3 December 2014

Jane Graham, Director, Program Operations (Linkage)

Sam Grunhard, Director, Program Operations (Discovery)

Managing ARC Proposals

Overview• Discovery Program, including new rules

• Linkage Program, including new rules

• Assessment process, including eligibility and rejoinders

• Medical Research

• RMS 2.0

• Questions and discussion

Discovery Program

Laureate Fellowships

Future FellowshipsDECRA

Discovery Projects

Linkage Program

Centres of Excellence

Co-Funded & SRIs

Linkage Projects

Discovery Indigenous

ITRP

National Competitive Grants Program

LIEF

Discovery Program Funding2014-15: $549.9 million

Linkage Program Funding2014-15: $325.8 million

Discovery Projects 2008-2015: Success and Return Rates

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 20150

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

878 845 925 931 788732 703 665

3234 3307 3143 3299

27562693 2831 3029

21.4% 20.4%22.7% 22.0% 22.0% 21.4% 19.9%

18.0%

56.5%54.0%

56.3% 55.3%

50.8%

60.8%63.8%

64.2%

UnsuccessfulSuccessfulReturn rateSuccess rate

Num

ber o

f Pro

posa

ls

DECRA 2012-2015: Success Rates

2012 2013 2014 20150

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

277 200 200 200

1882

1081 1268 1194

12.8%15.6%

13.62% 14.35%

UnsuccessfulSuccessfulSuccess rate

Num

ber o

f Pro

posa

ls

Discovery Indigenous 2012-2015: Success Rates

2012 2013 2014 20150

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

10 10 10 10

19

2216 22

34.5%31.3%

38.5%

31.3%

UnsuccessfulSuccessfulSuccess rate

Num

ber o

f Pro

posa

ls

Australian Laureate Fellowships 2008-2014: Success Rates

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

15 15 17 17 17 16

133

82

122

9195

74

10.1%

15.5%12.2%

15.7% 15.2%17.8%

UnsuccessfulSuccessfulSuccess rate

Num

ber o

f Pro

posa

ls

Future Fellowships 2009-2014: Success Rates

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

200 200 203 209 201150

775 559

458394

1033

680

20.5% 26.4%

30.7%34.7%

16.3%18.1%

UnsuccessfulSuccessfulSuccess rate

Num

ber o

f Pro

posa

ls

Discovery Program Rules 2015-16• As with last year, one section dedicated to the Discovery

Program covering: Level and Period of Funding Budget Items Supported and Not Supported Eligible Organisations Limits on Projects and Proposals Submission of proposals Selection and approval process Reporting requirements Fundamental principles of conducting research

Key changes to rules (1)

• Focus groups and reasonable hospitality costs are now included – but must be justified and must directly support the research program

• Simplification of Chief Investigator eligibility rules:CI = at least 0.2 FTE or Emeritus at any Eligible Organisation (not necessarily the Administering Organisation)

• International collaboration further supported in DP via Discovery International Awards (DIAs): old ICA 12-month limit and funding limit removed

Key changes to rules (2)

• Eligibility Exemption Request process introduced for DECRA – must submit an EER if planning to claim a career interruption to extend time beyond 5 years post-PhD – note new instructions on website

• Discovery Indigenous: introduction of Partner Investigator role in line with DP, and award name change to Discovery Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award (DAATSIA)

• Re-introduction of relinquishment rule for Australian Laureate Fellowships proposal eligibility

• Maximum teaching load for Laureates and DECRAs increased from 15% to 20%

Discovery Program

Laureate Fellowships

Future FellowshipsDECRA

Discovery Projects

Linkage Program

Centres of Excellence

Co-Funded & SRIs

Linkage Projects

Discovery Indigenous

ITRP

National Competitive Grants Program

LIEF

Discovery Program Funding2014-15: $549.9 million

Linkage Program Funding2014-15: $325.8 million

Scheme Current stageLinkage Projects 2015 Proposals closed on 12 November 2014.

Proposals are currently under assessment.

Industrial Transformation Research Hubs 2014 Proposals close on 10 December 2014.

Industrial Transformation Training Centres 2015

Proposals close on 10 December 2014.

Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities 2016

Proposals will open 19 February 2015, and close 9 April 2015.

Linkage Program – Key Dates

20022003

20042005

20062007

20082009

20102011

20122013

2014 $40,000,000

$60,000,000

$80,000,000

$100,000,000

$120,000,000

$140,000,000

$160,000,000

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%Total funding Success Rate

Commencement year

Since 2005 there have been approximately 2400 instances of collaboration with Australian company/industry bodies, as partner organisations on Linkage Projects grants.

Linkage Projects Funding and Success rate

Updated LP15 Rules: changes

• Workshops, focus groups and conference costs that are necessary for the conduct of the proposed research may now be supported. All requests must be fully justified in the Proposal form.

• Travel costs essential to the Project are permitted up to a maximum average of $20,000 per year of the Project.

Updated LP15 Rules: changes (2)

• The Funding Rules now do not require a Partner Investigator from each Partner Organisation.

• A Project may now be applied for and awarded funding for a minimum of two to a maximum of five consecutive years.

• There are additional Exempt Partner Organisation types, and the definitions have been clarified.

Updated IH14 Rules: changes

• The Funding Rules do not support Medical Research.*

• Travel costs essential to the Project are permitted up to a maximum average of $20,000 per year of the Project.

*Exception: ITRP Priority “medical devices and biotechnology” (See FAQs)

Updated IC15 Rules: changes

• The Funding Rules do not support Medical Research.*

• A Project may be applied for and awarded funding for four or five consecutive years.

• Higher Degree by Research stipends are for three years plus a six month extension.

• The requirements regarding Partner Organisation Contributions have been simplified.

*Exception: ITRP Priority “medical devices and biotechnology” (See FAQs)

NCGP Proposal Lifecycle

Proposal assessment – overview

• ARC staff and Executive Directors assess eligibility etc., but do not decide which 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

• 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 in the later stages of the peer review process

Assessment Process (1)

• 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

Assessment Process (2)

External Assessment numbers (examples)

External assessments Proposals

Average Assessments per

proposal

DECRA 2015 4578 1394 3.3

Discovery Projects 2015 12,173 3689 3.3

Linkage Projects 2014 2092 699 3.0

• Where the ARC seeks external assessments, applicants are often given the opportunity to submit a Rejoinder to respond to 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

• The ARC will consider requests to remove inappropriate assessments; while rare, this is done from time to time

Rejoinder

• “Grouped Average” of all submitted assessments for the proposal

• This calculation results in a “Proposal Score”

• For the meeting proposal ranks are calculated for each panel

• Any proposals (within same panel) with equal Proposal Scores will have equal ranks.

Average of General Average of Detailed

Average

RANK

Proposal Score Calculation

• The ARC does not normally fund health and medical research through its competitive funding schemes, excepting in special initiatives and circumstances

• The new ARC Medical Research Policy does not change this position but aims to make clear to researchers considering a proposal whether they should apply

• The policy includes FAQs and examples – strongly recommend reading these at first instance

ARC Medical Research Policy

• ARC successfully launched Release 1 of RMS 2.0 on Thursday 21 August 2014.

• RMS 2.0 is a more intuitive system that offers:• Improved workflow• Enhanced navigation• Faster PDF generation, and• Other technical improvements

• Help information is available on the ARC website

• As new functionality is added to RMS 2.0 more information will be provided to users

RMS 2.0

• Since the release the ARC RMS Help Desk has received many queries in relation to password resets and updating org and user details

• The recent RMS release has addressed many of these issues

• This release also introduced auto-populated currently-held ARC project information in person profiles and proposal forms

• Future releases will continue to develop proposal functionality, and any feedback is welcome

• RMS helpdesk rms@arc.gov.au or 02 6287 6789

RMS 2.0 further improvements

Discussion/questions