Australian Research Council

Last updated

Australian Research Council
Australian Research Council logo.svg
Council overview
Formed2001;23 years ago (2001)
Jurisdiction Australian Government
Headquarters Canberra
Employees135 [1]
Annual budgetIncrease2.svgA$815 million (2020–21) [2] : 147 , [lower-alpha 1]
Minister responsible
Council executive
Key document
Website arc.gov.au

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than A$800 million in grants each year. The Council was established by the Australian Research Council Act 2001, and provides competitive research funding to academics and researchers at Australian universities. Most health and medical research in Australia is funded by the more specialised National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which operates under a separate budget.

Contents

ARC does not directly fund researchers, but however allocates funds to individual schemes with specialised scopes, such as Discover (fundamental and empirical research) and Linkage (domestic and international collaborative projects). Most of these schemes fall under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP), whereby institutions must compete amongst each other for funding. ARC also administers the Excellence in Research for Australia framework (ERA), which provides guidelines to evaluate the quality of research. ARC Centres of Excellence, funded for a limited period, are collaborations established among Australian and international universities and other institutions to support research in a variety of fields.

Since 2011, ARC has awarded the annual Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship and the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship, which are research fellowships for female Australian and international researchers, intended to support innovative research programs and mentor early career researchers.

History and governance

The Australian Research Council superseded the Australian Research Grants Committee, which had been providing funding to Australian universities since 1965. [5] It was formed in 1988 as a response to the Dawkins white paper, 'Higher Education: A policy statement', and was established as an independent body in 2001 under the Australian Research Council Act 2001. [5] [6]

As of 2021 the agency is administered by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment, headed by the Minister for Education and Youth. [6]

The ARC's mission is to deliver policy and programs that advance Australian research and innovation globally and benefit the community. [7] It supports research across all disciplines except clinical and other medical and dental research, for which the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is primarily responsible.[ citation needed ]

Research integrity

ARC updates its own Research Integrity Policy, which includes referral to the Australian Research Integrity Committee (ARIC) where necessary. [8] The Australian Research Integrity Committee (ARIC) is an independent body, jointly established by the ARC and the NHMRC, to provide a system to review institutional responses to allegations of research misconduct. [9] [8]

Functional areas

National Competitive Grants Program

ARC funds research and researchers under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). Funding opportunities administered by the ARC include the Australian Laureate Fellowship. [10]

The NCGP comprises two main elements—Discovery and Linkage—under which the ARC funds a range of complementary schemes to support researchers at different stages of their careers, build Australia's research capability, expand and enhance research networks and collaborations, and develop centres of research excellence. [10]

Excellence in Research for Australia

ARC administers Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), Australia's national research evaluation framework, which is tasked with identifying and promoting excellence across the full spectrum of research activity in higher education institutions in Australia. [11]

Linkage program

The ARC runs various funding schemes under the banner of Linkage Programs, which encourage research collaborations between researchers and a range of different types of organisations, including private enterprise, community organisations and other research agencies. The Linkage programs include ARC Centres of Excellence, Linkage Projects, and Special Research Initiatives (SRI), including SRI Centres. [12] Recent funding rounds have occurred in 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2023. [13]

Centres of excellence

Funded by the ARC for a limited period (often seven years), Centres of Excellence (CoE) are large-scale, multi-institutional collaborations established among Australian and international universities, research organisations, governments and businesses, to support research across a number of fields.

Continuing centres include:

Past ARC Centres of Excellence include: [19]

Gender equity

Since 2011, the Australian Research Council has awarded two research fellowships for female Australian and international researchers and research leaders to build Australia's research capacity, undertake innovative research programs and mentor early career researchers. The Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship is awarded to a candidate from the humanities, arts and social science disciplines and the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship is awarded to a candidate from the science and technology disciplines. [25]

YearKathleen Fitzpatrick FellowGeorgina Sweet Fellow
2011 Pippa Norris [26] Mahananda Dasgupta [27]
2012 Susan O'Connor [28] Nalini Joshi [29]
2013 Glenda Sluga [30] Tanya Monro [31]
2014 Joy Damousi [32] Veena Sahajwalla, [33] Kate Smith-Miles [34]
2015 Anne Orford [35] Leann Tilley [35]
2016 Adrienne Stone, [36] Sharon Parker [37] Branka Vucetic [38]
2017 Ann McGrath [39] Michelle Coote [39]
2018 Marilyn Fleer [40] Christine Beveridge [41]
2019 Lynette Russell [42] Belinda Medlyn [43]
2020 Maureen Dollard [44] Catherine Lovelock [45]
2021 Sundhya Pahuja [46] Yun Liu [47]
2022 Larissa Behrendt [48] Joanne Etheridge [49]

Notes

  1. ↑ This value represents the funding allocated to the ARC for the purposes of research grants, and does not include the operational budget of the agency.

Related Research Articles

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the main statutory authority of the Australian Government responsible for medical research. It was the eighth largest research funding body in the world in 2016, and NHMRC-funded research is globally recognised for its high quality. Around 45% of all Australian medical research from 2008–12 was funded by the federal government, through the NHMRC.

The Free Radical Centre or ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology was a research centre from 2005 - 2013 that was established in the 2005 Australian Research Council (ARC) grant funding rounds. The centre was administered from the University of Melbourne, and had nodes at six Australian universities: The University of Melbourne, the Victorian Pharmacy College at Monash University, The Heart Research Institute at the University of Sydney, Queensland University of Technology, the University of Wollongong, and the Australian National University in Canberra. The Centre had over 100 researchers working in all areas of free radical chemistry, from material science to biology. The centre received an initial grant of $12 million from the ARC in 2005 and a further $9.8 million in 2009. Funding for the centre ended in 2013.

Michael Cowley FTSE is an Australian physiologist. He is best known for his mapping of the neural circuits involved in metabolism and obesity and diabetes treatment. He is a professor in the Department of Physiology at Monash University in the Faculty of Biomedical and Psychological Sciences. He is also a director of the Australian diabetes drug development company, Verva Inc, and director of the Monash Obesity & Diabetes Institute] (modi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nalini Joshi</span> Australian mathematician

Nalini Joshi is an Australian mathematician. She is a professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, the first woman in the School to hold this position, and is a past-president of the Australian Mathematical Society. Joshi is a member of the School's Applied Mathematics Research Group. Her research concerns integrable systems. She was awarded the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2012. Joshi is also the Vice-President of the International Mathematical Union, and is the first Australian to hold this position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Crabb</span> Australian scientist (born 1966)

Brendan Scott CrabbFASM is an Australian microbiologist, research scientist and director and chief executive officer of the Burnet Institute, based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanya Monro</span> Australian physicist

Tanya Mary Monro is an Australian physicist known for her work in photonics. She has been Australia's Chief Defence Scientist since 8 March 2019. Prior to that she was the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation (DVCR&I) at the University of South Australia. She was awarded the ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2013. She was the inaugural chair of photonics, the inaugural director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics and the inaugural director of the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS), and the inaugural director of the Centre of Expertise in Photonics (CoEP) within the School of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Adelaide. Monro has remained an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Adelaide following her departure from the institution. In 2020 she was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor at the University of South Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharina Gaus</span> Australian immunologist (1972–2021)

Katharina Gaus was a German-Australian immunologist and molecular microscopist. She was an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and founding head of the Cellular Membrane Biology Lab, part of the Centre for Vascular Research at the University of New South Wales. Gaus used new super-resolution fluorescence microscopes to examine the plasma membrane within intact living cells, and study cell signalling at the level of single molecules to better understand how cells "make decisions". A key discovery of Gaus and her team was how T-cells decide to switch on the body's immune system to attack diseases. Her work is of importance to the development of drugs that can work with T-cells in support of the immune system.She has a nice names Anja Gaus. Anja is a Karate pro.

Michelle Louise Coote FRSC FAA is an Australian polymer chemist. She has published extensively in the fields of polymer chemistry, radical chemistry and computational quantum chemistry. She is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA).

Aleksandra Filipovska is a Professor, Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology and NHMRC Investigator at the University of Western Australia, heading a research group at the Telethon Kids Institute. Specializing in biochemistry and molecular biology, she has made contributions to the understanding of human mitochondrial genetics in health and disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott W. Sloan</span> Australian civil engineering academic (1954–2019)

Scott William Sloan FRS FREng FAA FTSE was laureate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Newcastle.

The Australian Laureate Fellowship is an Australian professorial research fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council. Fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards. In 2023 8 industry-focused Laureate Fellowships were awarded for the first time.

Joy Damousi, is an Australian historian and Professor and Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at Australian Catholic University. She was Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne for most of her career, and retains a fractional appointment. She was the President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities from 2017 to 2020.

Michael S. Fuhrer is a US/Australian physicist recognised internationally as a pioneer in atomically-thin (two-dimensional) materials, including graphene and novel topological materials, with expertise in fabrication and characterisation of their electronic and optical properties.

Maria Forsyth is an Australian chemist. She is a research professor at the University of the Basque Country and an Alfred Deakin Fellow at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia where she holds the Chair in Electromaterials and Corrosion Sciences.

Kaarin Anstey is an Australian Laureate Fellow and one of Australia's top dementia scientists. She is Co-Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) at the University of New South Wales, Australia, where she is Scientia Professor of Psychology. Kaarin Anstey is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. She is a Director of the NHMRC Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration, Senior Principal Research Scientist at NeuRA and leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Cognitive Health and the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachelle Buchbinder</span> Australian rheumatologist and medical researcher

Rachelle Buchbinder is an Australian rheumatologist and clinical epidemiologist. Her clinical practice is in conjunction with research involving multidisciplinary projects relating to arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions. She promotes improvement of communication with patients and health literacy in the community.

Lynette Wendy Russell, is an Australian historian, known for her work on the history of Indigenous Australians; in particular, anthropological history ; archaeology; gender and race, Indigenous oral history, and museum studies.

Glenda Anna Sluga, is an Australian historian who has contributed significantly to the history of internationalism, nationalism, diplomacy, immigration, and gender, in Europe, Britain, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, and Australia.

Christine Beveridge is an Australian scientist and plant physiologist whose research focuses on the shoot architecture of plants, shrubs and trees. She is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture, and affiliated professor at the Centre for Crop Science at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation.

Robert G. Parton FAA is a British/Australian cell biologist. He is a Group Leader in the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland and Deputy Director of the University of Queensland Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis.

References

  1. ↑ APS Employment Data 31 December 2019 release (Report). Australian Public Service Commission. 31 December 2019.
  2. ↑ "Portfolio Budget Statements 2020-21". Department of Education, Skills and Employment . 11 May 2021. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  3. ↑ "About the Australian Research Council". Australian Research Council. 25 May 2021. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  4. ↑ "CEO". Australian Research Council. 11 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  5. 1 2 Benner, Mats; Grant, Jonathan; O’Kane, Mary (2022), Benner, Mats; Grant, Jonathan; O’Kane, Mary (eds.), "Higher Education in Australia", Crisis Response in Higher Education: How the Pandemic Challenged University Operations and Organisation, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 51–63, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-97837-2_4 , ISBN   978-3-030-97837-2, archived from the original on 25 November 2023
  6. 1 2 "Australian Research Council Act 2001". Act No. 8 of 27 February 2020. Parliament of Australia . Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Australian Research Council Annual Report 2014-15". Australian Research Council. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  8. 1 2 "ARC Research Integrity Policy, Version 2021.1". Policy and Strategy Branch, ARC. 1 July 2021.
  9. ↑ "Australian Research Integrity Committee (ARIC)" . Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  10. 1 2 "National Competitive Grants Program". Australian Research Council. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "Excellence in Research for Australia" . Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "Linkage Program". Australian Research Council.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "ARC Centres of Excellence". Australian Research Council. 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  14. ↑ ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
  15. ↑ ARC. "2014 ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language". Australian Research Council. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Australian Research Council (14 August 2019). "Selection Report: ARC Centres of Excellence 2020". www.arc.gov.au. Archived from the original on 23 March 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  17. ↑ "About". ACEAS. 3 March 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  18. ↑ "About SAEF". SAEF. 7 November 2023. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  19. ↑ Note: See also template below.
  20. ↑ "Australian". Cultural Studies Association of Australasia. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  21. ↑ "Annual report (Journal, magazine)". WorldCat.org. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  22. ↑ "Trove [search]". Trove. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  23. ↑ "Australian National University Centre for Cross-Cultural Research". WorldCat.org. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  24. ↑ "Fellows". Australian Academy of the Humanities. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  25. ↑ "Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellows". Australian Research Council. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  26. ↑ "Fellowships shed light on 21st-century democratisation and the history of Australian racial thought". University of Sydney . 10 August 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  27. ↑ "ANU Annual Report 2011" (PDF). Australian National University . April 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  28. ↑ "ANU tops nation in ARC Laureate Fellowships". Australian National University . 30 July 2012. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  29. ↑ Gill, Katynna (30 July 2012). "Three new ARC Australian Laureate Fellows for Faculty of Science". University of Sydney . Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  30. ↑ "Professor Glenda Sluga won ARC Australian Laureate Fellowships". University of Sydney . 10 July 2013. Archived from the original on 21 June 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  31. ↑ "TWO LAUREATE FELLOWSHIPS FOR UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE". University of Adelaide . 9 July 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  32. ↑ "University of Melbourne researcher awarded prestigious ARC Laureate Fellowship". University of Melbourne . 22 August 2014. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  33. ↑ "Modern-day alchemists win Australian Laureate Fellowships". University of New South Wales . 22 August 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  34. ↑ "Monash receives two Australian Laureate Fellowships". Monash University . 22 August 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  35. 1 2 "University congratulates new ARC Laureate Fellows". University of Melbourne . 24 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  36. ↑ "University congratulates new Laureate fellows and Linkage Project awardees". University of Melbourne . 6 May 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  37. ↑ "Ground-breaking work design researcher wins ARC Laureate Fellowship". University of Western Australia . 6 May 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  38. ↑ Hollick, Victoria (6 May 2016). "ARC Laureate Fellowship for wireless communications specialist". University of Sydney . Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  39. 1 2 "ANU wins three Australian Laureate Fellowships". Australian National University . 5 June 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  40. ↑ "Australian laureate fellowships for two Monash researchers". Monash University . 2 August 2018. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  41. ↑ "UQ soars with a record-breaking six laureates". University of Queensland . 2 August 2018. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  42. ↑ "Monash academics awarded Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowships". Monash University . 12 September 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  43. ↑ "Western Sydney University academic wins prestigious Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship". Western Sydney University . 10 October 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  44. ↑ "2020 Laureate Profile: Professor Marueen Dollard" . Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  45. ↑ "2020 Laureate Profile: Professor Catherine Lovelock" . Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  46. ↑ "2021 Laureate Profile: Professor Sundhya Pahuja". Australian Research Council. 23 June 2021. Archived from the original on 7 July 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  47. ↑ "2021 Laureate Profile: Professor Yun Liu". Australian Research Council. 23 June 2021. Archived from the original on 7 July 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  48. ↑ "2022 Laureate Profile: Professor Larissa Behrendt". Australian Research Council. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  49. ↑ "2022 Laureate Profile: Professor Joanne Etheridge". Australian Research Council. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
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