 2025 involved 24 SAC members comprising of members from the ARC College of Experts and experts from industry on one multi-discipline panel. The process was managed in RMS. In addition, independent assessors submitted a total of 672 reports to the ARC to support the assessment process.

Funding levels and duration

Early Career Industry Fellowship projects are funded for 1 to 3 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 Early Career Industry Fellowship project.

It is a requirement of the Industry Fellowships Program (IFP) Grant Guidelines (2024 edition) for the Administering Organisation to employ the Early Career Industry Fellow at a minimum of Academic Level A (or equivalent) for the project activity period. The annual salary provided by the ARC of $121,703 (2024$) per year includes 30 per cent on-costs. 

In addition to the Early Career Industry Fellowship salary and salary-related (on-cost) support, the ARC will provide the Early Career Industry Fellows with project funding not exceeding $150,000 over the duration of the grant.

Summary of outcomes

The ARC received a total of 180 applications for Early Career Industry Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025. 

A total of 50 Early Career Industry Fellows are approved for funding commencing in 2025, shown in Table 1. The overall success rate for Early Career Industry Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025 is 27.8 per cent. The total indicative funding recommended is $24.7 million over 3 financial years (Tables 2 and 3). A break-down of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 2.

Of the unsuccessful applications, none were found ineligible. 

Table 1.  Early Career Industry Fellows approved for funding commencing in 2025

Table 2.   Application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Early Career Industry Fellowship applications from 2023 to 2025.

Table 3.  Indicative funds for approved Early Career Industry Fellowship 2025 applications.

Outcomes by discipline

A summary of outcomes by discipline panel is shown in Table 4. 

Table 4.   Application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Early Career Industry Fellowship 2025 applications.

*BSB = Biological Sciences and Biotechnology; EIC = Engineering, Information and Computing Sciences; HSE = Humanities and Creative Arts, Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences; MPCE = Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences.

Leverage of ARC Funding 

In addition to the $24.7 million of ARC indicative funding approved, the 50 projects will also receive cash and in-kind contributions from their Administering Organisations and their Industry Partners. These participating organisations will contribute a total of $35.8 million.  

Outcomes by Administering Organisation

The Administering Organisations of the 50 applications approved for funding are: 

Table 5. Participating Organisation contributions for approved Early Career Industry Fellowship applications by Administering Organisation.

Industry Partners 

Australian companies, government entities and non-profit organisations will participate in the recommended projects as Key Industry and Other Industry Partners. International organisations will also contribute as Other Industry Partners.

In total, there are 89 unique Key Industry Partners or Other Industry Partners involved with the 50 projects approved for funding, giving an average of 1.8 Industry Partners involved in each project. 

Together, they have pledged a total (cash and in-kind) of $19.2 million. This represents 78 cents from Industry Partners for every dollar funded by the ARC.
 

Table 6.  Industry Partner contributions by sector for approved Early Career Industry Fellowship 2025 applications. 

Note: All percentages are shown using rounded figures, and as such may not sum to 100%.

Gender

The genders of the applicants and awardees are:

Table 7. Gender of Early Career Industry Fellowship 2025 candidates and approved awardees. 

Note: All percentages are shown using rounded figures, and as such may not sum to 100%.

Attracting and retaining outstanding researchers

Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are world-class researchers of international repute, residing either within Australia or overseas (Table 8).

Table 8. Citizenship/residency status of Early Career Industry Fellowship 2025 candidates and approved Awardees.

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

International Collaboration

Among 180 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 79 instances of collaboration with researchers in 30 overseas locations. Of the applications recommended for funding, applicants foreshadowed 28 instances of collaboration with researchers in 15 overseas locations (Figure 1).

Figure 1.  International collaborations by location in approved Early Career Industry Fellowships 2025 applications.

*The top 5 international collaboration locations are individually listed in Figure 1 and the remaining are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.