1Introduction

1 Introduction

These guidelines set out the funding rules under the Australian Research Council Act 2001 for Discovery—Projects which is part of the Australian Research Council’s National Competitive Grants Programme (NCGP). The NCGP comprises two elements, Discovery and Linkage.

The Discovery—Projects Guidelines for Funding Commencing in 2003 issued in November 2001 are revoked and this document now comprises the Discovery—Projects Guidelines for Funding Commencing in 2003.

Discovery—Projects, which recognises the importance of fundamental research to the national innovation system, is an application-based programme available for individual researchers or research teams.

These Guidelines are written on the basis that it is the researcher who is the applicant. However, grants from the ARC are made to organisations, not to the individual researchers.

Private researchers may apply for Discovery—Projects grants but must nominate the administering organisation to which funds are to be paid if an award is made.