Selection Report: Future Fellowships 2025

Overview

The Future Fellowships scheme reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to excellence in research by supporting excellent mid-career researchers to undertake high quality research in areas of national and international benefit. 

The objectives of the Future Fellowships scheme are to: 

• support outstanding mid-career researchers, with demonstrated capacity for high-quality research, leadership, research training and mentoring;
• support excellent basic and applied research by outstanding mid-career researchers to be recruited and retained by universities in continuing academic positions;
• foster national and international research collaboration;
• support excellent and innovative research that addresses a significant problem or gap in knowledge and represents value for money;
• create new or advanced knowledge resulting from the outcomes of the research with economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia, and enhances the scale and focus of research in Australian Government priority areas.

Selection process

Applications for funding commencing in 2025 opened on 17 September 2024 and closed on 31 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: 

• assigned independent assessors to review the applications
• assessed applications and reviewed assessments made by independent assessors
• reviewed candidates’ comments on assessors’ reports
• ranked each application relative to the others on the basis of the application, the assessors’ reports and candidates’ 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 College of Experts 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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report excludes withdrawn applications.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 Future Fellowships 2025 applications were assessed and merit ranked using the following assessment criteria:

a. Investigator/Capability (50%)

Describe the quality of the candidate as per the relevant section in Table 1.

Table 1:  Future Fellowship candidate.

b. Project quality and innovation (25%)

Describe the:

• contribution to an important gap in knowledge or significant problem;
• innovation of the research 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); and
• extent to which the research has the potential to enhance international collaboration.

If the project involves research pertaining to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities describe:

• 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 (15%)

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. Feasibility and strategic alignment (10%)

Describe the:

• cost effectiveness of the research and its value for money;
• extent to which the Future Fellowship candidate aligns with and/or complements the core or developing research strengths and staffing profile of Your organisation;
• availability of the necessary facilities to conduct the research;
• resources You will provide to support the Future Fellowship candidate during her/his Future Fellowship; and
• capacity within Your organisation to transition the candidate at the end of the Future Fellowship to a continuing position.

Assessment process

The ARC assessment process for Future Fellowships 2025 involved 60 SAC members across four discipline panels and was managed in RMS. A total of 1611 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.

Funding levels and duration

Future Fellowships are funded for four consecutive years on a full-time basis. The annual salary contribution may be awarded at one of three salary levels, either $184,174, $222,950 or $261,721 (2024$) including 30 per cent on-costs. In addition, the ARC may provide up to $60,000 in project costs per annum.

Summary of outcomes

The ARC received a total of 666 applications for Future Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025, of which 2 applications were withdrawn. 

One hundred Future Fellows are approved for funding commencing in 2025, shown in Table 2. The overall success rate for Future Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025 is 15.1 per cent. A comparison of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 2 and the overall success rate by salary level is shown in Table 3.

Of the unsuccessful applications in 2025, 3 were found not to meet eligibility requirements.

Table 2.  Comparison of application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships applications from 2024 to 2025.

Table 3. Application numbers, success rates, requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships applications 2025.

Outcomes by discipline

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

Table 4.  Application numbers, success rates and requested and allocated funds for approved Future Fellowships 2025 applications by discipline.

*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.

Outcomes by Administering Organisation

A summary of outcomes by Administering Organisation is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Number of applications and success rates for approved Future Fellowships 2025 applications by Administering Organisation. 

Career age and gender

Of the 664 Future Fellowship candidates in this round, 242 were female, 414 were male, 1 was non-binary, 5 chose not to specify their gender, 1 preferred a different term and 1 preferred not to answer. The success rate for female, male, and unspecified candidates, candidates who go by a different term or who preferred not to answer in this round is 17.3 per cent, 13.8 per cent, 2.0 per cent, 0.0 per cent and 0.0 per cent respectively. 

Success rates of Future Fellowship candidates by career age and gender in the current Future Fellowship round are presented in Figure 1. 

At the closing time of submission of applications, of the 664 candidates, 2 candidates were in the first 5 years of the award of their PhD, 567 were between 5 and 15 years of the award of their PhD and 95 were beyond 15 years of the award of their PhD. To be eligible to apply for Future Fellowships, the latter group of researchers had their significant career interruptions certified by their Administering Organisation.

Of the approved Future Fellows, 90 candidates were between 5 and 15 years of the award of their PhD and 10 were beyond 15 years of the award of their PhD. 

Figure 1. Participation and success rate of Future Fellowships 2025 candidate by gender and career age*^

* 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.

Gender by Panel

Table 6. Future Fellowship 2025: Gender by Discipline Panel - submission and award numbers, and success rates.

*Other Gender includes Non-binary, Unspecified, Different term or Prefer not to answer gender categories.

Figure 2. Participation and success rate of Future Fellowships 2025 candidate by gender and panel

FT Level by Panel

Table 7. Future Fellowship Level by Discipline Panel - submission and award numbers, and success rates

Figure 3. Participation and success rate of Future Fellowships 2025 candidate by FT Level and panel

Attracting and retaining outstanding researchers

Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are outstanding mid-career researchers of international repute, resident either within Australia or overseas (Table 8).

Table 8.  Citizenship/residency status of Future Fellowships 2025 candidates and approved Awardees

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

International collaboration

Among 664 of the applications considered, applicants foreshadowed 1,729 instances of collaboration with researchers in 96 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, applicants foreshadowed 276 instances of collaboration with researchers in 47 overseas locations (Figure 4). 

Figure 4.  International collaborations by location in approved Future Fellowships 2025 applications*

*The top 10 international collaboration locations are listed in Figure 4 and the remaining are grouped in the ‘Other’ category.