Discovery Indigenous

Overview

The Discovery Indigenous (IN) scheme provides funding to Administering Organisations to support research projects led by an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander researcher. It includes support for Discovery Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Awards (DAATSIAs) which are fellowships available to eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers. The scheme aims to:

• Support excellent basic research and applied research training by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Island researchers as individuals and as teams
• Support national and international research collaboration
• Enhance the scale and focus of research in Australian Government priority areas
• Support and retain established Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander researchers in Australian higher education institutions.

FUNDING

The scheme provides a minimum of $30,000 and a maximum of $500,000 of funding per year for up to five consecutive years. This funding can be used to provide full-time HDR stipends for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students, hire research personnel, or pay for teaching relief, equipment, consumables, field research, travel, and/or research dissemination. One Discovery Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award (DAATSIA) at one of five salary levels may be requested per project.

NATIONAL INTEREST TEST STATEMENT (NIT)

Draft NIT Statements must be entered into RMS by 29 January 2025 for all applicants, whether they are opting for reviews or not. This allows your Faculty to review and approve your NITS ahead of DVC-R certification.  

The National Interest Test (NIT) Statement is a requirement in all applications for funding under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). The purpose of the NIT is to demonstrate the societal benefits (economic, commercial, environmental, social, or cultural) of the proposed research beyond the academic community. The audience of the NIT is the general public—a different audience than the Application Project Summary, whose audience is the applicant’s peers.

The NIT statement should address the following considerations in a single cohesive statement:

• What is the project about and what research gap is it addressing for Australia?
• How could the research benefit Australians (economically, socially, environmentally, commercially, or culturally)?
• How might you promote your research outcomes beyond academia to maximise understanding, translation, use, and adoption of the research in the future?

It is an ARC requirement that your NIT Statement is certified by the DVC-R prior to the submission of your application. The review and approval of your NIT Statement will be administered by your Faculty.

ESTABLISHMENT GRANTS FOR ARC DAATSIA FELLOWSHIP

For the 2025 IN scheme, DAATSIA Fellowships will be supported on a 2:1 co-contribution basis by an internal grant, with a maximum DVC(R) contribution of $100,000 matched to a maximum of $50,000 from the relevant Faculty/Department/School.

This Establishment Grant aims to:

• Enhance the candidate’s competitiveness when applying for the ARC Discovery Indigenous scheme
• Support successful ARC DAATSIAs in establishing their research program at the University of Melbourne

This grant is only available for ARC DAATSIA Fellowships.

Faculties may set their own objectives and priorities in determining which candidates will be nominated for Establishment Grant support. IN applicants must apply to their host faculty for Establishment Grant support through whatever process the faculty deems appropriate. Establishment Grant requests must be submitted by faculties to Research, Innovation and Commercialisation (RIC), not directly by individual IN applicants. For further information, refer to your Faculty Research Manager.

SELECTION CRITERIA

The selection criteria and their weightings are as follows:

• Investigator(s)/capability: 35%
• Project quality and innovation: 40%
• Benefit: 15%
• Feasibility: 10%

ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible to be Chief Investigator on a 2026 Discovery Indigenous Project, you must at 1 January 2026 (and if successful, for the whole project activity period):

a. be an employee for at least 0.2 FTE at an Eligible Organisation; or 
b. be a holder of an honorary academic appointment at an Eligible Organisation.

Honorary academic appointment for eligibility purposes means any honorary position that gives full academic status, as certified by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) or equivalent in the application. The researcher must have access to research support comparable to employees e.g. an emeritus appointment. The researcher is not eligible to be a Chief investigator using their honorary academic appointment if they are employed by an organisation other than an Eligible Organisation for more than 0.2 FTE.

If you wish to apply as a Chief Investigator and you hold an honorary appointment (with no more than 0.2 FTE paid appointment at an organisation other than an Eligible Organisation), please contact ric-arcdiscovery@unimelb.edu.au as soon as possible to arrange DVCR certification.

ACTIVE PROJECTS & ACTIVE PROJECT ASSESSMENT DATE

The key dates for the IN25 round are:

IN26 Funding Commencement Date: 1 January 2026

IN26 Active Project Assessment Date: 1 July 2026

The Active Project Assessment Date is important as it is used to assess applicant's cross-scheme eligibility, i.e. whether they have been named on too many ARC applications and projects to be eligible for IN funding. Both Active Projects (as per the definition below) and projects under assessment are considered.

An Active Project refers to an ARC project that is receiving funding according to the terms of the original Funding Agreement, has any carryover funds approved by the ARC, or has an approved variation to the project’s end date. If a project has carried forward any funding or its end date has changed, the new end date determines if the project is active. Active projects can be viewed via the applicant's RMS profile by selecting Person Profile > Current ARC Projects> End Date. Projects with Final Reports due are not considered active projects.

The ARC will calculate active projects upon the submission of proposals (and may calculate them again as other scheme rounds’ announcements are made and End of Year Reports are submitted).

You can participate in a maximum of two Discovery Program projects at the same time. Accordingly, you can apply for an IN26 while holding two DPs that end prior to 1 July 2026, but you cannot start the IN26 until at least one of the DPs has been completed, one DP has been relinquished, or your role on one DP has been relinquished.

For the 2026 round of Discovery Indigenous projects, all CIs must meet the following criteria on 1 July 2026:

Grant Guide Section 4.24:  "Within the Discovery Program, a researcher can be funded for a maximum of:
a. two Projects as a CI; or
b. one ARC Fellowship and one Project as a CI; or
c.  one ARC Fellowship or project if the individual is also a Director on an active ARC Centre of Excellence and/or a Special Research Initiative project."

Applicants should review all limits on projects themselves. See 4.22–4.28 (pages 7–8) of the Grant Guidelines.

If you or any of the CIs listed on your project have two active projects as of 1 July 2026, please contact RIC-arcdiscovery@unimelb.edu.au to discuss either formally amending your end date or arranging a project or role relinquishment through a variation.

If are unsure whether you or any of the CIs listed on your project meet the eligibility requirements, please contact RIC-arcdiscovery@unimelb.edu.au for clarification.

RESEARCH OUTPUTS

Research outputs must first be added to an applicant's RMS profile before they can be selected for inclusion on an application. The University's recommended approach is to export research outputs from Elements as a BibTeX file and then import this file into RMS to achieve best data integrity. For help with this process or with Elements, please contact your Faculty Research Office or research-outputs@unimelb.edu.au.

Further resources to assist with managing Research Outputs are available below under Supporting documents > Research Outputs.

REQUEST NOT TO ASSESS

If you have a conflict of interest with a researcher from an external institution, it is possible to request that they not be considered as a detailed assessor for your application. More details about this can be found on the ARC Request Not to Assess webpage.

How to apply

1. Submit a Notice of Intent (NOI)

   The NOI should be completed early so that the RIC has the CIA's contact details.

2. Update RMS  profile

   Each CI and Partner Investigator (PI) must obtain access to RMS and update their profile information (see RMS information)

3. Review documentation

   Review the Discovery Indigenous Grant Guidelines and the Instructions to Applicants. These are available under ARC Documents and Resources below.

4. Complete the draft application in RMS

   Log on to RMS to complete the draft application.

5. Submit 'Review ready' application to RIC

   Submit your application by emailing RIC (ric-arcdiscovery@unimelb.edu.au)  -by 10am, Wednesday 29 January 2024. Attach a complete review-ready draft application downloaded from RMS as a PDF with the following sections completed:

   • Section A - Administrative Summary
   • Section B - Participant Details including ROPE
   • Section C - Project Description
   • Section D - Project Cost
   • Section E - Classifications and Other Statistical Information
   • Section F - Project Eligibility

6. Application review

   RIC staff members will review the application and provide you with feedback via email.

7. Complete the application

   After taking feedback from the RIC team into consideration, complete the application in RMS. We suggested that you also seek advice from colleagues, faculty mentors, etc., before finalising the application.

8. Submit the UOM Authority to Submit form

   This form should include:

   • A complete compliance and eligibility section
   • The signature of the Head of Department for each CI
   • The signature of the DVCR or CEO (or delegate) for all Participating Organisations

   Electronic signatures are permitted.

   This is an ARC requirement and the application cannot be submitted to ARC until the Authority to Submit is received.

9. Final submission

   By 10am, Monday 17 February 2025, IN26 applicant must:

   • Submit a final application by clicking ‘Submit to Research Office’ in RMS.
   • Email RIC ric-arcdiscovery@unimelb.edu.au) a PDF copy of the final application and a signed Authority to Submit form

10. RIC will submit the application

    Once the application has been submitted to ARC, you will receive an email from RIC confirming submission.

Supporting documents

ARC Documents and Resources

• ARC Discovery Indigenous webpage
• IN26 Discovery Program Grant Guidelines (2024 Edition)
• IN26 Discovery Program Grant Guidelines - Summary of changes (2024 Edition)
• IN26 Important Dates (updated 25/11/2024)
• IN26 Discovery Program Draft Grant Agreement (updated 25/11/2024)
• IN26 Frequently Asked Questions (version 1.1 - updated  18/12/2024)
• IN26 Instructions to Applicants (updated 25/11/2024)
• IN26 Sample Application Form (updated 25/11/2024)
• ARC College of Experts
• ARC Medical Research Policy
• ARC Science and Research Priorities webpage
• RMS User Guide - Requesting and Maintaining an RMS Account Aug 2024 (Version 4)
• RMS User Guide - Submitting an Application in RMS Aug 2024 (Version 5)
• RMS User Guide - Submitting a Request Not to Assess Aug 2024 (Version 4)

RIC Documents and Resources

• Register a NOI (Notice of Intent Submission)
• IN26 Part B3 Research Load Template (updated 25/11/2024)
• IN26 RIC Authority to Submit Form (updated 23/01/2025)
• IN26 Salary Scales and Budget Preparation (updated 10/01/2025)
• 2024 College of Experts Members - FOR division (updated 1/11/2024)

Research Outputs

• RMS User Guide - Research Outputs Aug 2024 (Version 7)
• UoM Research Outputs and the ARC (see step by step instructions and video)
• UoM Manage your research outputs
• UoM Research Impact Library Advisory Service (RILAS)

Seminars

• ARC IN25 webinar (held 27 November 2023) - updated 03/01/2024

Rejoinders

• ARC Rejoinders website
• ARC Rejoinder Assessment Review Request Form
• RMS User Guide - Submitting a Rejoinder Aug 2021 (Version 4)
• UoM Rejoinder fact sheet 01 March 2022

Note on rejoinders: Assessor comments should only include details on Project quality and innovation, Impact, Investigator(s’) capability and quality of team and Strength of the proposed research alliance. Assessors should not be commenting on Eligibility and Compliance. If you identify an assessment that contains inappropriate elements, you can have this reviewed by the ARC. You can do this by completing an ARC Assessment Review Request form within 3 working days after the opening of the Rejoinder period. Please note that applicants should never contact the ARC directly. Always speak to your Faculty or RIC first.

Contacts