The Australian Research Council has recently updated its Important Dates for the forthcoming Centres of Excellence (COE) round, including both the EOI and full application phases.
While the ARC is yet to officially announce the call for proposals and publish the scheme documentation for 2014 COEs, with the round timelines now firming up, UTAS has opened its internal EOI process with immediate effect.
The ARC Centres of Excellence scheme aims to fund highly innovative and transformational research potentially leading to international standing and a significant advancement of capabilities and knowledge. The Centres will link existing Australian research strengths and build critical mass with new capacity for interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches to address the most challenging and significant research problems. Moreover, the Centres of Excellence will build Australia’s human capacity in a range of research areas by attracting and retaining, from within Australia and abroad, researchers of high international standing as well as the most promising research students.
This is the fourth major round of applications under the ARC’s Centres of Excellence program (the 1st being in 2003, the 2nd in 2005 and the 3rd in 2011). For this round, the ARC has designated a competitive two-stage process. Proponents will initially submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to the ARC. After shortlisting of all EOIs, the ARC will then formally invite the submission of full proposals. Please note: we understand that the ARC will only consider full proposals that have been preceded by a shortlisted EOI; that is, participation in the EOI process is mandatory.
The number of ARC Centres of Excellence to be established nationally is likely to depend on the level of funding approved for each Centre. Successful Centres should expect to receive ARC funding of approximately $1M-4M per annum, although the final figures are yet to be confirmed in the scheme documentation. The ARC strongly encourages applicants to maximise the impact of its funding by obtaining commitments of additional financial contributions from a variety of sources including collaborating and partner organisations.
The Office of the DVC (Research; ODVCR), in conjunction with colleagues in the Office of Research Services (ORS), will oversee applications for 2014 ARC COEs. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research; ODVCR) now invites UTAS researchers to submit internal EOIs for COE applications where the University would be the Administering (lead) Organisation. UTAS’s lead EOIs will be subject to internal selection, and successful teams invited to proceed with the lodgement of an ARC Expression of Interest.
For UTAS researchers involved in COE applications led by another university, a brief outline of the developing bid and the nature of UTAS’s involvement must also be provided to the ODVCR on the UTAS EOI proforma so that the University is fully briefed on the ‘supporting partner’ bids in which we will potentially be involved.
Internal Expressions of Interest are to use the proforma available at the UTAS Research Services website. Given the highly competitive nature of the scheme and need for institutional counterpart cash, UTAS will put forward a targeted field of EOIs to the ARC.
Internal EOIs must be forwarded electronically to the ORS at research.funding@utas.edu.au no later than midday 25 February 2013.
A review committee including members of the Senior Executive will then examine the University’s EOIs, provide high-level strategic feedback, and invite selected teams to go forward to the ARC EOI process. Outcomes of the internal UTAS EOI process will be made known by early March 2013.
Applications that proceed to the ARC will be supported institutionally with both cash and in-kind. Obviously, such support will be determined in detail for each bid prior to the lodgement of full applications. UTAS’s cash support package will continue to demonstrate its strong commitment to COEs. There is no need to address the issue of cash support in the internal EOI process but teams should be cognisant of the need for leveraging as an inherent part of the COE scheme.
| 25 February 2013 |
|
| Early March 2013 |
|
While the ARC timelines are still denoted as ‘indicative’ on their Important Dates webpage, key ARC dates as known at this stage are:
|
Following the anticipated release in early April of the ARC Centres of Excellence Funding Rules for funding commencing in 2014, the ARC will present an information session at the University of Tasmania on Friday 12 April.
Laura Dan (Acting Branch Manager, Strategy and Programs) and Penny Bambrick (Assistant Director, Centres) will give a presentation about the scheme and answer questions.
|
Date: |
Friday 12th April 2013 |
|
Time: |
1:00pm - 3:00pm |
|
Locations: |
|
Attendance should focus on research administrators, Associate Deans (Research) and potential Centre Directors, although other potential participants or organisation representatives are also welcome to attend.
Please note that sessions will not answer specific questions on interpretation of sections in the Funding Rules or provide advice on preparing applications.
Please rsvp to Research.Funding@utas.edu.au by Wednesday 10th April.
Any enquires on the application process or development of proposals can be directed to the ORS in the first instance at: Research.Funding@utas.edu.au
The UTAS ORS team supporting the COE round will be Jodi Clyde-Smith, Executive Director (Research Operations), and Ian Cummings, Senior Project Officer (ARC). The Office of the DVC (Research) will also be on hand for the provision of high-level strategic support.
