The stand-outs in the ARC review are

* protection for discovery research: by incorporating the “commitment to funding pure basic, strategic basic and applied research into the purposes of the National Competitive Grants Programme” in the ARC Act.

* reducing the application burden: with a two-stage process, culling props at a two-five page peer-reviewed expression of interest stage with those passing developing full proposals

* ditching existing performance reviews, Excellence for Research in Australia and Engagement and Impact) but not replace  them with metrics-formula, “because of the evidence that such metrics can be biased or inherently flawed.”

* empowering the ARC to review research performance by,

– working with regulator TEQSA to create measures of research performance for university registration

– developing “a framework for regular evaluation and reporting on the outcomes of the national competitive grants programme”

– “a programme to evaluate current and future research capabilities” starting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and research

* protect the ARC: by establishing a “board with responsibilities for appointment of the ARC CEO, the College of Experts and approvals of individual grants,” under the NCGP