Future Fellowships

Overview

Future Fellowships reflect the Australian Government’s commitment to excellence in research by supporting excellent mid-career researchers to undertake high quality research in areas of national and international benefit

The Future Fellowships scheme objectives are to:

• support outstanding mid-career researchers, with demonstrated capacity for high-quality research, leadership, research training and mentoring;
• support excellent basic and applied research by outstanding mid-career researchers to be recruited and retained by universities in continuing academic positions;
• foster national and international research collaboration;
• support excellent and innovative research that addresses a significant problem or gap in knowledge and represents value for money;
• create new or advanced knowledge resulting from the outcomes of the research with economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia, and enhances the scale and focus of research in Australian Government priority areas.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

• Investigator/Capability: 50%
• Project Quality and Innovation: 25%
• Benefit: 15%
• Feasibility and Strategic Alignment: 10%

FUNDING

The scheme provides Future Fellow’s salary (including 30 per cent on-costs) at one of three salary levels, and project funding (up to $60k per year) for four years. Project funding can be used to hire research personnel, support HDR students, project equipment (and its maintenance) and consumables, field research (including fieldwork related travel and accommodation), travel costs essential to the project ($100k limit on project total, excluding fieldwork), and other project specific costs (e.g. access to archives, databases, publication costs, web hosting and development). See Grant Guidelines for more information.

NATIONAL INTEREST TEST (NIT)

Finalised NITS must be entered into RMS by 10am 6 October 2026 for all applicants (with exception to FEIT), 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 FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS

Establishment Grants are internal University of Melbourne grants that support ARC Future Fellowship recipients at the university. To be eligible for Chancellery support, matching funding must be provided by the host department/school/faculty on a 1:1 basis. Applications for Establishment Grants should be requested at the ARC Future Fellowship application stage. Each faculty has their own internal requirements to apply for this grant. Refer to: Establishment Grants for ARC Future Fellowships Applicants for details on how to apply.

C2 ADMINISTERING ORGANISATION LETTER OF SUPPORT

IMPORTANT: It is mandatory for your ‘C2 Administering Organisation Letter of Support’ to be submitted for review and approval. As this is an official letter from the university, a final version needs to be officially approved through MRE before it is uploaded into RMS.

The requirements for review vary depending on faculty. Please view your faculty requirements here. When drafting your letter, you must use the university approved template below under Supporting documents > MRE Documents and Resources).

SCHEME LIMITS

Candidates may be nominated for a Future Fellowship three times over the period in which they are eligible. This includes applications that are withdrawn after the grant closing date or those that are deemed ineligible.

For information regarding project limits under the ARC Discovery Program please consult the Grant Guidelines.

ACTIVE PROJECT AND ACTIVE PROJECT ASSESSMENT DATE

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

The Active Project Assessment Date is a date on which active project eligibility will be considered for project and application limits per named participant.

A named participant can be concurrently funded through the Discovery Program for a maximum of:

• two projects as a Chief Investigator (CI); or
• one ARC Fellowship and one project as a CI; or
• 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.

If a Future Fellowships application is successful, named participants must meet the above project limits before the project can start. Project limits can be met by relinquishing existing active project(s), or relinquishing role(s) on existing active projects, or withdrawing application(s) that would exceed the project limits. This may not need to occur until all applications are announced.

Important dates for FT27 grant round:

• Grant Commencement Date: 1 July 2027
• Active Project Assessment Date: 1 January 2028

For example: A Future Fellowship candidate can apply for a FT27 while holding two active Discovery Projects (DPs) as at the FT27 Active Project Assessment Date, but must relinquish a DP (or their CI role on that Project) if the FT27 application is successful, in order to meet the limit of one ARC Fellowship and one project as a CI. If one or both of these projects have an end date before the FT27 Active Project Assessment Date the fellow will not be required to take further steps to ensure their eligibility.

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.

Please contact your local Faculty Research Office or research-outputs@unimelb.edu.au for help with the process or to amend data in Elements.

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 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 Cayuse NOI should be completed early to provide MRE with your contact details.  For further information, refer to the MRE Quick Guide or the UoM Cayuse NOI Guide : Research Gateway

2. Update RMS profile

   Obtain access to RMS and update profile information (see RMS information)

3. Review documentation

   Review the Grant Guidelines and the Instructions to Applicants.

4. Complete the draft application in RMS

   Log on to RMS to complete the draft application.

5. Administering Organisation Letter of Support (C2)

   Work on the Letter with your supervisor and department/faculty.  Please see Faculty specific review instructions here.  An updated letter template is available below.

6. Eligibility Exemption Request

   If applicable, complete an Eligibility Exemption Request (EER) form. This is a spreadsheet that details career interruptions for applicants whose PhD was awarded before the anticipated FT27 eligibility date of 1 March 2012. The FT27 EER form is available below.

   Completed EER form must be submitted to ric-arcgrants@unimelb.edu.au by Tuesday 6 October 2026 to allow MRE sufficient time to review and to arrange DVC(R) certification.

7. Draft application ready for MRE and/or ExpERT review

   All applications for MRE Review must be ready in RMS by 10am Tuesday 6 October 2026.

   In addition to the standard review provided by MRE, an "UoM ExpERT panel review" led by Chancellery is being offered for the FT27 round.  Please book a session here.

   All components of your FT27 application should be complete when submitting for MRE and/or ExpERT review.

   • An electronic copy of the application will be downloaded from RMS in bulk. Please ensure that the application in RMS is the most up to date version.
   • Applicants from MLS and MDHS will be asked to upload a draft copy of your C2: Administering Organisation Letter of Support in the Qualtrics survey form. Applicants from other faculties must follow instructions set by their faculties - see here for details.
   • Fellowship Level Justification. If you are applying for a Future Fellowship salary level (D1) that does not align with your current academic appointment level (B18), Faculty approval is required. The DVCR- certified justification for the proposed fellowship level must be included in the C2 Administering Organisation Letter of Support.

8. Request Not To Assess

   If applicable, the applicant should complete the Request Not to Assess in RMS if they would like to request the exclusion of a potential assessor. Submit  this to the Research Office in RMS by 10am Wednesday 23 October 2026.

9. Application review

   MRE staff members will review the application and provide the applicant with feedback via Cayuse 'Tasks'.

10. Complete the application

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

11. Final submission

    By Friday 30 October 2026 (10am), the applicant must:

    • Submit final application by clicking ‘Submit to Research Office’ in RMS. MRE will download the application directly from RMS and conduct final checks on applications with the status 'Submitted to the Research Office'.
    • IMPORTANT: Authority to Submit (ATS) forms are not required for this scheme. HoD/HoS approval will be via exception (managed by MRE in Cayuse). If your HoD/HoS does not approve your application, we will not be able to submit it to the ARC.

    Note: Applications without faculty approval will not be submitted to the ARC.

12. MRE will submit the application

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

Supporting documents

ARC Documents and Resources

• ARC Future Fellowships webpage
• ARC College of Experts
• ARC Medical Research Policy
• ARC Policy Statement on Experimental Development  (effective Aug 2024, V1.0)
• ARC Science and Research Priorities webpage

• FT27 Discovery Fellowships Grant Guidelines 2026 Edition
• FT27 Summary of Changes - Discovery Fellowships Guidelines
• FT27 Draft Discovery Fellowship Grant Agreement
• FT27 Frequently Asked Questions
• FT27 Instructions to Applicants

• RMS User Guide - Requesting and Maintaining an RMS Account (updated Aug 2024, V4.0)
• RMS User Guide - Submitting an Application in RMS (updated Aug 2024, V5.0
• RMS User Guide - Submitting a Request Not to Assess (updated Aug 2024, V5.0)

MRE Documents and Resources

(UoM login required for some of the following documents/links. Please email ric-ARCgrants@unimelb.edu.au or your faculty research office if you require copies)

• Register a Cayuse NOI (Notice of Intent) and Instructions
• FT27 C2 Administering Organisation Letter of Support template
• FT27 Pitch Slide Template
• FT27 Eligibility Extension Request (EER) Form
• FT27 Eligibility Extension Request (EER) Info Sheet
• FT27 Part B4 Research Load Template (updated 24/9/2026)
• FT27 Salary Scales and Budget Preparation workbook (updated 8/10/2026, v1.3)
• Budget Justification (D2 and D3) Guide
• FT27 MRE Applicant Guide
• FT27 ExpERT review advice for applicants
• FT27 ExpERT reviewers Panel and FoR Codes
• UoM Guide on the ARC Medical Research Policy (MRP)
• UoM Grants Library of Successful Applications
• UoM Advancing Melbourne Strategy (for C2 Support Letter) 
• 2025 ARC College of Experts Members - FOR division (updated 13/11/2025)

National Interest Test (NIT)

• ARC National Interest Test statement (NIT) website
• ARC National Interest Test statement (NIT) samples
• NITS Writing Workshop slides and recording 7/11/2023 (UoM login required)

Research Outputs

• RMS User Guide - Research Outputs (updated Aug 2024, V7.0)
• UoM Research Outputs and the ARC (see step by step instructions and video)
• UoM Manage your research outputs
• UoM Research Impact - Library Support and Guides

Seminars

• RIC FT27 information Webinar 24 September 2026 Recording and Slides

Rejoinders

• ARC Rejoinders website
• ARC Rejoinder Assessment Review Request Form
• RMS User Guide - Submitting a Rejoinder Aug 2024 (Version 5)
• UoM Rejoinder fact sheet June 2023

Note: Assessor comments should only include details on Investigator/Capability, Project Quality and Innovation, Benefit, and Feasibility. Assessors should not be commenting on Eligibility and Compliance. If you identify an assessment that contains inappropriate elements you may wish to 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