[Aqualist] ARC Future Fellowships announced

[Simon Haberle]

Dear All,

Congratulations to all those who were successful in the recent ARC 
Future Fellowships round. Five successful applicants and their projects 
that are broadly associated with Quaternary Studies are listed below. 
Details about the outcomes have been summarised by the FASTS president 
and are also pasted below.. Cheers, Simon

_____________________________________________________________________________ 

Successful Applicants

Macquarie University
Dr A Dosseto
The response of soil and river processes to climate change and human 
activity in Australia
Primary RFCD: 2603 GEOCHEMISTRY
Project Summary
This project will provide a much needed quantitative understanding of 
how soils and rivers have responded and adapted to climate change and 
human activity in Australia. The outcomes will inform models to predict 
how our environment is likely to adapt to new conditions in the future 
as a result of indirect (global warming) and direct (intensive land use) 
human-related stresses. This project will assess the extent and rate of 
depletion of soil resources in Australia and also contribute to the 
innovative character of Australian research through the development and 
implementation of a new approach to study soil and river processes.

Southern Cross University
Dr AM Scheffers
Unravelling Western Australia's Stormy Past - A Precisely-Dated Sediment 
Record of Cyclones over the past 7000 years
Primary RFCD: 2601 GEOLOGY
Project Summary
Australia has a vast coastline, much of which is vulnerable to cyclone 
impact. Clearly, historical human experience does not comprehend what 
the climate system is capable of in terms of epic storms. Our effort to 
understand the storm risks of the past is complicated by the limited 
length of the instrumental record which reaches back only 150 years of 
European settlement in tropical areas of Australia. This project will 
reconstruct the history of storms and cyclones using sedimentary 
signatures in Western Australia over the past 7000 years to assess storm 
and cyclone risks under changing future climates in a regional context.

La Trobe University
Dr C Smith
Molecular Archaeology: Carbon isotope analysis of amino acids as a means 
to investigate diets, physiology, metabolism and palaeoenvironment.
Primary RFCD: 4302 ARCHAEOLOGY AND PREHISTORY
Project Summary
The investigation of the bones of past societies and animals at the 
molecular level opens up a whole array of alternative data about 
palaeodiet and environment. Investigating the past in this way provides 
a unique perspective about how diet and health have changed in humans 
and about how animals and the environment have changed. When we 
understand the past in this manner we can better understand current 
health issues linked to diet and how the environment and climate is 
changing.
Murdoch University
Dr M Bunce
An inventory of past biodiversity in Western Australia using ancient DNA
Primary RFCD: 2707 ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Project Summary
Fossil bones and museum skins are genetic time capsules that facilitate 
the exploration of Australia's past biodiversity. Travelling back in 
'genetic time' provides important insights into how ecosystems 
functioned prior to the arrival of Europeans and the feral species that 
accompanied them. This funding will facilitate research into the genetic 
heritage of endangered WA species such as Woylies and Cockatoos. Native 
species face increasing pressures from climate change and invasive 
species. Compiling a genetic inventory of WA's past biodiversity will 
assist in developing scientifically sound conservation management 
responses. Such approaches are critically important if this biodiversity 
hotspot is to be preserved for future generations.

The Australian National University
Dr GR Clark
The Power and Reach of Chiefly Societies in Fiji-West Polynesia
Primary RFCD: 4302 ARCHAEOLOGY AND PREHISTORY
Project Summary
Australia as a Pacific Ocean nation must understand and engage with its 
Central Pacific island neighbours. The 2nd millennium AD saw the growth 
of the powerful Tongan maritime chiefdom, arguably the most complex 
Pacific society of its time. The titles and individuals associated with 
the ancient Tongan chiefdom are politically prominent even today. 
Archaeological investigations will benefit modern regional relationships 
by establishing the antiquity and significance of prehistoric 
interaction. The benefit lies in building collaboration between 
Australian and Pacific Islander heritage organisations, contributing to 
Pacific scholarship and maintaining Australian expertise in the 
politically fractious Fiji-West Polynesia region.

____________________________________________________________
Message from the FASTS president regarding Future fellowships
Greetings

As many of you are aware, today Kim Carr announced the first tranche of 
the new Future Fellowships. This initiative will eventually provide 1000 
fellowships targeting primarily mid career researchers at three salary 
bands ($95k, $115 and $135k).

Kim announced the first 200 today of which 22 are internationals and 19 
are returning ex-pats. Success rates for the three salary bands were, 
respectively, 27.3%, 17.4% and 13.4% with overall success rate of 20.5%.

The age bands with the highest share of the Fellowships were: 35-39 
(36.5%), 40- 44 (33%), 30 – 34 (155), 45 – 59 (11%). No one under 30 or 
over 60 Received a FF.

Women constituted 29% of applicants, received 29.5% of the fellowships 
with a success rate of 20.85%. Success rates for women were inline with 
males for the three salary bands.

MRIs had the highest success rates at 28.1% with QIMR, WEHI and Baker 
leading the way.

PFRAs had a success rate of 12.5% with the Anglo Australian observatory 
(1) and CSIRO (5) being the only institutions to get Fellowships with 
AIATSIS, AIMS, ANSTO, DSTO and NICTA - which isn’t of course a PFRA but 
a National centre of excellence - all missing out.

Universities had a success rate of 20.4% with Go8 on 23.6%, Innovative 
Research Universities of Australia (IRUA) group on 20.7% (Griffith, JCU, 
Newcastle, Flinders etc).

Australian Technology Network were 9.4% (Curtin, UTS, QUT, UniSA and RMIT).

The others collectively were 15.0%. These are predominantly the new, 
post-Dawkins institutions, although if you take the well established and 
non-aligned Wollongong, Macquarie and Tasmania out, it drops to 9% 
(W’Gong and UTas success rates are comparable with Go8 institutions)

(I have attached a list of administering institutions and their success 
rates FYI)

My impression is there is significant proportion of fellowships in 
frontier technology areas – as you might expect - but I am not competent 
to make that sort of judgment.

In terms of broad disciplinary fields, Mathematics received 8; Physical 
sciences 14; Chemical Sciences 16; Earth sciences 5; Biological Sciences 
42, ICT 7, Engineering and Technology 25; Ag, vet and environmental 
sciences 5 (with environment getting 3 of those), Medical and Health 37; 
behavioural and cognitive sciences 8 with the balance of 30 in other 
social sciences, humanities and arts.

FASTS have previously commented on the Fellowships very favorably. One 
important design feature is each recipient receives $50,000pa for 
research consumables etc and institutions do not have to provide 
additional funds (unlike, say Federation Fellowships). FASTS have long 
been concerned at the extent of leveraging through requirements for 
matching or additional funds in ARC and other competitive programs.

In a policy sense, the Future Fellows also represents somewhat of a 
policy shift whereby Government has accepted a greater direct 
responsibility for career pathways for researchers. While the NHMRC has 
had a reasonably comprehensive fellowship program with career pathways 
in mind for some time, the ARC hasn’t. In part because of the doughnut 
effect of poor coverage of mid-career researchers but also because of a 
policy view in previous Governments that regeneration of the academic 
research workforce is primarily an HR responsibility of institutions.

To access the successful fellowships refer: 
http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/futurefel/ft_outcomes.htm

Regards

Bradley


Bradley Smith
Executive director
Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS)
PO Box 259
Canberra city, act 2601
ph: 02 6257 2891
fax: 02 6257 2897
mobile: 0408 511 261
bradley.smith at fasts.org
www.fasts.org