1. How the ARC funds good research 8 July 2015 Professor Aidan Byrne CEO, Australian Research Council

2. Source: www.globalresearchcouncil.org Freedom, Flexibility and Risk taking Diverse Portfolio Review and Evaluation Partnership with stakeholders International collaboration Challenges!

3. Outline (1) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Outcomes Evaluation

4. R&D expenditure % GDP vs. researchers per million Bubble size = GDP The Race to Innovate 1996–2012

5. R&D expenditure % GDP vs. researchers per million Bubble size = GDP The Race to Innovate 1996–2012 (2)

6. R&D expenditure % GDP vs. GDP per Cap. Bubble size = Researchers per million The Race to Innovate

7. R&D expenditure % GDP vs. GDP per Cap. Bubble size = Researchers per million The Race to Innovate

8. Outline (2) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Outcomes Evaluation

9. 2014–15 Federal Budget (Approx. AU$415 billion) 2014-15 Federal (Treasury omitted)

10. 2014–15 Federal Budget (Approx. AU$415 billion) Australian Government support for science, research and innovation shown in red (Treasury omitted)

11. Commonwealth Investment in R&D 2014–15 ($m)

12. Focusing Government Investment Research Priorities The Australian Government has developed a set of Science and Research Priorities, they are: - soil and water - transport - cybersecurity - energy - resources - advanced manufacturing - environmental change - Health More information at www.science.gov.au

13. National Competitive Grants Program Discovery ProgramsLinkage Programs Laureate Fellowships Future Fellowships DECRA Discovery Projects Centres of Excellence SRIs ITRP Linkage Projects Other Fellowships Area of box represents $$ awarded over the period 2009–2014. N.B. - Centres of Excellence, SRIs, not awarded in every year. - ITRP & DECRA only funding since 2012 LIEF Other Linkage (incl. NICTA)

14. ARC NCGP funding by scheme 2006–2014

15. ARC NCGP funding* by Fields of Research 2002–2014 *All grants, excluding NICTA and some co-funded centres and SRIs where Field of Research was not nominated

16. FOR Network mapping… STEM disciplines highlighted Source data: ARC Grants Search

17. Outline (3) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Process Outcomes Evaluation

18. Source: www.smbc-comics.com Zach Weinersmith Dispelling the myths!

19. ARC Assessment Process Application Panel External Assessment Selection Meeting Outcomes

20. Proposal assessment—overview The peer review process is designed to be fair, thorough and transparent All proposals are assessed against the selection criteria, and in accordance with the weightings for that scheme Proposals are generally assigned to two types of assessors: –two College of Experts members (General assessors), and –at least two Detailed assessors ARC staff assess eligibility etc., but do not decide which proposals should be funded

21. Cross assignment between panels DP 2015 Assessing Interdisciplinary research

22. Detailed Assessment numbers— some examples Scheme Detailed assessments Proposals Average assessments per proposal DECRA 2015457813943.3 Discovery Projects 2015 12,17336893.3 Linkage Projects 201522947103.2 The ARC is grateful to a large number of extremely hard-working assessors who conduct the peer review process:

23. Safeguards Detailed Assessment Rejoinders ROPE Conflict of interest Ministerial sign-off

24. ARC Meeting Process Funded application Highly Funded application ranked Funded application Uncertain application 1 Funded application Uncertain application 2 UncertaintyUncertain application 3 bandUncertain application 4 Uncertain application 5 Uncertain application 6 Unfunded application Lowly Unfunded application ranked Uncertain application 7 Unfunded application Final recommendation Uncertain application 1Fund NominalUncertain application 4Fund fundingUncertain application 3Fund line --------->Uncertain application 2Fund Uncertain application 7Reserve Uncertain application 5Not fund Uncertain application 6Not fund Initial Ranking Shortlisting Funding Voting

25. Alternative Processes! Source: BMJ Open, http://bmjopen.bmj.com

26. Outline (4) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Process Outcomes Evaluation

27. Histogram of Rank

28. Discovery Projects grants outcomes DP15 Success rates Institution

29. Grants funding by institute (%) 1971–2014 ARC becomes a statutory agency NICTA

30. Average age of lead CIs in DP grants (+DECRA 2012–2014) DECRA average age ~35

31. Average age of lead CIs in DP grants (+DECRA 2012–2014 & Futures 2009–2013)

32. First-time awardees by scheme 2008–14

33. Participation and success of CIs in DP13 and DP14 by gender and career age

34. Participation and success of Chief Investigators (CIs) in DP15 by gender and career age

35. Outline (5) International Landscape Current Funding Landscape Assessment Process Outcomes Evaluation

36. Excellence in research for Australia

37. Australia has one of the highest percentage outputs of international collaboration YS Chi

38. Aggregate National Performance—Citations Michael West, Benchmarking Australian Science Performance, Office of the Chief Scientist Occasional Paper, Feb 2013.

39. Source: www.globalresearchcouncil.org Freedom, Flexibility and Risk taking Diverse Portfolio Review and Evaluation Partnership with stakeholders International collaboration Challenges! (2)

40. Discussion/questions