Australian Research Council Act 2001 - Discovery Projects - Funding Rules for funding commencing in 2007
6Cross-scheme issues
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6.1.1 The ARC will not duplicate financial assistance for research already funded by the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth reserves the right to determine if a Proposal duplicates or is likely to duplicate research already being funded by the Commonwealth. In such circumstances the ARC may in its absolute discretion decide to not recommend the Proposal for approval. However, if the ARC considers parts of the proposed project remain worthy of support, the ARC may recommend that a reduced amount of funding be approved for the Proposal.
6.2 Cross-scheme eligibility
6.2.1 If a funding request for any proposed research project, salary or equipment has been or is being submitted to another ARC scheme or to any other Commonwealth funding body, each Proposal must be cross-referenced and summary details of all other funding requests must be included in the Proposal. Proposals must indicate the level of funding obtained, or being sought, from all other Commonwealth funding sources and must list all existing research funding from all Commonwealth sources. If these processes are not observed or the ARC determines that incomplete or inaccurate details were included in the Proposal, the ARC may in its absolute discretion decide to not recommend the Discovery Projects Proposal for approval.
6.2.2 If a researcher is concurrently the subject of multiple Fellowship requests, whether these be in one or more ARC schemes, the Proposals must be cross-referenced. If more than one of these Fellowship requests is approved for funding, only one Fellowship can be accepted.
6.2.3 The ARC may liaise with other funding agencies to discuss any overlap between proposed or existing research projects in order to avoid duplication of funding. The ARC may for this purpose disclose to that agency any information in a Proposal.
6.3 Researchers from Commonwealth-funded Research Centres
6.3.1 Duplication with Commonwealth-funded Research Centres
6.3.1.1 Funding will not be provided for research already funded by a Commonwealth-funded Research Centre or which could reasonably be expected to be supported by the Centre given its research program and its level of funding. The proposed research must not duplicate work that is or will be undertaken by a Commonwealth-funded Research Centre.
Letter showing association between the Proposal and a Commonwealth-funded Research Centre
6.3.1.2 If a Proposal identifies a CI or Fellowship candidate who is substantially associated (subsection 6.3.2 below) with a Commonwealth-funded Research Centre, the Proposal must include a letter from the Centre Director which describes the relationship between the proposed research and the research undertaken by the Centre, and states that “the proposed research does not duplicate work that is already funded or could reasonably be expected to be funded by the Centre”. This letter should be no longer than one page. If such a letter is not provided in the Proposal, the ARC may in its absolute discretion decide to not recommend the Proposal for approval.
Section 6 - Australian Research Council Act 2001 - Discovery Projects - Funding Rules for funding commencing in 2007 - Cross-scheme issues | Zoe
6.3.1.3 The ARC reserves the right to determine if a proposed project duplicates work funded or likely to be funded as part of a Commonwealth-funded Research Centre. In making a determination the ARC may have regard to, amongst other matters, the Centre application, Centre funding agreement, business plans, strategic plans and/or Annual Reports. If the ARC considers any information contained in the Discovery Projects Proposal, the accompanying letter from the Centre Director and/or the Centre Annual Report is inaccurate, false, or misleading in a material respect, the ARC may in its absolute discretion decide to not recommend the Proposal for approval. If, however, the ARC considers that parts of the proposed project remain worthy of support, the ARC may recommend that reduced funding be approved for the Proposal. If the ARC becomes aware of duplication of funding after a project has been funded the project may be terminated and the Centre Director may be asked to show cause why any ARC funding for the Commonwealth-funded Research Centre should not be terminated.
6.3.1.4 Please refer to subsection 5.5.3 for further details on the requirements for statements pertaining to Fellowships proposed to be held by researchers within Commonwealth-funded Research Centres which may need to be included in the letter from the Centre Director.
6.3.2 Substantial association
6.3.2.1 The persons nominated as the Centre Director and Deputy Directors in the initial Centre application or their successors, and researchers who receive more than 30% of their salary from a Commonwealth-funded Research Centre, are considered to be “substantially associated with” the Centre.
6.3.2.2 Notwithstanding subsection 6.3.2.1, the ARC reserves the right to determine whether researchers are substantially associated with a Commonwealth-funded Research Centre and also reserves the right to take into account the magnitude of in-kind contributions when deciding whether a researcher is substantially associated with a Centre (see subsection 8.1.1a ii).
6.4 Funding of clinical medical and dental research
6.4.1 The ARC does not fund clinical medical and dental research and training under Discovery Projects. If the ARC determines that a proposed project would fall within this area of research, the Proposal will not be recommended or approved for funding. In some instances, it may not be clear whether or not a Proposal would fall within this area of research. In these cases, an eligibility ruling may be submitted by forwarding a summary of not more than two pages, outlining the proposed research, according to the process described in Section 7.1.
6.4.2 In all cases, whether or not the above process is observed, the ARC reserves the right to decide whether a proposed project falls within the area of clinical medical and/or dental research and training. If the ARC considers that a Proposal falls within this area of research the Proposal will not be recommended or approved for funding.