The Future Fellowships scheme objectives are to:

  • - support outstanding mid-career researchers, with demonstrated capacity for high-quality research, leadership, research training and mentoring;
  • - support excellent basic and applied research by outstanding mid-career researchers to be recruited and retained by universities in continuing academic positions;  
  • - foster national and international research collaboration;
  • - support excellent and innovative research that addresses a significant problem or gap in knowledge and represents value for money;
  • - create new or advanced knowledge resulting from the outcomes of the research with economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia, and enhances the scale and focus of research in Australian Government priority areas.

Funding and Grant Duration

Fellowship Salary

Requested and/or awarded at one of three salary levels including on-costs (see Table 4 of the Grant Guidelines)

Fellowship Salary duration

Four consecutive years on a full-time basis. A Future Fellowship may be undertaken on a part-time basis not exceeding eight consecutive years

Project funding

Up to $60,000 per year

Project funding duration

Four consecutive years full-time

Assessment Criteria

Investigator/Capability – 50%

Project Quality and Innovation – 25%

Benefit – 15%

Feasibility and strategic alignment – 10%

Future Fellowship 2024 (FT24) – eligibility PhD

To be eligible, the candidate must, as at the grant opportunity closing date:

  • have an award of PhD date on, or between, 1 March 2009 and 1 March 2019; or
  • have a PhD award date together with an allowable period of career interruptions that would be commensurate with an award of PhD date on, or between, 1 March 2009 and 1 March 2019. The allowable career interruptions set out, and the period allowed for each are in Table 5 of the Discovery Program Grant Guidelines – Fellowships (2023 edition).

Key Dates for Future Fellowships

Draft Project Description, Budget and Statement by the Administering Organisation due to the Research Grants Team: 29 August 2023

Release of Grant Guidelines: 9 August 2023

Applications open in the ARC RMS system: 5 October 2023

Request Not to Assess internal deadline: 6 November 2023

Request Not to Assess Closes to the ARC: 9 November 2023

Final Applications due to the Research Grants Team: 2 November 2023

Applications Close to the ARC: 23 November 2023

Rejoinders:  14 March to 27 March 2024

Anticipated Announcement:  25 July to 7 August 2024

Peer Review

Contact your Faculty ADR/Institute Director or Faculty/Institute Research Manager for advice on peer review programs.

ACU Library

Support for grant applications

ACU Library’s Impact Service can provide evidence of research performance which can be used in grant applications. They can also advise on Research Data Management Plans and Open Access requirements.

Researchers can request a consultation with a Senior Librarian by emailing the following:

Education and Arts – LibraryFEA@acu.edu.au

Health Sciences – LibrarySoAH@acu.edu.au

Law and Business – LibraryFLB@acu.edu.au

Theology and Philosophy – LibraryFTP@acu.edu.au

ACU eResearch

Support for grant applications

The ACU eResearch team can assist with:

  • Development of research data management plans
  • Development of estimates for the IT components of grant applications
  • Calculation of inā€kind contributions based on Intersect services, such as high performance computing (HPC) and consultation/advice
  • Advice on research data storage
  • Advice on research computing platforms
  • Advice on research tools and applications

The eResearch team can be contacted via email e.Research@acu.edu.au

Documents and Resources

ARC

ARC Future Fellowship webpage

Future Fellowship factsheet (PDF, 250KB)

Discovery Fellowships Grant Guidelines 2023 edition (PDF, 630KB)

Summary of Changes – Discovery Fellowships Grant Guidelines 2023 (PDF, 253KB)

Instructions to Applicants – (To be added when the scheme opens on October 5)

Sample Application Form - (To be added when the scheme opens on October 5)

Discovery Program Draft Grant Agreement -  (To be added when the scheme opens on October 5)

Frequently Asked Questions – (To be added when the scheme opens on October 5)

RMS User Guide - Requesting and Maintaining an RMS User Account (PDF, 1.55MB) 

RMS User Guide – Submitting an Application in RMS (PDF, 1.98MB) 

RMS User Guide – Submitting a Request Not to Assess (PDF, 622KB)

Australian Government Science and Research Priorities

Medical Research Policy

Articulating National Interest in grant applications

ARC College of Experts

ACU

How to Submit a Project Registration Online Form (PROF) in Orion (PDF, 927KB)

Pre-Award Salaries Calculator (XLSX, 319KB)

ACU Academic Staff and Professional Staff salaries

Rejoinders

As part of the ARC assessment process the assessment comments provided by external assessors are made available to applicants prior to the final assessments being conducted by the Selection Advisory Committee. The rejoinder process then allows applicants to respond to assessment comments made by external assessors.

ARC Rejoinder information

Instructions for accessing assessments and submitting your rejoinder text in RMS (PDF, 610KB)

Page last updated on 04/09/2023

Service Central

Visit Service Central to access Corporate Services.


Other service contacts


Learning and Teaching
Library
Request Something

Make a request for services provided by Corporate Services.


Request something
Knowledge base

Find answers to frequently asked questions 24/7.


See Knowledge Base