UNSW Research Strategy Office

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UNSW Research Strategy Office

• Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Opportunities in ARC Linkage

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ARC Linkage

• What will be covered
• Overview of scheme in Soc Sci and Humanities
• UNSW participation and support
• Realities
• Questions?

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ARC Linkage

• The Fundamentals
• Match dollar-for-dollar cash and in-kind if you
  ask the ARC for 100k then the Partner
  Organisation(s) must provide at least 20k in
  cash and 80k in-kind
• In-kind can be many things (check the list on
  UNSW GMO Web site make an appointment with me)

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ARC Linkage

• The Fundamentals (cont)
• Yes, there must be a contract, but only when the
  grant is awarded.
• UNSWs Research Strategy Office will write to
  partners confirming this and assuring them of
  their right to pull out under the ARC contract
  with the University.
• A Partner Organisation can give the cash at any
  time during the period of the grant.

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ARC Linkage

• The Fundamentals (cont)
• The Scheme is flexible you may have more than
  one Partner Organisation
• International Universities and Higher Ed Research
  Institutes can be patrners if you also have a
  local partner
• They can opt out at any time

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ARC Linkage

• The Fundamentals (cont)
• Applications can be small just an APAI with 6K
  cash plus 6k in-kind per year
• Or they can be big up to 2 million pa. over
  five years, and include Fellows and APAIs
• Projects can be for only one year or anything up
  to five years

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ARC Linkage

• The Fundamentals (cont)
• We recommend you break them into components and
  report regularly to your Partner Organisation(s)
• We recommend you have a steering committee or
  project management committee
• Its better to have Partner Organisation
  personnel involved if possible

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ARC Linkage

• If your project involves background intellectual
  property or may result in significant
  intellectual property development in its
  execution then we MUST work with New South
  Innovations on shaping the deal
• You do not have authority to give undertakings
  regarding IP in your projects

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ARC Linkage

• Partner Organisations
• Can be almost any organisation
• Including government departments/museums/galleries
  
• And overseas companies and governments
• And now Overseas Universities and their Research
  Institutes
• And selected University spin-offs
• But not CSIRO, ANSTO, DSTO, etc

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• UNSW has received ARC linkage grants with
  100s of organisations.
• Once we know you want to work with a particular
  organisation, we can look through our files and
  advise you on how to work with that organisation.

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ARC Linkage

• Selection Criteria-
• Investigators 20
• Significance Innovation 25
• Approach and Training 20
• National Benefit 10
• Collaboration 25

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ARC Linkage

• Linkage projects Rnd 1 2009
• 441 proposals submitted
• 218 funded
• Success rate nationally of 49
• 71 mill allocated

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ARC Linkage

• Linkage projects Rnd 1 2009
• HCA 32 submitted 18 successful with a 56 success
  rate
• SBE 140 submitted 68 successful with a 49
  success rate
• HCA received 5.3 mill in funding
• SBE received 19.7 mill in funding the largest
  allocation of any panel!

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ARC Linkage

• AT UNSW
• Our success rate last round was 52.6 well above
  the national average
• Our average grant size was 290k (previous round
  600k)
• RSO supported applications had a 63 success rate

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ARC Linkage

• RSO Support-
• Seminars
• Brochures
• Letters of Understanding to Partners
• Meet with Partners (wherever they may be)
• Budget assistance especially with in kind
• Strategic review of application and supporting
  documents

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ARC Linkage

• How to get Partner Organisations
• Think of your current associations
• Are you involved in any consultancies that could
  be turned into Linkage Projects?
• Do you advise anybody who might have research
  questions that require answering?
• Have you worked with NewSouth Innovations to
  license your invention to an industry partner
  they maybe interested in an ARC Linkage
  programme?
• Are you involved in a UNSW spin-off company
  they may qualify as an ARC Linkage partner.

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ARC Linkage

• How to get Partner Organisations
• Do you sit on a board or committee that regularly
  commissions work?
• Do any of your PhD students keep in touch and
  have they brought you ideas from industry that
  they wished could be worked up?
• Did you work for industry before academe and have
  you kept up the contacts?

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ARC Linkage

• How to get Partner Organisations
• Have any of your students used the UNSW Co-op
  Program?
• Have you ever used NewSouth Innovations (formerly
  Unisearch) or NewSouth Global?
• Do you regularly do expert witnessing for similar
  firms, or was there an instance of a long
  association of this

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ARC Linkage

• How to get Partner Organisations
• Do you have associations through a CRC or other
  centre?
• Do you have associations through professional or
  academic bodies?

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ARC Linkage

• What to do next
• If you have an idea, start talking to people you
  think might be interested
• We can make cold approaches to current
  associations on your behalf

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ARC Linkage

• What to do next
• Watch the press for government department
  advertisements for Linkages
• Talk with potential partners at conferences take
  our brochure along

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ARC Linkage

• The Reality
• It can take a long time to get Partner
  Organisations interested
• They will worry about IP and their cash and other
  commitments
• Get us involved very early
• Ask us before saying anything

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ARC Linkage

• Realities for you
• UNSWs success rate in this Scheme is 53
  compared to the Discovery Projects success rate
  of 24.9
• National Linkage success was 49
• RSO supported Linkage Success Rate is 63
• Linkage Projects grants are almost always fully
  funded

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• Realities for you
• For the last round of ARC linkage at UNSW, 63 of
  the successful applications were extensively
  supported by UNSW Research Services through our
  support process
• Of the 22 successful applications only 4 were
  submitted after our early closing date
• It is important that you contact us as soon as
  possible

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ARC Linkage

• Realities for you
• Under Backing Australias Ability II the Scheme
  is getting much more money and this is likely
  under the new governments innovation review
• You can only have two Discovery Projects
  grants, whereas you can up to up eight Linkage
  Projects grants

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ARC Linkage

• Submitting your application-
• - AT RSO WE WORK ON YOUR APPLICATION WITH YOU, IT
  STILL MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE GMO

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ARC Linkage

• Some cautions
• It is risky
• You have a master
• It can all end in tears

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