Last week Education Minister Dan Tehan announced a new “national interest test” for Australian Research Council grants. Yesterday the ARC reported, it is “anticipating a delay to the opening dates” for 2020 Discovery Projects and Discovery Indigenous.   That was all the ARC announced– but observers of the research funding process speculate the minister’s new requirement is the cause.

Mr Tehan has told the ARC to advise him on updating research priorities, do this “in collaboration with a small panel” of as yet unannounced “experts,” and “examine whether the financial structure of the ARC grants fit the national priorities.”