Update from FASTS: ARC / NHMRC grants for 2009

Submitted by Nigel Palmer on Fri, 2008-10-17 12:44

[Update from Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS)]

Success rates for ARC discovery dropped again marginally to 20.4% which puts them close to the widely acknowledged threshold of <20% whereby researchers start to lose hope and become disengaged with applying (I gather NSF is currently <20%). However, I do note that applications have increased from 3090 in 2002 to 4200 in 2008 which is a function of both renewed hope due to the ARC increases in Backing Australia’s Ability and also an industrial dynamic from the RQF where some universities are regarding ARC applications as evidence of being research active. Nevertheless, it is pretty clear that there are many researchers and research projects that are worthy of support funding who are not successful.

Success rates for linkage grants remains strong at 49.4% with funds awarded covering 67.6% of funds requested.

Bradley Smith
Executive Director
Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies
FASTS

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