Closed Grant Opportunity View - GO7175

The Early Career Industry Fellowships scheme creates a pathway to support academic researchers in establishing careers in industry, and industry-based researchers to work in university settings, with the aim of increased two-way mobility and skill-building in research collaboration, translation and commercialisation.

The Early Career Industry Fellowships scheme objectives are to:

• increase the pipeline of researchers in Australia with capabilities in industry-focused and/or industry-based research collaboration, translation and commercialisation; 
• open up and maintain a diversity of two-way career pathways traversing university and industry settings; 
• increase strategic engagement and alignment between universities and industry;  
• contribute to the solving of industry-identified challenges and opportunities; and 
• create commercial, economic, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits for Australia through enhanced translation and/or commercialisation, including the development of start-up companies.  

The intended outcomes of the Early Career Industry Fellowships scheme are:

• develop the industry collaboration skills of early career researchers;  
• support early career researchers to achieve translatable and/or commercialisable outcomes for industry; and
• deliver actionable outcomes for industry partners and research end-users.

An Early Career Industry Fellowships participant must satisfy the eligibility criteria for the role they are to perform as listed in the relevant Grant Guidelines.

A previous recipient, or an individual who has been nominated for an Early Career Industry Fellowship on two previous occasions, is not eligible to apply for another Early Career Industry Fellowship. This includes withdrawn and ineligible applications.

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

• not be nominated for more than one Industry Fellowship (at any level) in a program round;
• have met their obligations regarding previously funded projects, including submission of satisfactory final reports to the ARC;
• have an award of PhD date on, or after 1 March 2020; or
• have an award of PhD date together with an allowable period of career interruptions that would be commensurate with an award of PhD date on, or after 1 March 2020. The allowable career interruptions set out and the period allowed for each are in the IE25 Instructions to Applicants.

If the participant has more than one PhD, the earliest awarded PhD must fall within this timeframe.

A IE25 participant can be concurrently funded through the Linkage Program for a maximum of:

• one ARC Fellowship and 3 Linkage Projects, ITRP and ARC Centres of Excellences projects as a CI; or
• one ARC Fellowship and 2 Linkage Projects, ITRP and ARC Centres of Excellence projects as a CI if the individual is also a Director on an active ARC Centre of Excellence and/or a Special Research Initiative project.

Applications for Early Career Industry Fellowships do not need to meet the project limit requirements at the grant opportunity closing date. If an Industry Fellowship Program application is successful, participants must meet the project limits before the project can start. Refer to the relevant Grant Guidelines and Instructions to Applicants for more information.

An application may be applied for and awarded funding for a minimum of one to a maximum of three consecutive years.

Early Career Industry Fellowships funding and grant duration is up three consecutive years on a full-time basis. The Early Career Industry Fellowship may be undertaken on either a full-time, or a part-time basis subject to the Administering Organisation’s employment conditions and provided that the Early Career Industry Fellowship does not exceed 6 consecutive years. ARC approval for the conversion to part-time must be requested by submitting a variation.

From $121,703.00 to $515,109.00

The Application must be submitted as a mature research plan presenting the proposed project ready for implementation and must contain all the information necessary for its assessment without the need for further written or oral explanation, or reference to additional documentation, unless requested by the ARC.

Applicants should note the eligibility criteria for access to other funding schemes, as expressed in the Grant Guidelines for those schemes. The ARC reserves the right to change these criteria in future funding rounds. Grant Guidelines for all ARC schemes may be found attached to the relevant Grant Opportunity.

Administering Organisations must submit applications through the Research Management System (RMS) unless otherwise advised by the ARC.

All applications must meet the format and content requirements, including certification, as set out in the RMS online form and the Instructions to Applicants for Early Career Industry Fellowships for funding commencing in 2025.

The RMS is a web-based system used to prepare and submit research applications, requests not to assess, assessments and rejoinders for the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP).

Registered users can login using your email address and password at https://rms.arc.gov.au.

To request a new account, please go to https://rms.arc.gov.au and click on the Request New Account link.

All queries by researchers should be directed to the Administering Organisation of the application.