ARC OverviewWater Services Association meeting

14 July 2015

Dr Fiona Cameron

Executive Director, Biological Sciences

Outline

• Current Funding Landscape • Assessment• Outcomes• Evaluation

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

2014-15 Federal

(Treasury omitted)

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

Australian Government support for science, research and innovation

shown in red

(Treasury omitted)

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

Industry R&D Tax Measures

Block Funding (incl. RIBG, JRE, SRO, APA + RTS)

NHMRC

ARC

CSIRO

DSTO

Business Innovation

Rural

ANSTO

CRCs

Energy and the Environment

Geoscience Australia

Other Health

Other R&D

$0 $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500 $3,000

Focusing Government InvestmentResearch 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

Commonwealth Investment in R&D 2014–15

CSIRO8.11%

DSTO4.44%

ARC9.53%

NHMRC10.12%

Australian Government R&D

7.50%

Industry R&D Tax Measures26.44%

Business R&D0.02%

Business Innovation3.30%

Block Funding21.19%

Higher Education R&D0.47%

Other Health0.63%

CRCs1.63%

Rural3.30%

Energy and the En-vironment

1.37%

Other R&D1.95%

Source: Budget 2014–2015 In-dustry and Innovation tables

National Competitive Grants ProgrammeDiscovery Programmes Linkage Programmes

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

LIEFOther Linkage

(incl. NICTA)

ARC NCGP funding by scheme 2006–2014

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

LASP

Thinking Systems

Research Networks

Linkage International

LP

LIEF

Future Fellows

Linkage Postdoctoral (CSIRO)

Super Science Fellows

Laureates

Federation Fellows

DECRA

DP

Discovery Indigenous

DIRD

NICTA

ITRP Hubs

ITRP Centres

SRIs / other Centres

CoE

ARC NCGP funding* by Fields of Research 2002–2014

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100% Mathematical Sciences

Physical Sciences

Chemical Sciences

Earth Sciences

Environmental Sciences

Biological Sciences

Information and Computing Sciences

Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences

Engineering

Technology

Medical and Health Sciences

Built Environment and Design

Education

Economics

Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services

Studies in Human Society

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences

Law and Legal Studies

Studies in Creative Arts and Writing

Language, Communication and Culture

History and Archaeology

Philosophy and Religious Studies

*All grants, excluding NICTA and some co-funded centres and SRIs where Field of Research was not nominated

FOR Network mapping…STEM disciplines highlighted

Source data: ARC Grants Search

01 MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES02 PHYSICAL SCIENCES03 CHEMICAL SCIENCES04 EARTH SCIENCES05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES07 AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY SCIENCES08 INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES09 ENGINEERING10 TECHNOLOGY11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES 12 BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN13 EDUCATION14 ECONOMICS15 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY17 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES18 LAW AND LEGAL STUDIES19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE21 HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY22 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Outline (2)

• Current Funding Landscape • Assessment Process• Outcomes• Evaluation

ARC Assessment Process

Application

Panel

External Assessmen

t

Selection Meeting

Outcomes

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

Cross assignment between panels

DP 2015

Assessing Interdisciplinary research

BSBEMIHCAPCESBE

Detailed Assessment numbers—some examples

Scheme Detailed assessments Proposals

Average assessments per proposal

DECRA 2015 4578 1394 3.3Discovery Projects 2015 12,173 3689 3.3

Linkage Projects 2015 2294 710 3.2

The ARC is grateful to a large number of extremely hard-working assessors who conduct the peer review process:

Safeguards

• Detailed Assessment• Rejoinders• ROPE• Conflict of interest• Ministerial sign-off

Outline (3)

• Current Funding Landscape • Assessment Process• Outcomes• Evaluation

Histogram of Rank

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100% Queensland Institute of Medical ResearchMurdoch UniversityCharles Darwin UniversityThe University of New EnglandAustralian Catholic UniversityCSIROVictoria UniversitySouthern Cross UniversityThe Flinders University of South AustraliaCharles Sturt UniversityUniversity of CanberraLa Trobe UniversityUniversity of South AustraliaSwinburne University of TechnologyDeakin UniversityUniversity of Western SydneyRMIT UniversityGriffith UniversityCurtin University of TechnologyUniversity of Technology, SydneyMacquarie UniversityThe University of NewcastleJuvenile Diabetes Research Foundation AustraliaQueensland University of TechnologyUniversity of TasmaniaUniversity of WollongongThe University of SydneyThe University of AdelaideThe University of Western AustraliaThe University of New South WalesJames Cook UniversityThe University of MelbourneThe University of QueenslandThe Australian National UniversityMonash UniversityAdministering organisation

ARC NCGP funding awarded by organisation (%) 2009–2014

RUNIRUATNGo8Unaligned

Higher Education Government Commercial Non-profit/other

LP Linkages

Australia

2011–14

Higher Education Water utility / related org Industry / other

LP Linkages

Water companies and related

2011–14

Outline (4)

• Current Funding Landscape • Assessment Process• Outcomes• Evaluation

Excellence in research for Australia

Where is ERA up to?ERA 2015 • 8 Chairs Appointed

• 147 REC members appointed

• Over 1100 peer reviewers appointed

• Evaluation underway

• Results early December 2015

Post ERA 2015 • Work on evaluation metrics for next round

Discussion/questions