The ARC proposes bold plan for national grants—re-building from first principles

The Australian Academy of the Humanities welcomes the Australian Research Council (ARC) Board’s vision for bold reform of the National Competitive Grant Program (NCGP) to set a foundation for the next 20 years. Read our full submission.

As Australia faces a period of geopolitical, social and technological instability, the ARC’s role within the research sector has never been more essential.

Representing over 700 Humanities Fellows, the Academy endorses the Board’s approach to:

• dissolving the false dichotomy between basic and applied research;
• simplifying grant programs and streamlining application and assessment processes;
• committing to uplift Indigenous research;
• supporting early-stage research and Early Career Researchers (ECRs); and
• facilitating opportunities to build scale through the new Collaborate scheme.

“We agree with the Paper’s assessment that the ARC ‘cannot and should not try to do everything’ and that commercialisation programs are not fundamental to the remit of the NCGP,” said Academy President Stephen Garton AM FAHA FRAHS FASSA FRSN. 

“Likewise, we see a role for government priorities in the NCGP but would be concerned if high fixed proportions of program expenditure were set against specific sets of priorities which may prejudice the capacity of the ARC to support investigator-led research that may in the long term deliver more benefits. The history of ‘picking winners’ is a very chequered one.”

“The Academy advocated for a re-build of the NCGP from first principles and we’re pleased to see the Board take this approach. The ‘devil is in the detail’ so we look forward to the next iteration of the plan, so we can fully appraise how the new NGCP will maximise the deep value of humanities research for Australia,” continued Professor Garton.

We want to see:

• a set of guiding principles for the NCGP, built around the ARC’s critical role as the funder of early-stage research across all disciplines;
• clarity about the new arrangements for research infrastructure support, in particular next-generation collaborative LIEF-type investments; and
• attention to costing and modelling for instance, the Breakthrough scheme, which seems pivotal to the ‘bread and butter’ of research, will not go far if only 300 are awarded annually across the nation.

While the Academy supports the broad ambition of this redesign of the NCGP, the success of the new model will depend on elements not so far outlined: the detail of the assessment process, the allocation of funds across disciplines, and the administrative structure within the ARC.

We look forward to bringing humanities voices to the table as we engage with this important consultation and as the new model takes shape.

Read our full submission.

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