ARC Tracker

Yep. It’s common knowledge that to do cutting edge research you need to wait a few years to let the competition catch up!

Agreed. Also the quote marks around "the best" are critical. A colleague's proposal was ranked in the Top 10% of unsuccessful applications last year. This year the same application was placed in the Bottom 25%.

As Tina Turner used to sing "You're simply the beneficiary of a largely random process"

Been away from my devices for a bit and … this 👆 has spread around a bit. For context, this is about the Australian Research Council outcomes released today👇

For the Americans reposting/replying, I do wish you all the best in trying to fund >=37% of basic research as well!

Good point

Nope, it certainly doesn't.

Most assessors give more As, Bs and Cs than they should. There's a pre-defined % for each (e.g. 10% As, 15% Bs etc.). And so the normalisation procedure will make the scores worse for most assessors (e.g. an A will become a B, a B becomes a C etc.).

All assessors are on the College in EOI round. There's no external ("detailed") assessors. There's also no discussion between College assessors for EOIs, so there's no "downgrading" by the College in the EOI round. It's just a straight ranking of average, normalised scores (we are given to believe).

"changed down"? Do you mean the "normalised weighted rating" for an assessor is a lower grade than their scores for the two assessment categories? That is quite normal (unfortunately) because most assessors will still tend to grade higher than they should (e.g. 10% As, 15% Bs etc.).

That is the one silver lining in the 2-stage process. I'm now struggling to think of any others …

There are individual assessor scores beneath the graphic that should tell you slightly more than nothing, though still not a lot. Sorry that your EOI wasn't shortlisted :(

A man standing up in a crowded room of people sitting. He is dressed in workman's clothes and has his head raised as if speaking up when not necessarily belonging there.

We are a rich enough country to be funding 37% of all basic research proposals, not just considering "the best" 37% and then maybe only funding 12% in the end.

Probably. Overall success rate was 37%, across all panels, so it could be closer to ~440 for BSB.

Which is stupid, of course. Obviously we should be told this stuff … but no.

Nope. That stuff isn't given out until the full applications are done and dusted. In fact, it's not even available for the DPEI26 round yet, because the ARC are still holding back outcomes for some DP26 full apps due to "national security and foreign interference" checks still ongoing.

We don't know. There were a lot more EOIs shortlisted this time – a 37% success rate at this EOI stage 👇

In DP26, 526 of 1111 full apps were funded. If same number is funded this time, that'd be 526 of 1733 = 30%. Note that, in 2026, those 526 got a record high fraction of funds they requested.

💯

Black text on white background. Screenshot of ARC Discovery Projects Expressions of Interest shortlisted in the different assessment panels.

More info from ARC about 2027 DP EOI shortlisting ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/sites/defaul...

🔹37.0% success – 1733 of 4679 EOIs (more shortlisted; was 1127/4063=27.7% in 2026)
🔹”A total of EOIs were shortlisted in [the] ‘disparate scores’ process” – ARC stuff-up; didn’t give number.

Breakdown across panels👇

Sorry. The only positive is that you are told early and can get on with other things. But, still, sorry.

Link to RMS got scrambled. It's just rms.arc.gov.au as usual

Outcomes for full apps won’t arrive until “15 Jan – 15 April” next year according to ARC’s new schedule – that’s up to 16 months since the EOIs were submitted 🤯


▶️ www.arc.gov.au/funding-rese...

🚨 #DiscoveryProjects EOI #DPEI27 announcement:

❗️Outcomes for Expressions of Interest should now be available in your RMS account ▶️ rms.arc.gov.xn--au-lmy

ARC should also email Lead CIs with their outcomes (may take a while & be staggered).

Full apps open 2 Mar, due 22 Apr.

I cannot agree more. The ARC, and the other agencies required to check for national security and foreign interference, are clearly not working together to streamline this. It's pretty pathetic, in my view.

I'll post about the confusion about this issue in Estaimtes after the DP EOI outcomes are out

DP27 EOI outcomes should be released today. My bot can't track them because they're not released publicly. Let me know when you get yours so I can post manually.

Last year's outcomes were released to applicants' RMS profiles at 12:30 (Canberra time). Outcomes for other schemes are often around 11.

… otherwise there'd be too many to check.

And we know, as of 30 mins ago, that DPEI27 outcomes will be released tomorrow, as per schedule.

Well, it's not really a rumour that the Minister can veto anything with FI concerns – that's part of the new legislation (the Minister used to be able to veto for any or no particular reason, before this new legislation took effect). But, yes, ARC choose to do FI checks after recommendations …

Screenshot of LinkedIn post from ARC saying that DP27 EOI outcomes will be released on RMS on the 26th Feb 2026.

The ARC have said (on LinkedIn) they will release outcomes for Discovery Projects Expressions of Interest (2027) tomorrow👇

I would very much like to see Universities improve their processes when Research Offices have been gutted across the board while uni admin staff act as proxy immigration investigation officials because the Govt passed that responsibility to them, and now they’re national security officials as well.

Grant timeline delays ‘inevitable’ given security rules, ARC says - Research Professional News Australian Research Council tells Senate of foreign interference issues and restructuring plans

"Unfortunate but inevitable" 😜

More on the completely unworkable grant time-frames ARC recently introduced (up to 16 months!) & the 'oh well, maybe it'll improve?' responses provided by ARC reps in Senate Estimates.

By @jsresearchpro.bsky.social for @resprofnews.bsky.social. No paywall.

Grant timeline delays ‘inevitable’ given security rules, ARC says - Research Professional News Australian Research Council tells Senate of foreign interference issues and restructuring plans

Australia: Grant delays inevitable, Australian Research Council tells Senate Estimates hearing (free to read): www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...

Grant delays feared as ARC ramps up ‘due diligence’ Researchers brace for renewed funding uncertainty as security checks prove ‘more time-consuming than imagined’

Free subscription to Times Higher Ed needed to read the article.

But maybe also try web.archive.org/web/20260213...