The Australian Research Council appears intent on encouraging the virtue of patience among people sweating on Discovery Programme, Discovery Early Career Research Awards and Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grant announcements.

A learned reader reports the ARC’s original date was sometime in September but at the end of that month it changed to sometime in October. And on Monday, “with hundreds of academics eagerly refreshing the ARC page for promising news,” the announcement date became  “November”.

Yesterday the ARC responded; “the dates provided on our website are anticipated dates which the ARC updates on a regular basis. The ARC aims to deliver funding outcomes within the shortest timeframe possible, noting that the importance is placed on a robust and fair process.”

Or as the LR suggests it “renders the very notion of an announcement date as pointless.”