Centres of Excellence

Research Office Contact
Judy.Alexander@newcastle.edu.au

Register Interest in the scheme

If you are interested in the ARC Centres of Excellence scheme either as lead CI or as a node of an application led by another university, please complete the online expression of interest form.

The program

ARC Centres of Excellence are prestigious outstanding collaborative research initiatives addressing areas of national priority to both maintain and enhance Australia's international standing.

Scheme objectives are:

• Undertake highly innovative and potentially transformational research that aims to achieve international standing in the fields of research envisaged and leads to a significant advancement of capabilities and knowledge;
• 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;
• Develop relationships and build new networks with major national and international centres and research programs to help strengthen research, achieve global competitiveness and gain recognition for Australian research;
• 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;
• Provide high-quality postgraduate and postdoctoral training environments for the next generation of researchers;
• Offer Australian researchers opportunities to work on large-scale problems over longer periods of time; and
• Establish Centres of such repute in the wider community that they will serve as points of interaction among higher education institutions, governments, industry and the private sector generally.

The ARC selection process for the 2023 ARC Centres of Excellence round involves a competitive three-stage process:

1. Expression of Interest (EOI) to the ARC
2. Shortlisted EOIs will be invited to submit a full proposal
3. Shortlisted full Proposals will be invited to participate in an interview process conducted by the ARC's Selection Advisory Committee.

The selection criteria is weighted as follows:

For further information regarding the scheme, please visit the ARC Centres of Excellence website.

Key dates

Current Past University of Newcastle ARC Centres of Excellence

Final Reports and Eligibility

Any outstanding ARC Final Reports have eligibility implications for current ARC applications. The Grant Guidelines state:

C.19 "To be eligible to apply individuals nominated as the Centre Director, CIs and PIs in an EOI application or full application must:have met all obligations for previously funded ARC projects, including submitting satisfactory progress and final reports."    

RMS contains new functionality in the application form that will determine whether key eligibility requirements have been met by ALL participants. Section F10 of the application form will prevent the submission of an application where any participant has an overdue Final Report for any ARC-funded projects.

The ability to submit a valid application form to the ARC does not mean that participants have met all eligibility requirements. You will still need to ensure that comprehensive checks have been made so that participants comply with the eligibility requirements set out in the grant guidelines.

If you believe there is an incorrect End Date and therefore incorrect Final Report Due Date in RMS, please contact the Research Grants team immediately at research-grants@newcastle.edu.au.

Documents

Certification Proforma and Other Useful Information

ARC Certification proformas, a guide to writing the National Interest Test (NIT) Statement, a guide to auto-populate Research Outputs and ORCID in RMS, preparing budgets and other useful information is available in the ‘Preparing ARC Grants’ accordion on the Linkage Program page.

ARC Supporting Documents

The ARC is now required to publish Grant Guidelines and associated documents on GrantConnect, the Australian Government whole-of-government, centralised, web-based, grant information system. You will need to sign in or create a User Registration account in GrantConnect to access all relevant documentation.

Once you have signed in to GrantConnect you should download and review the following documents:

• Centre of Excellence 2023 Grant Guidelines
• Instructions to Applicants
• Sample Application Form

If you encounter any problems using GrantConnect or accessing any of the relevant documentation, please contact research-applications@newcastle.edu.au or phone on (02) 492 17733.

UON

• ARC/NHMRC Application Submission Procedures (PDF)
• External Application Coversheet (includes ARC/NHMRC) (DOC)
• Rejoinder and Rebuttal Guide and Tips (PDF)

Further information

If you have any enquiries regarding eligibility and compliance for the ARC Centres of Excellence Scheme, please contact research-applications@newcastle.edu.au or phone 492 17733.