ARC Update 2015
La Trobe University
15 September 2015
Prof Marian Simms
ARC Executive Director
Overview
1. ARC funding—overall and by discipline
2. ARC assessment and eligibility processes
3. Discovery and Linkage Projects data
4. Medical Research definition update
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Grants funding by institute (%) 1971–2014
ARC becomes a statutory agency
ARC NCGP funding by University ($m) 2007–2013
RUN
IRU
ATN
Go8
Unaligned
ARC NCGP funding by 2-digit FoR (%) 2006–2014
National Competitive Grants Programme
Discovery Programmes
Linkage Programmes
Area of box represents funding awarded over the period 2009–2014.
N.B. – Centres of Excellence, SRIs, not awarded in every year.
– ITRP and DECRA only funding since 2012
ARC NCGP funding by scheme 2006–2014
FoR Network
mapping…
All disciplines
01 MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
02 PHYSICAL SCIENCES
03 CHEMICAL SCIENCES
04 EARTH SCIENCES
05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
07 AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY SCIENCES
08 INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES
09 ENGINEERING
10 TECHNOLOGY
11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES
12 BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN
13 EDUCATION
14 ECONOMICS
15 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES
16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY
17 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES
18 LAW AND LEGAL STUDIES
19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING
20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
21 HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
22 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
FoR Network
mapping…
FoR code 15
x-links
FoR Network
mapping…
links within FoR
code 15
LP Linkages
Victoria
2011–2014
Higher Education
Government
Industry/ Commercial
Non Profit / other
LP Linkages
La Trobe
2011–2014
Higher Education
Government
Industry/ Commercial
Non Profit / other
ITRP Linkages
All rounds
Higher Education
Government
Industry/Other
Current Centres
of Excellence
Collaborations
Centre of Excellence
Australian Org.
International Higher
Ed.
Government
NCGP Lifecycle
• Arial 28pt—black
• Note that font sizes can be altered to fit requirements
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
DP—Success and return rates
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Linkage Projects—return and success rates
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Histogram of Rank Linkage 2010-2014
Success rate (%) in DP, selected disciplines,
commencement year 2002 to 2015
Eligibility
• ARC staff and Executive Directors assess eligibility
etc., but do not decide whether proposals should be
funded
• All proposals are assessed against the selection
criteria, and in accordance with the weightings for
that scheme
• Proposals are generally assigned to two College of
Experts members and at least two external
assessors
• College of Experts meets to moderate judgments and
to make final recommendations about fundable
proposals and budgets
• Under the ARC Act all recommendations are just that,
and must be approved by the Minister
NCGP and Peer Review
• Under larger schemes, such as Discovery Projects (DP)
and the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
(DECRA), all five panels of the ARC College convene for
selection meetings. In other schemes, such as Australian
Laureate Fellowships and Linkage Infrastructure,
Equipment and Facilities schemes, a single interdisciplinary
Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) may be utilised. SAC
members may be ARC College members and/or other
eminent researchers
• The five panels are: Biological Sciences and Biotechnology
(BSB), Engineering, Mathematics and Informatics (EMI),
Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA), Physics, Chemistry
and Earth Sciences (PCE), and Social Behavioural and
Economic Sciences (SBE)
Research Opportunity
• The ARC is committed to ensuring all eligible
researchers have fair access to competitive funding
through the National Competitive Grants Programme.
• The ARC considers that Research Opportunity
comprises two separate elements:
– Career experiences (relative to opportunity)
– Career interruptions
• The new ROPE Statement (released Feb 2014) is
available from the ARC website
– www.arc.gov.au > Policies and Strategies
ARC Assignment Information
• The ARC has completely redesigned the way that potential
assessors are matched to a proposal for assessment
purposes
• Multiple areas of the proposal are mined for a set of
keywords and presented to the person completing the
assignments as a word cloud
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
ARC Assignment Information (2)
• This information is then matched to information stored
against a potential assessor’s profile and presented in a
similar word cloud
• The most appropriate person is then selected and assigned
to the proposal to assess
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Assessment Process (1)
• The peer review process designed to be fair, thorough
and transparent
• The ARC relies on two types of assessors—Detailed
and General
• Detailed assessors drawn from the Australian and
international research community
• Detailed assessors complete in-depth assessments of
proposals by providing scores and comments against
the scheme specific selection criteria
• These assessments are then taken into consideration
by General assessors (i.e. College or SAC members)
in the later stages of the peer review process
Assessment Process (2)
• General assessors are members of the College of
Experts or a Selection Advisory Committee
• General assessors take into consideration the ratings
and comments provided by Detailed assessors and
the applicant’s rejoinder, and assign their own ratings
to the relevant scheme selection criteria
• Once all assessments have been finalised and
submitted to the ARC, Detailed and General
assessments and Rejoinders are considered by the
panels at the final selection meeting
Rejoinder
• Where the ARC seeks external assessments, applicants
are often given the opportunity to submit a Rejoinder
• The Rejoinder process allows applicants to respond to
assessment comments made by external assessors
• Rejoinders are not viewed by external assessors but are
considered by an ARC College of Experts Panel or SAC
when deciding on the final recommendation for a Proposal
• Timeframes for applicants are typically up to ten working
days
Selection Meeting
• The Selection Meeting is the final face-to-face meeting
of the panel of General Assessors and is the
conclusion of the peer review process
• The panels meet to consider which proposals to
recommend to the ARC for funding, and
recommended budgets for those proposals
• All recommendations are given to the ARC CEO, who
then makes recommendations to the Minister
• All funding decisions are made by the Minister under
the ARC Act
ARC Medical Research Policy
The ARC does not consider ‘hypotheticals’ or provide
pre-eligibility rulings as per ARC policy:
http://www.arc.gov.au/applicants/md_research.htm
“If
a proposal is deemed to be potentially ineligible, the
proposal is sent for consideration by the ARC eligibility
committee. The relevant administering organisation is
advised when a proposal is identified as potentially
ineligible. The administering organisation may provide
further information if required. All proposals, regardless of
their eligibility status, undergo the same peer review
process.”
(http://www.arc.gov.au/general/assessment_process.htm)
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
ARC Medical Res earch Policy
Human health conditions—Pertaining to diseases (as
defined above), syndromes, pathological conditions, injuries,
signs, symptoms, problems and/or conditions that generally
lead to contact with, or utilisation of, health services.
Intervention/al—Includes interventions designed to
understand and/or change human health conditions, such as:
• clinical or pre-clinical trials in human participants
• the collection and/or use of body organs, tissues or fluids
e.g. skin, blood, urine, saliva, hair, bones, tumour and
other biopsy specimens or exhaled breath
• behavioural interventions, or
• dietary interventions.
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Ineligible Research:
“research with human health and/or medical goals, including research
on the understanding, aetiology, diagnosis, monitoring, management or
treatment of physical or mental disease or other health conditions in
humans; or,
research involving the use or development of animal models of human
health conditions, or the use of animals for the development or testing
of therapeutic goods (including devices) or procedures, for the purpose
of better understanding human health or developing treatments for
human health conditions; or,
interventional research in humans, particularly clinical or pre-clinical
trials of therapeutic goods (including devices), or research aiming to
modify the health of the human participants; or,
the use or development of equipment, facilities, tools, games, devices,
smart phone applications or other items to understand, diagnose,
monitor, manage or treat human health conditions.”
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Ineligible Research:
“If the ARC determines that a proposal is at risk of not being
considered by either agency (ARC or NHMRC), the ARC reserves
the right to deem such a proposal eligible for assessment.
Recognising that an integrated research project or programme may
sometimes include a small element of research not supported under
this policy, the ARC may, but is not obliged to, deem such a proposal
eligible for assessment provided the proposal predominantly
comprises eligible research as set out in this policy.
Proposals deemed ineligible cannot be recommended or approved
for funding under the Australian Research Council Act 2001.”
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Thank You
Useful web/email info:
www.arc.gov.au > Media Centre > Resources > Presentations
www.arc.gov.au > Funding Opportunities
www.arc.gov.au > Policies and Strategies
email: ARCAssessorUpdate@arc.gov.au