Australian Research Council Act 2001 - Discovery Projects - Funding Rules for funding commencing in 2007
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1.1.1 This document sets out the funding rules for Discovery Projects, a scheme funded under the Australian Research Council’s National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP), which comply with the requirements of the ARC Act.
1.1.2 All parties involved in Proposals should read and understand the Funding Rules and the ARC’s standard Funding Agreement (which is available at http://www.arc.gov.au) before submitting a Proposal to the ARC. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their Proposals are complete and accurate.
1.1.3 These Funding Rules are current as at December 2005 and have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the ARC Act in force at that time. These Funding Rules are subject to change at any time, for reasons including any subsequent amendment, replacement or supplementation of the ARC Act.
1.1.4 Funding under Discovery Projects is provided to Administering Organisations, not to researchers. That is, the ARC will accept a Proposal only from an Eligible Organisation and not from any individual researcher or researchers.
1.1.5 However, if, in the opinion of the ARC, any researcher nominated in the Proposal as a CI, PI or ARC Fellow has caused or has significantly contributed to the failure of an organisation to meet its obligations under any current or previous funding agreement with the ARC, the ARC may in its absolute discretion decide to not recommend for approval any or all Proposals involving that researcher.
1.2 NCGP Objectives
1.2.1 The ARC is an Australian Government statutory authority established under the ARC Act. The primary functions of the ARC, as specified by the ARC Act, are to make recommendations regarding the funding of research programs, to administer funding to support research programs, and to provide policy advice related to research.
1.2.2 The ARC has established a range of competitive funding schemes for the support of research and research training under the framework of the NCGP. A list of current NCGP funding schemes is available on the ARC web site at http://www.arc.gov.au.
1.2.3 By the operation of a range of funding schemes under the NCGP, the ARC aims to:
a. maintain and build on existing research and research training;
b. build the scale and focus of research and research training;
c. encourage cross-disciplinary approaches to research and research training;
d. facilitate collaborative approaches to research and research training; and
Section 1 - Australian Research Council Act 2001 - Discovery Projects - Funding Rules for funding commencing in 2007 - Introduction | Zoe
e. support research and research training in the following National Research Priorities:
An Environmentally Sustainable Australia;
Promoting and Maintaining Good Health;
Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries; and
Safeguarding Australia.
1.2.4 Descriptions of these National Research Priorities and their associated Priority Goals can be found in Appendix 1, and on the ARC web site (http://www.arc.gov.au). Assessment of the degree to which a proposed project would contribute to National Research Priorities and Priority Goals may be used as part of the selection process in NCGP schemes.
1.3 Discovery Projects
1.3.1 Discovery Projects, which recognises the importance of fundamental research to the national innovation system, supports research undertaken by individual researchers or research teams.
1.3.2 The objectives of Discovery Projects are to:
a. support excellent fundamental research by individuals and teams;
b. enhance the scale and focus of research in the National Research Priorities (Appendix 1);
c. assist researchers to undertake their research in conditions most conducive to achieving best results;
d. expand Australia’s knowledge base and research capability;
e. foster the international competitiveness of Australian research; and
f. encourage research training in high-quality research environments.
1.3.3 Discovery Projects provides opportunities for a continuum of activities in order to meet the varied needs of researchers in different disciplines and at different stages of their careers.
1.4 Fundamental principles and requirements
1.4.1 Ethics and Research Practices
1.4.1.1 The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) web site, http://www.nhmrc.gov.au, provides a series of publications which outline principles of ethical conduct in research. All Proposals and ARC-funded research projects should conform with the principles outlined in the following and their successor documents:
the Joint NHMRC/AVCC Statement and Guidelines on Research Practice (1997);
as applicable, the NHMRC’s National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans; and
as applicable, the NHMRC’s other codes on animal research.
1.4.2 Non-duplication
1.4.2.1 The ARC will not provide financial assistance to meet the costs of a project to the extent that those costs have been, or are likely to be, met by Commonwealth funding obtained from another source (including other ARC funding). The ARC reserves the right to determine if a Proposal includes such costs and to deem a notional amount for such costs.
1.4.2.2 Where a significant portion of the costs for a proposed project has been, or is likely to be, funded by the Commonwealth from other sources (including other ARC sources), the ARC may decide to recommend that the Proposal not be funded at all. In other cases, the ARC may decide to recommend a reduced amount of funding for the proposed project.
1.4.3 Conflict of interest
1.4.3.1 All parties involved in or associated with Proposals and ARC-funded research projects are required to disclose affiliations with or financial involvement in any organisation which has, or is likely to have, a direct interest in the subject matter or outputs of the project. Such parties have an obligation to disclose at the time of submission of Proposals, or in reporting on ARC-funded research projects, any conflict of interest which has the potential to influence, or appear to influence, their research and activities, publications and media reports, or requests for funding.
1.4.4 Acknowledging ARC support
1.4.4.1 The Funding Agreement requires that any ARC contribution to research and other activities funded by the ARC be appropriately acknowledged. When, at any time during or after completion of a project, the researcher or any other party publishes or produces material such as books, articles, newsletters or other literary or artistic works which relate to the research project, the Administering Organisation must ensure (wherever possible) that the ARC’s contribution and support of the project is acknowledged in a prominent place and in an appropriate form. This acknowledgement should include the mention of the ARC as a funding body. Similar efforts should be made to acknowledge ARC support when participating in television and radio programs, and when interviewed by the print media.
1.4.4.2 Advice on acceptable forms of acknowledgement and use of the ARC logo is provided on the ARC web site at http://www.arc.gov.au.