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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Palli has indeed been saying this for years 🤣😇 It would be a simple matter for the ARC to analyse the data they have, or release it (anonymised) for others to analyse, to support (or not) the decision to have a partial lottery. Many have pointed this out to them, for years, but they have't done it.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

They've not given those details yet, but the phrasing they use makes it sound like the emphasis is on deciding if something's "highly competitive" or just "competitive". I think a better approach is to decide what fraction of funds are to be allocated via lottery.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Yep, and the ARC has said in no uncertain terms that that is up to unis, not the ARC. I foresee genuine and long-standing problems being baked into the research sector because of this. It all stems from underfunding of both unis and the ARC.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

And they’ve introduced “Research Points” to replace the “2 slots” system to determine whether or not you’ve got too many other grants to apply for a new one ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/researchpoints

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Researchers at all career stages can apply. Project funds can be up to $400k per year for 3 years. ECRs can include their salary in the request. It’s welcome that this scheme is a 3-year scheme, not a 2-year one as many worried would happen, given the early consultations on the new schemes.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

ARC has given some details of how new Explore scheme will run ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/news-and-pub... ❗️There's a lottery❗️ Peer review yields 3 categories: highly competitive, competitive, uncompetitive. After funding highly competitive apps, competitive ones enter a lottery for remaining $.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Oh my, in my previous posts in this thread I had mistakenly thought Breakthrough would run in 2027, not 2028 as you've patiently, repeatedly pointed out. Apologies! Why did I have that idea in my head?? Anyway, thanks. And, yes, then the DP28 eligibility limits make a lot LESS sense now. Uggh!

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

But DP28 only opens ~5 months before Breakthrough. The ridiculous blowout in the timescale of all ARC schemes is what’s hurting here, rather than the particular restrictions on DP28, I feel.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I strongly suspect you’ll be eligible to apply for Breakthrough, which is supposed to be in “Q3”. This is seemingly the ARC’s intention behind limiting DP28 eligibility.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Never attribute to competence …

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The ARC: Funding safe ideas from the past for a safe and predictable future.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

That’s right, yes. But how, exactly, this is supposed to work has not been addressed by the ARC at all, as far as I’m aware.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Our research therefore always has a “ideas from 3-to-5 years ago” vintage

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Yeah, I’m not sure why that is. Maybe allowing more time because there’ll be significant changes – EOIs in recent years, but not this time, plus the other changes that mostly affect research offices and their procedures?

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

ARC has provided key dates for the next (supposedly final) Discovery Projects round (DP28) ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/funding-rese... Opens 1 Feb, closes 10 May 27. Outcomes not until Apr–May 28😔 (this is embarrassing) Look out for Guidelines in “late Oct” – remember, no rejoinder! So it’ll be…interesting 🧐

arc.gov.au

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Normally there’s broadly similar (same ballpark) number of apps considered in the different discipline panels, with even more similar success rates. You can check previous selection reports for this.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It’s been almost a year since DP26 outcomes were announced, and still no selection report!

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

In recent times, when they have not yet finished some “due diligence” (security checks) on some to-be-funded apps, they said (on the RMS outcomes site) that they’ll keep the selection report back until it’s all done. Haven’t said that for FT26 but I assume that’s the reason.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

#ARCschedule Sep26 Outcomes possible for Industrial Transformation schemes. FT26 already announced. Other events: 🔹Open: 2027 rounds of Future Fellowships & Industrial Tran. schemes 🔹Selection meetings: Laureate Fellowships (but outcomes in Mar ’27 🤡) Data ▶️ docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

ARC grant scheme timetable, including open, close and anticipated outcome announcement dates for Expressions Of Interest and full applications, plus rejoinder periods and selection meeting dates.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Congrats. It's a nice scheme to be "lucky" in! Glad my posts have helped in some small way 😇

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The College are “General” because they are supposed to be able to assess across a large range of disciplines. That has to happen at some point. But, yes, it’s questionable how well that can really be done.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Yes, it assumes that. At some point, in some way, there has to be a way to decide between funding apps from different disciplines. Detailed reviewers can’t do it. Alternative is to split the funding into tiny bits, one bit per narrow field. Also not great. Again, I’m not saying College is perfect.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

And, again, I don’t think this is good. There are better systems (that take more people more time & are more expensive), but this is why this happens in the current system – the College has no choice but to kill grants it thinks aren’t as good as others, & only they see a large number to compare.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

To be clear tho: the College isn’t “disregarding” expert assessments. If 50% of apps get all As & Bs from detailed assessors, the College has to spread those 50% to distinguish the “best” 20% to be funded. There *must* then be many cases like yours.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

They may well remove detailed assessors … it’s currently unclear to me whether that is what they’re saying they’ll do for Discovery Projects.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Yes, this would be better, but it is certainly more time-intensive and expensive (in several ways).

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I’m sorry. I know it’s hard. That was the point of that thread though – to explain why this happens. I know it doesn’t make it easier to accept, but it does explain why the College ends up having such low scores in quite a lot of cases where the detailed assessor scores were great.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Yeah, it would be nice if it were 30% like it should be. And not just temporary. There's a fixed amount of money the ARC's got, and more invested in one scheme means less in another.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'm sure there's a metaphor here somewhere, but I can't quite place it…

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Reposted by ARC Tracker

Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 08/09/2026

ARC: "Further details on how the assessment process works can be found here." Me: clicks on "here" ARC: haha no @arc-gov-au.bsky.social

After clicking on the "here" in the sentence "Further details on how the assessment process works can be found here", one gets to an official webpage which says

Access denied
You are not authorized to access this page.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

To the many unsuccessful Future Fellowship applicants who got great scores (& feedback) from their peer ("Detailed") reviewers, but much poorer scores from their ARC College ("General") assessors, here's an old thread explaining why this happens👇 And, by the way, I'm sorry – the system ain't great.

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Reposted by ARC Tracker

Mary Woessner @marynwoessner.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Those numbers look pretty similar to their 'inaccurate' release of results the other week...

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Called it :) It appears the ARC might not understand that “accurate” does not mean “exact”.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

#FutureFellowships #FT26 announcement cont.: Outcomes summary: Approved / requested (%) Apps: 296 / 1515 (19.5%) Funds: $344.50M / $1764.98M (19.5%) Approved grants requested $345.27M; 99.8% provided. /bot

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

🚨 #FutureFellowships #FT26 announcement: ❗️Outcomes announced publicly for ARC Future Fellowships 2026❗️ See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download/… /bot

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

No, there's not been such a thing.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

It's possible, but I'm not sure. In recent releases, there has not been a media release from the Dept, and only one from the ARC, with no quotes or evident input from the Dept.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The data leak 2 weeks ago said there was 1518 applications. I assume every one of them is on tenterhooks right now.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Yeah, it's BS. If you follow my "bot-only" account, @arc-tracker-bot.bsky.social, set device notifications for it. It only reposts my bot's posts, not posts from me, & those are only outcomes announcements (or Senate Order lists). So you'll get a device notification when the FT26 outcomes are out.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

ARC never give a time to expect them. They're usually out at around 11am Canberra time, but it certainly does vary. Not unusual for it to be near 10am, or unusual for it to be noon-ish. They've had a few occasions where two schemes were announced on the same day – the 2nd one around 3pm.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I suspect the only "inaccuracy" will be that the 299 apps that were to be funded might have been trimmed slightly as a small number of them will have failed the security/foreign interference checks. So, my guess is there'll be ~290 funded today.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The ARC Board decides how much of their funding goes towards different schemes. That shouldn't take long for them to do, and it would have been a long time ago that they'd have approval for a given amount. They need to know which apps to do due diligence on; those were decided ages ago.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

When questioned by @jsresearchpro.bsky.social for Research Pro News, ARC said info they inadvertently published about Future Fellowships (FT26) & DECRAs (DE27) 2 weeks ago was "inaccurate". How? They do not say. FT26 outcomes tmrw 👀 And, … err, why is ARC publishing "inaccurate" info? Seems … bad?

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

ARC says they'll announce outcomes of Future Fellowships (FT26) tomorrow (Tue 8 Sep). In recent times, these announcements have been around 11am Canberra time, though certainly with some variation. My bot will automatically post within a minute after the announcement.

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Australian Research Council @arc-gov-au.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Tomorrow (Tuesday 8 Sept), we will announce the outcome of the ARC Future Fellowships (FT26). Stay tuned for the update!

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Really hard to say – guessing they might give a new window of a week or two once they’re close to finishing “due diligence”, but if they already imminent then I think we’ll just see a social media post saying announcement will be the next day.

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