The National Health and Medical Research Council announces $400m in Investigator Grants – it isn’t much to go around

The success rate for the funding is 14.8 per cent with 254 projects approved out of 1722 applications. It is worse for women Chief Investigators, 12.9 per cent of their projects were approved, compared to 16.5 per cent for male CIs. And it is horrible for mid-career women, with 6.5 per cent successful at Leadership Level One, compared to 10.9 per cent for men.

Success rates are better than when the Investigator programme started, but not much. In 2019, just 13.2 per cent of all-applicants were funded.

With the Investigator announcement, the pattern of overall competitive grant funding for the year is clear – and it is business as usual, with the Group of Eight winning 72 per cent of YTD funding. The big five alone have won $379.6m, (Monash U $62.9m, Uni Melbourne $80.4m, UNSW $89.3m, Uni Queensland $70.8m, Uni Sydney $76.2m).

Bigger institutions (with 20 or more applications) that had the best success rates include Uni Melbourne – 17 per cent (266 applications) and Uni Queensland 20 per cent of 193. People at the MRI formerly known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute will be pleased – with 29 per cent of 55 applications succeeding.