Selection Report: Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025

Overview

The primary goal of the Industry Fellowships 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. The Schemes will also drive research collaboration, translation and commercialisation outcomes across a range of industry settings.

The objectives of the Industry Laureate Fellowships scheme are to:

• attract and retain, within Australia, outstanding researchers and research leaders of international reputation with demonstrated capacity for industry-focused and industry-based collaboration, translation and commercialisation;
• deliver significant programs of research that create step-change across a variety of industry settings;
• provide leadership in the development of high quality and impactful collaborations between university and industry personnel; and
• provide an excellent research training environment and exemplary mentorship to nurture the development of industry-focused and industry-based collaboration, translation and/or commercialisation skills among ECRs and HDR students.

Selection process

Applications for funding commencing in 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 recommendations from the ARC Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) to the ARC Board.

These outcomes are based on advice from the SAC which:

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 Unless otherwise specified, data represented in this report excludes withdrawn applications.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

Investigator/Capability (40%)

• Research Opportunity and Performance Evidence (ROPE), including a track-record of outstanding research outputs and achievements appropriate to the discipline/s;
• Evidence of the candidate’s capacity to lead a high-quality program of ground-breaking, internationally competitive industry-focused or industry-based research undertaken by a diverse research team with world-class research translation and/or commercialisation capabilities in collaboration with industry and/or other research end-user groups;
• Demonstrated ability to develop research collaboration, translation and/or commercialisation skills in HDR students, ECRs and/or industry staff through supervision and mentoring; and
• The candidate's potential to create an enduring legacy through acting as a senior academic- or industry-based end user ambassador.

Project Quality and Innovation (25%)

• Contribution of the project to address an important gap in knowledge or significant problem identified by the Key Industry Partner;
• Innovation and significance of the proposed program of research in the context of recent international research in the area, and its potential to transform current bodies of knowledge and practices for the Key Industry Partner and research end-users;
• Cohesiveness and clarity of the design and implementation plan for the program of research (including the appropriateness of the aim(s), conceptual framework, method, data and/or analyses); and
• Clear involvement of the Key Industry Partner in the design, method and delivery of the research, and relationship to previous collaborative projects between the candidate and the Key Industry Partner.

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).

Benefit (10%)

• 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;
• The feasibility of the research in terms of the project’s design, participants, requested duration, required resources/facilities, risk management, and appropriateness of the budget; and
• The cost-effectiveness of the research and its value for money.

Mentoring and Capacity Building (25%)

• Extent to which the candidate demonstrates exceptional leadership and organisational skills to ensure successful completion of the program of research;
• Extent to which the candidate will provide exceptional leadership for supervision and mentoring of HDR students and ECRs, to enable their development of industry-focused and industry-based collaboration, translation and/or commercialisation skills, and careers;
• The extent to which the program of research will build new teams and create world-class research capacity, collaboration and innovation across the relevant industry setting(s);
• The extent to which all parties demonstrate a commitment to establish enduring Australian and international research collaborations or links between academia and industry; and
• Evidence of the candidates’ potential to attract sustained financial resources to continue and expand the capacity of the program of research, including beyond completion of the Fellowship.

Assessment process

The ARC assessment process for Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025 involved 16 SAC members comprising of members from the ARC College of Experts and experts from industry on one multi-discipline panel and was managed in RMS. A total of 155 independent assessors’ reports were submitted to the ARC.

Funding levels and duration

Industry Laureate Fellowships projects are funded for 4 to 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 Industry Laureate Fellowships project.

It is a requirement of the Grant Guidelines for the Industry Fellowships Program (2024 edition) for the Administering Organisation to employ the Industry Laureate Fellow at a minimum of academic level E (or equivalent) for the project activity period. The annual salary provided by the ARC of $193,868 (2024$) per annum including 30 per cent on-costs.

In addition to the Industry Laureate Fellowship salary and salary-related (on-cost) support, the ARC will provide Industry Laureate Fellows with:

1. additional funding for 2 postdoctoral research associates for 4 to 5 years each and up to 2 postgraduate researchers for 4 years each; and
2. project funding not exceeding $1.5 million over the duration of the grant
3. up to $20,000 per year (additional to project funding) to support ambassadorial work promoting industry-university collaboration.

Summary of outcomes

The ARC received a total of 49 applications for Industry Laureate Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025, of which 1 was withdrawn.  

Eight Industry Laureate Fellows are approved for funding commencing in 2025, shown in Table 1. The overall success rate for Industry Laureate Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025 is 16.7 per cent. The total indicative funding recommended is $30,400,035 over 5 financial years (Tables 2 and 3). A break-down of success rates and funding amounts is shown in Table 2.

Of the unsuccessful applications in 2025, none were found not to meet eligibility requirements.

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

* Biographies for the 8 Industry Laureate Fellows will be available on the ARC Website.

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

Table 3. Indicative funds for approved Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025 applications

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 Industry 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  

Leverage of ARC Funding 

In addition to the $30.4 million of ARC indicative funding approved, the 8 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 $39.1 million.

Outcomes by Administering Organisation

The Administering Organisations of the 8 applications approved for funding are: 

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

Industry Partners 

Australian Company Industry Bodies, Not for Profit organisations (national and international) and Australian Federal and State Government entities, as well as international Government entities and universities, will participate in the approved projects as Key Industry and Other Industry Partners. 

In total, there are 38 unique Key Industry Partners or Other Industry Partners involved with the 8 projects approved for funding, giving an average of 4.75 Industry partners involved in each project and they have pledged a total (cash and in-kind) of $22,986,917. This represents 76 cents from Industry Partners for every dollar funded by the ARC.

Table 6.  Industry Partner Organisation contributions by sector for approved Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025 applications 

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

These partnerships form congruent and/or complementary linkages in Fields of Research (FoR). A summary of the FoR categories identified by applicants of approved applications and the total Industry Partners contributions are shown below in Table 6.

Table 7.  Application data by Field of Research category for approved Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025

* Based on the primary FoR

Australia and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) 

A summary of the ANZSIC categories that best represent the proposed research of the approved applications are shown below in Table 7.

Table 8.  Application data by Australia and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) category for approved Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025

Career age and gender

Of the 48 Industry Laureate Fellowship candidates in this round, 9 were female, 38 were male and 1 preferred not to answer. The success rate for female, male and candidates who preferred not to answer in this round is 44.4 per cent, 10.5 per cent and 0 per cent respectively.

Success rates of Industry Laureate Fellowship candidates by career age and gender in the current Industry Laureate Fellowship round are presented in Figure 1. Candidates who did not provide gender information (2.1 per cent) and candidates who did not specify the date of completion of their PhD or who do not hold a PhD (0 per cent) are not represented in the figure below.

Figure 1.  Participation and success rate of Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025 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. 

Attracting and retaining outstanding researchers

Applications were open to Eligible Organisations to nominate candidates who are world-class researchers of international repute, resident either within Australia or overseas (Table 9).

Table 9. Citizenship/residency status of Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025 candidates and approved Awardees

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

Research Students 

In the 8 applications approved for funding, a total of 107 research students will be filled as a result of the funded projects, with a total of 41 PhD student places, 19 Masters student places and 47 Honours student places.

International collaboration

Among the 48 applications considered; applicants foreshadowed 102 instances of collaboration with researchers in 31 overseas locations. Of the applications approved for funding, applicants foreshadowed 20 instances of collaboration with researchers in 13 overseas locations (Figure 2).

Figure 2. International collaborations by location in approved Industry Laureate Fellowships 2025 applications