If we want the Australian university sector to help fuel innovation, then we need to ensure the right researchers are being supported by our funding bodies, such as the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
But if funding is too risk averse, then academics will play it safe and fail to innovate. And if funding only flows to senior researchers, then younger researchers will leave the sector.
The outcomes of several ARC schemes were announced last Friday. We, along with many other Australian academics, waited for the announcement with a combination of expectation and dread.
Why dread? Because only 17.7% of ARC Discovery Project grant applications are funded. That means more than four out of five applications – and all the researchers attached to them – are left in the lurch. For the lucky few who do get funded, budgets are typically slashed by a third.
Perhaps we can count ourselves among the lucky few, since some of our grant applications were funded.
On for young and old?
If so few applications are successful, it raises the question of who is receiving the funding, and are they the best people to advance innovation in research?
So who is rewarded by ARC funding? There are fellowships for early career, mid career and high profile researchers. However, for many academics, their main access to research funding is via ARC Discovery Projects.
The ARC’s statistics show that researchers have a 17.7% chance of successfully applying for an ARC Discovery Project. Looking at the ARC’s numbers, it initially seems that seniority doesn’t provide that much advantage. Even academics who received their PhDs two decades ago have a success rate between 20% and 23%.
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However, the ARC’s statistics omit key details. A grant application may have multiple “chief investigators” (CIs), but it is often the lead chief investigator who defines the research program and receives the lion’s share of the funding and kudos.
This year, all 15 of the successful astrophysics ARC Discovery Projects were led by full professors rather than less senior researchers. Was this a statistical fluke? Or are the stats on the ARC website not telling the full story?
We looked at who was leading successful ARC Discovery Projects across all disciplines, and found that full professors (Level E) were the lead authors of 60% of all ARC Discovery Projects. Associate Professors (Level D) led 18% of ARC Discovery Projects, while senior lecturers (Level C) and lecturers (Level B) split the remaining 22%. ARC Discovery Projects are typically led by the most senior academics.