Section 5 - Australian Research Council Act 2001 - Linkage Projects - Funding Rules for funding commencing in 2007 - Roles and eligibility for researchers | Zoe
Australian Research Council Act 2001 - Linkage Projects - Funding Rules for funding commencing in 2007
5Roles and eligibility for researchers
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Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Australian Research Council Act 2001 - Linkage Projects - Funding Rules for funding commencing in 2007.
5.1.1 Roles that may be undertaken by researchers under Linkage Projects are:
Chief Investigator (CI);
Partner Investigator (PI); or
Australian Postdoctoral Fellow (Industry).
5.1.2 A Proposal must nominate at least one researcher as a CI or APDI Fellow. A nominated CI or APDI Fellow must satisfy the eligibility criteria for that role as specified in Section 5 of these Funding Rules.
5.1.3 The first-named CI or APDI Fellow on a Proposal will be considered the ‘Project Leader’ of the project.
5.1.4 If a Linkage Projects Proposal seeks support for an APAI stipend, the Proposal must identify at least one CI as supervisor for the student.
5.1.5 A researcher nominated in a Proposal as a CI, PI or APDI Fellow must take significant intellectual responsibility for the proposed project, its conception, and any strategic decisions called for in its pursuit and the communication of results. The researcher must have the capacity to make a serious commitment to the project and cannot assume the role of a supplier of resources for work that will largely be placed in the hands of others. The ARC reserves the right to determine whether a person has the requisite capacity to perform the role.
5.1.6 If the ARC considers that a researcher nominated in the Proposal as a CI, PI or APDI Fellow does not meet the eligibility criteria in this Section or Sections 5.3, 5.4 or 5.5 for the role which that researcher is to perform, the Proposal will not be recommended or approved for funding.
5.2 Early Career Researchers
5.2.1 The ‘Early Career Researcher’ category applies in the ARC Discovery Projects scheme. It is not used in these Funding Rules.
5.3 Eligibility criteria for Chief Investigators
5.3.1 To be eligible to be a CI, a person must meet the following criteria by 1 January 2007 for Round 1, or by 1 July 2007 for Round 2, and for the full term of the funding:
He/she must reside predominantly in Australia. If the person does not have permanent resident status he/she must obtain temporary or permanent resident status from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs;
He/she must meet one of the following two criteria:
be an employee of, and derive at least 50% of her/his salary from, an Eligible Organisation (as listed in Appendix 1); or
be a holder of an Adjunct Appointment or equivalent at an Eligible Organisation (as listed in Appendix 1) who does not have a substantive position or paid appointment elsewhere;
c. Her/his involvement in the proposed project must not generate or represent a significant conflict of interest. At a minimum, this means that a researcher:
must not have any direct or indirect financial interest in any of the proposed Partner Organisations for the project; and
must not hold a position of Director, Board member, or other paid or unpaid senior management or advisory position in any of the proposed Partner Organisations for the project.
Exemptions may be obtained where the ARC considers that any financial interests or positions held by the Chief Investigator are such as would not be likely to affect, or be reasonably perceived to affect, the decisions and/or actions of the Chief Investigator in carrying out his/her responsibilities towards the project (subsection 5.6.4);
d. He/she must not receive any salary from ARC funding for the project (subject to Section 3.7 concerning Linkage Industry Fellows).
5.3.2 Notwithstanding their eligibility under the criteria above, researchers in the following categories are not eligible to be CIs:
an undergraduate student; or
a postgraduate student (unless eligible to be a CI because of employment but only for research which lies outside the scope of the postgraduate studies).
5.3.3 At the time of submission of a Proposal all obligations under any past or current funding agreement entered into with the ARC regarding previously funded projects involving the nominated CIs and APDI Fellows on the Proposal must have been fulfilled to the satisfaction of the ARC. Such obligations include the provision of satisfactory progress and final reports.
5.4 Eligibility criteria for Partner Investigators
5.4.1 To be eligible as a Partner Investigator, a researcher must:
not meet the eligibility criteria for a CI;
be employed by, and derive more than 50 per cent of her/his salary from, an organisation other than those Eligible Organisations listed at Appendix 1;
secure an appropriate contribution of time and operating costs from her/his organisation for the proposed project;
not receive funding from the ARC for the project, unless approved as a Linkage Industry Fellow (see Section 3.7); and
take significant intellectual responsibility as outlined in subsection 5.1.5.
5.4.2 A Partner Investigator may act as a supervisor for an APAI in conjunction with a Chief Investigator who is also involved in the proposed project.
5.4.3 Partner Investigator and Chief Investigator roles are mutually exclusive. An individual cannot be identified as having both roles on Proposals in the same round.
5.5 Eligibility criteria for APDI Fellows
5.5.1 APDI candidates must satisfy the criteria for CIs at subsections 5.3.1a and 5.3.1c above. They must also:
have no more than three years’ postdoctoral equivalent research experience, and have been awarded a PhD not more than three years before the closing time for the relevant round or have not yet submitted a PhD but will do so within six months after the closing time in the relevant round (in which case the Fellowship cannot commence until the PhD has been awarded - if the PhD is not submitted within six months of the closing time for the relevant round any offer of funding for a project involving the APDI Fellow will be withdrawn);
not have previously held any other ARC Fellowship; and
make a full-time commitment to the project.
5.5.2 The ARC regards an APDI as a prestigious award. If the ARC considers the proposed APDI Fellow to be critical to the success of the project and if the proposed APDI Fellow cannot take up the Fellowship, the entire project may be terminated.
5.5.3 Further information on entitlements for APDIs is set out in Appendix 4.
5.6 Requests for exemptions
5.6.1 If one or more of the following eligibility exemptions is required, a request must be lodged according to the process described in Section 7.1.
5.6.2 APDI Career interruption
5.6.2.1 In some circumstances, an APDI candidate may not satisfy all the required eligibility criteria due to research career interruption. Research career interruptions could include, for example, non-research employment, misadventure, or carer responsibilities. If this is the case, a request may be made which seeks an exemption from the relevant eligibility criteria.
5.6.3 APDI PhD
5.6.3.1 Normally, a prerequisite for an APDI is that the candidate is a researcher with a recent PhD (as described in Section 5.5 above). Researchers who do not have a PhD or equivalent research doctorate must submit a request for eligibility exemption which provides evidence that their research is equivalent to a PhD, and that they have no more than three years postdoctoral equivalent research experience.
5.6.4 Interests of Chief Investigators and APDI Fellows
5.6.4.1 A researcher intending to become a Chief Investigator or APDI Fellow may request an exemption from the requirement not to have any direct or indirect financial interest in, or position with, any of the proposed Partner Organisation(s) for the project. Such exemptions may be given if the ARC determines that the researcher’s financial interest, or position held, is not such as to affect, or be reasonably perceived to affect, the decisions and/or actions of the researcher in carrying out her/his responsibilities towards the project.
5.6.4.2 In these cases, a request for exemption may be lodged, together with a statement detailing a researcher’s financial interests or positions held, and justifying her/his claim of special circumstances for an eligibility exemption.