Discovery Projects

Critical Dates

**PLEASE NOTE NEW TWO-STAGE PROCESS IN DP25**

Monday 30 October 2023

Release of 2025 Grant Guidelines

12-1pm, Tuesday 28 November 2023

RIC information webinar - slides and recording

1-2pm Wednesday 29 November 2023

ARC seminar - "How to Pitch an EOI" - slides and recording

Monday 22 January 2024

DP25 EOI scheme opens

12pm - 1pm daily, Monday 22 January 2024 - Tuesday 30 January 2024

RIC Drop-in sessions

5pm Wednesday 31 January 2024

Review-ready DP25 EOI applications due to RIC (optional process)

Upload/submit your PDF DPEI25 via the Qualtrics form

Opt-ins for UoM mock panel process also via the same Qualtrics form - details below, under "How to apply"

Thursday 8 February 2024

DP25 EOI Request Not to Assess due to RIC

Tuesday 13 February 2024

DP25 EOI Request Not to Assess due to ARC

5pm Wednesday 21 February 2024

Final DP25 EOI Stage Applications due to RIC - **MANDATORY**

Upload/submit your PDF DPEI25 via the Qualtrics form

Tuesday 27 February 2024

DP25 EOI Stage Applications due to ARC

Monday 8 April 2024 to Wednesday 10 April 2024

DP25 EOI Outcomes Announced

Thursday 11 April 2024

DP25 Full Applications open

Tuesday 4 June 2024

DP25 Full Applications close

Wednesday 7 August 2024 to Tuesday 20 August 2024

DP25 Rejoinders

Wednesday 20 November 2024 to Friday 29 November 2024

DP25 Outcomes Announced

Overview

The ARC Discovery Projects scheme provides grant funding to support research projects that may be undertaken by both individual researchers or research teams.

The Discovery Projects aims to:

  • Support excellent basic and applied research and research training by individuals and teams
  • Support national and international research collaboration
  • Enhance the scale and focus of research in Australian Government priority areas.

KEY CHANGES TO 2025 ROUND

ARC Discovery Projects for funding commencing in 2025 (DP25) will run in a two-stage application process:

  1. An Expression of Interest (EOI) stage which comprises of a shorter application including ROPE for all Chief Investigators (CI) and Partner Investigators (PI) and a two-page project description.
  2. A full application stage, where shortlisted applicants are invited to submit.

EOI stage criteria are based on Investigator/Capability (30%) and Project Quality and Innovation (70%).

EOIs will be assessed by three ARC College of Expert (CoE) members. Following a moderation process, highly-ranked projects will be invited to submit a full proposal. Applicants should note that CoE members, not detailed assessors will rank EOI applications, and pitch the EOI accordingly.

Please note that the ROPE sections cannot be changed from EOI to full proposal stage. This means that project teams cannot be changed from EOI to full proposal stage. Applicants invited to a full proposal will have the ROPE section automatically populated.

Project eligibility limits still apply, and will be considered at the EOI stage.

NITS, Medical Research Policy, and Budget sections will appear at the Full Application stage only.

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. Project costs can be used to hire research personnel (inc. HDR students), teaching relief, travel, field research, equipment, maintenance (inc. consumables), and other expenses (inc. dissemination costs and workshops). See Section 5 of the Discovery Program Grant Guidelines for further details.

NATIONAL INTEREST TEST (NIT) (Full Application stage only)

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. NIT Statements will only be required if progressing to the Full Application stage.

SELECTION CRITERIA

The assessment criteria for the EOI stage are:

  • Investigator(s)/Capability: 30%
  • Project quality and innovation: 70%

The assessment criteria for the full application stage are:

  • Investigator(s)/ Capability: 30%
  • Project Quality and Innovation: 45%
  • Benefit:15%
  • Feasibility:10%

ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible as a Chief Investigator on a 2025 Discovery Project (DP25) you must, at 1 January 2025 (and if successful, for the 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) and  please contact ric-arcdiscovery@unimelb.edu.au as soon as possible to arrange DVCR certification.

ACTIVE PROJECT AND ACTIVE PROJECTS ASSESSMENT DATE

The key dates for the DP25 round are:

DP25 Funding Commencement Date: 1 January 2025

DP25 Active Project Assessment Date: 1 July 2025

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 further DE 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 a DE25 while holding two DPs that end prior to 1 July 2025, but you cannot start the DE25 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 2025 round of Discovery Projects, all CIs must meet the following criteria on 1 July 2025:

Grant Guide Section 4.20:  "A named participant can be concurrently funded through the Discovery Program 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 4.18–4.24 (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 2025, 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 ARC Research Management System (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

Please note the Request to Assess process will only occur at the EOI stage.

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 potential 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

    All CIs and PIs must obtain access to RMS and update their profile information (see RMS information)

  3. Review documentation

    Review the Discovery Project 2025 Grant Guidelines, Instructions to Applicants and the FAQs (when available). These documents can be found under ARC Documents and Resources below.

  4. Complete the draft application in RMS

    Log in to RMS and complete the draft application.

  5. Submit 'Review ready' application to RIC

  6. Please note that the Qualtrics form has replaced the process of emailing RIC your review-ready application PDF.

    If you wish to receive a RIC compliance and eligibility review, you can indicate this on the form and attach/upload a PDF copy of your RMS EIDP25 application.

    In addition to the standard compliance and eligibility review provided by RIC, a new "mock ARC panel review" initiative is being offered for the EIDP25 round.

    You will be asked on the form for your voluntary participation in any/all of the below:

    1. RIC compliance and eligibility review
    2. Written feedback from a mock ARC-style panel
    3. Mock assessors zoom session (“fly-on-the-wall” experience a mock ARC assessor meeting and brainstorming with panel members and fellow applicants)

    All components of the EOI application should be complete when submitting for RIC review. Because some parts of the application are auto-populated from the profile, review-ready drafts should have complete, up-to-date profiles for all personnel in RMS.

  7. Application review

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

  8. Complete the application

    After taking feedback from the RIC team into consideration, complete the application in RMS. It is suggested advice is sought from colleagues, faculty mentors, etc. before finalising the application.

  9. Final submission

    On the final application due date to RIC, the applicant must:

    • Submit final application by clicking ‘Submit to Research Office’ in RMS
    • Create a PDF of your application in RMS, ensuring it states 'Submitted to Research Office' in the footer.
    • Lodge your PDF via Qualtrics form.

    Note that Authority to Submit forms are not required at the EOI stage for DP25.

  10. RIC will submit the application to ARC

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

Supporting documents

ARC Documents and Resources

EOI DOCS

FULL APPLICATION DOCS

GENERAL DOCS

RIC Documents and Resources

EOI DOCS

GENERAL DOCS

National Interest Test (NIT)

Research Outputs

Seminars

Rejoinders

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

Questions and primary email
ric-arcdiscovery@unimelb.edu.au

Key contacts

Leah Sullivan+61 3 8344 2012
Carrie Liang+61 3 8344 0440