Hundreds of new research proposals approved

Hundreds of new research proposals approved

The Federal Government recently announced 660 approved research projects which will receive funding from the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Discovery Projects.

ARC will be providing almost $285m worth of funding to 660 research collaborations which will commence next year.

"The research done by our universities can lead to the development of new products and innovations that drive job growth, business opportunities and productivity gains,” Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said.

"This investment will help develop solutions to problems in areas such as health, infrastructure, economics and the environment”.

Data from ARC showed biological sciences received the most number of approvals with 108 getting the nod, followed by engineering, which had 98 proposals secure funding. The field of education came in last, with just three proposals approved.

The 2020 round, which specifically seeks to “benefit Australians”, posted a success rate of 23% for project approval and a return rate of 73.6% for approved applications – a slight improvement from 2019, which had a success rate of 22.4% and a return rate of 70.7%.

"The public accountability of these projects has been improved by the application of the national interest test which uses plain English to explain the value of research to the country," Minister Tehan said.

Top recipients

Data from the ARC showed that NSW will receive the largest funding with $92.32m. The state had 945 applications considered, but only 218 were approved, yielding a success rate of 23.1%.

Following NSW was Victoria, which had 198 approved projects out of 875 proposals considered by ARC – a success rate of 22.6%. Victoria is set to receive $87.26m to cover its approved research projects.

As for higher education institutions, Monash University is set to receive the largest funding with $36.4m. This is an increase from the $26.3m worth of funding Monash received for this year.

Out of 311 proposals considered for the 2020 round, the University is set to launch 83 approved projects next year, among these covering globally-focused areas of research such as artificial intelligence and data science, health sciences, sustainable development, as well as better governance and policy.

Monash secured over $150m of funding under the Discovery Projects scheme since 2014, covering some 374 projects.

Following Monash is the University of New South Wales (UNSW), which received $30.8m to cover 72 approved projects which also cover a broad range of topics such as nanoelectronics, neurosciences, insurance risk management and city planning. The UNSW had 296 proposals considered for the 2020 round.

The University of Queensland, which had 246 proposals considered, is set to receive $28m to cover 62 of its approved proposals.

The University of Sydney, which had 58 proposals approved, is also set to receive more than $25m.