1. The ARC — overview and opportunities (China) 16 November 2015 Presented by Mr Justin Withers Director, Policy and Integrity The Australian Research Council

2. The ARC is a Commonwealth entity within the Australian Government. The ARC’s main responsibilities are: - providing funding for research through the competitive funding schemes of the National Competitive Grants Programme (NCGP); - evaluating the quality of research in universities under the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) programme; - providing policy advice on research matters to Government; and - together with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), administering the Australian Research Integrity Committee (ARIC).

3. The Australian Research Council The ARC’s mission is to deliver policy and programmes that advance Australian research and innovation globally and benefit the community. In seeking to achieve its mission, the ARC: - supports the highest-quality fundamental and applied research and research training through national competition across all disciplines - the ARC brokers partnerships between researchers and industry, government, community organisations and the international community - clinical and other medical research is primarily supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

4. 2014–15 Federal Budget (Approx. AU$415 billion) (Treasury omitted)

5. 2014–15 Federal Budget Australian Government support for science, research and innovation shown in red

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

7. Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au National Competitive Grants Programme Discovery ProgrammeLinkage Programme Area of box represents dollars awarded over the period 2009 – 2014. N.B. - Centres of Excellence, SRIs, not awarded in every year. - ITRP and DECRA only, funding since 2012

8. Fund excellent, internationally competitive research by individuals and teams that will produce high quality outcomes Build Australia’s research capacity through supporting and facilitating research training and career opportunities for excellent Australian and international researchers Support research in priority areas that will deliver national benefits Enhance research capacity and outcomes through support for international collaboration Discovery Programme objectives

9. Discovery Projects and Discovery Indigenous primarily award project costs (travel, equipment, staff, etc.) Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA) primarily awards a salary for the awardee, with a small allocation of project costs Laureate Fellowships awards a salary top-up plus funding for a team of postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers Each scheme has different selection criteria, rules and funding limits, as each serves a different purpose Key funding features of Discovery schemes

10. Support excellent collaborative research initiatives involving partnerships between higher education organisations and with other sectors in Australia and internationally Foster research training and career opportunities that enable researchers and research students to gain experience working in industry settings Support collaborative research in priority areas that will deliver national benefits Enhance capacity to deliver national benefits by investing in large-scale collaborative research programmes Linkage Programme objectives

11. Linkage Projects primarily award project costs (accessing infrastructure, equipment, travel, hiring personnel etc.) Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme provides funding for large-scale cooperative initiatives ARC Centres of Excellence support large teams to undertake focused and sustained investigations into, and find solutions to, challenging and important problems Other programmes: Industrial Transformation Research Programme and Special Research Initiatives Key funding features of Linkage schemes

12. All ARC funding schemes are open to international applicants applying through eligible Australian organisations Support for international collaboration incorporated within ARC’s funding schemes Partner Investigators (PIs) can be based overseas Project funding for travel, including for overseas PIs, to support international collaboration Information on International Collaboration in ARC schemes: www.arc.gov.au > International Support for international collaboration

13. International Collaboration on ARC-funded Projects, 2009–2014 *Outcomes for 2014 do not include funding for Future Fellowships, Australian Laureate Fellowships, Linkage Projects.

14. Percentage of international collaboration with countries on ARC grants 2011–2015

15. ARC funding by allocation year for projects collaborating with China Funding allocation year 20112012201320142015 Total $ $62,349,793 $67,056,744$70,705,216$79,646,327$85,007,264 Total # of projects 376385398395402

16. New and ongoing projects involving collaboration with China (number and funding), 2015

17. ERA 2010 and 2012 National Reports

18. What is ERA? ERA is a retrospective evaluation of research performance: 2005 – 2010 for research outputs, 2008 – 2010 for other data in the 2012 evaluation. The outcomes (ratings) are determined and moderated by committees of distinguished researchers, drawn from Australia and overseas. The ERA unit of evaluation (UoE) is the discipline within the institution, not individual researchers or institutional units. ERA does not rank institutions or units; each UoE is evaluated on its merits against the rating scale.

19. ERA 2012: Two Digit FoR codes No. of Universities at world standard or higher

20. National Competitive G Other Public Industry ERA rating Income and Quality — 2010

21. Industry Other Public National Competitive G ERA rating Income and Quality — 2012

22. ERA 2012 National Report FoR code 04 EARTH SCIENCES

23. Thank You