Australian Research Council (ARC)

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is a Commonwealth entity established as an independent body under the Australian Research Council Act 2001, reporting to the Australian Government Minister for Education and Youth. The ARC administers the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP), a significant component of Australia's investment in research and development, provides advice to the Minister on matters related to research, and assesses the quality, engagement and impact of university research. The National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) comprises 13 schemes under two key programs, the Discovery Program and Linkage Program. Under the NCGP, the ARC funds the highest-quality fundamental and applied research and research training to eligible organisations (mainly Australian universities) in all fields across the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, as well as the humanities, arts and social sciences. The ARC administers 2 evaluation frameworks to assess the quality, engagement and impact of research — Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) and Engagement and Impact (EI). ERA provides a comprehensive evaluation of the quality of research produced by Australian universities against international benchmarks. EI assesses engagement of researchers with research end-users and shows how universities are translating their research into economic, social, environmental, cultural and other impacts.