PURPOSE
To grow knowledge and innovation for the benefit of the Australian community by funding the highest quality research, assessing the quality, engagement and impact of research, and providing advice on research matters. The ARC is a non-corporate Commonwealth entity established under the Australian Research Council Act 2001 , located within the Australian Government’s Education portfolio, and reporting to the Minister for Education and Youth. The ARC is responsible for administering the NCGP, assessing the quality, engagement and impact of research and providing advice and support on research matters. The ARC is committed to achieving efficiencies for Government and as such, is now also providing specialist research-based grants administration services to other Australian Government agencies that is standardised, efficient and supports the Government’s Streamlining Government Grants Administration initiative. Funding the highest quality research The NCGP funds fundamental and applied research and research training to eligible organisations in all fields across the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, as well as the humanities, arts and social sciences disciplines. The NCGP comprises 13 schemes under 2 programs: the Discovery Program, which focuses on supporting individuals and small teams to undertake fundamental research; and the Linkage Program, which creates links between university researchers, industry partners and other community organisations to undertake applied research. Funding under the NCGP is awarded based on competitive peer review processes involving Australian and international assessors.
Assessing the quality, engagement and impact of research The ARC administers two evaluation processes to assess the quality, engagement and impact of research. ERA provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality of research produced by Australian universities against international benchmarks. In 2018 the ARC conducted its fourth ERA assessment following the 2010, 2012 and 2015 rounds. The next ERA round will take place in 2023. The ARC is also responsible for administering the EI assessment of university research. EI assesses the engagement of researchers with research end users and illustrates how universities are translating their research into economic, social, environmental, cultural and other impacts. The ARC conducted the inaugural EI assessment in 2018. The next round of EI will be in 2024. In 2020–21 the ARC completed a review of ERA and EI to ensure they continue to reflect world’s best practice in research assessment and respond to the ongoing needs of university, industry, community and government stakeholders. The ERA EI Review Advisory Committee made 22 recommendations to the ARC to improve ERA and EI. The ARC has accepted all of the recommendations and will work with universities and other stakeholders to deliver these improvements in future ERA and EI rounds.
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AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL Corporate Plan 2021–22
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