ARC Tracker

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...

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

The massive delays ARC announced for all grant schemes – with longer processing times & 3-month announcement windows – were examined in Senate Estimates recently.

Here’s John Ross reporting on it, & the confusing Estimates hearing, for Times Higher Ed👇

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/grant-d...

Yes, rejoinders don't ever(?) seem to be delayed, so I tend not to remark on them … well, sometimes I do, but mostly for DECRAs (where applicants may not know there's a specific date where assessor reports are released). Hopefully we'll hear about the projected delays to outcomes in Estimates today.

Senate Estimates agenda: www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

ARC is up at Senate Estimates this Thursday (12Feb) at 8pm (Canberra) – somehow not last on the agenda.

I really hope they're questioned about the completely ridiculous & unworkable time-frames they introduced for all grant schemes (e.g. 16 months for DPs!)👇

* Still 3rd last but before ANU & TEQSA

Yeah, I won’t delete it the Twitter account, yet. At the moment it’s just sitting there, locked, pinging me when the ARC posts to it.

Yeah, I won’t delete it the Twitter account, yet. At the moment it’s just sitting there, locked, pinging me when the ARC posts to it.

Thanks. Will look into that. I find LI a bit ick. But not in the same way as X, by any means.

No, I was wrong. The ARC just posted on X – you know, the platform that whose offices have been raided by French police because it produces and hosts child exploitation materials? Yes, that X.

#ARCSenateOrder Jan26:

The ARC made no grant recommendations in January.

See https://www.arc.gov.au/about/our-organisation/reporting/senate-requirements/agency-grants-pratt-motion

/bot

They've been posting the 1-or-2 day heads-up before outcome announcements on LinkedIn for some time now, so I will not even be checking their X/Twitter account anymore. Thank goodness.

Note: I won't be joining LinkedIn. It's terms of use state a requirement to use real names.

Update:

ARC hasn't posted on X/Twitter for the past 5 weeks. They've been posting elsewhere with the same frequency as usual (every few days or so).

So, it's quite possible they've stopped using X. They've not stated anything anywhere though.

ARC grant scheme timetable, including open, close and anticipated outcome announcement dates for Expressions Of Interest and full applications, plus rejoinder periods and selection meeting dates.

#ARCschedule Feb26

Outcomes for Discovery Projects EOIs expected late Feb.

Other events:
🔹Rejoinders: Future Fellowship open & close, Industrial Transformation Centres & Hubs close.

Data ▶️ docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

#ARCSenateOrder Dec25:

The ARC made no grant recommendations in December.

See https://www.arc.gov.au/about/our-organisation/reporting/senate-requirements/agency-grants-pratt-motion

/bot

While AI Data Centres Boom, Public Research Hits a Wall For the last five years, the National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS) has functioned like a steady “electricity grid” for science: a somewhat predictable way to access national supercomp...

nathangarland.substack.com/p/while-ai-d...

Just going to leave this here for you, ARC

Black text on grey background. Screenshot of direct message from a researcher in Australia describing how the immigration time-scales for a postdoc coming to Australia are now so long that they undo the much better efficiency of other countries’ grant systems.

Very common story from a follower👇

Even if you can avoid ARC’s ludicrously long time-scales & recruit via another country’s much more efficient system, you hit Australia’s immigration system.

Barrier after barrier. It’s YEARS between idea & starting the research in Australia.

The slooow country.

Yes, in the "this is how to completely destroy any remaining ability to plan or innovate" sense, it is wild indeed.

Absolutely. Here's my original thread about it 👇

It *must* be changed!
bsky.app/profile/arc-...

Australia: new Australian Research Council grant timelines dismay researchers (free to read): www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...

Grey text on white background. Screenshot excerpt from article linked in first post of thread.

Grey text on white background. Screenshot excerpt from article linked in first post of thread.

Article isn't paywalled, so you can read it all yourself, but here's what I said (↙️) & what ARC said (↘️).

Here’s @jsresearchpro.bsky.social reporting on ridiculous new ARC grant time-scales (e.g. 16 months for DPs).

The ARC “did not respond to questions about the reasons for the length of the delays or on how the changes will affect researchers’ planning”.

I reckon they haven’t thought that far ahead.

Yep, and they all change that, IMO. There's a few unis who stopped using X a while ago (e.g. UNSW, UTas). They're still on it, though. Same for U Adelaide, but the new Adelaide U hasn't made an account, it seems. I've not checked systematically for all unis; these are just ones I've come across.

*moved from being simply…

Just noting that ARC is still on X/Twitter. Despite it now being clear that that platform produces child exploitation materials, they remain active there.

If you interact with ARC staff, I really think they need to answer this question. It's moved being simply "disconnected from researchers" to … 🤢

I received a US NSF fellowship (before it got gutted) and turnaround was ~4 months. The European Marie Curie program has a turnaround of ~6 months.

Programs servicing MUCH larger populations manage decent timelines. How does the ARC manage to be so inefficient?

The amount of pain this is going to cause (not just for researchers, but for Research Offices, the ARC, and the ministers themselves) is infinitely greater than the possibility of catching the 0.00001% of grants with potential national security impacts.

Completely unacceptable delays to grant announcements. Such delays undermine industry collaborations, abort promising academic careers (especially of junior researchers) and waste a massive amount of $.

If I were a foreign power doing "foreign interference" on a tiny fraction of Australian research projects, I wouldn't believe my luck that Australia's response was to extend grant time-scales to 16 months while failing to reverse its systematic decline in research funding.

Talk about bang-for-buck!

I doubt there's any thought about how it will "work". It's just ARC not being able to control time-frames & uncertainties of security checking processes that other agencies perform. They claim it's due to the new legislation, but it's really because they have zero clout with the relevant Ministers.