And the Winners Are -- ARC Names 14 Federation Fellows for 2008. (May 16, 2008)

It's old news -- the announcement of those awarded Federation Fellowships this year was made on April 22^nd -- but now that the budget has been brought down and the science and research sectors have a better understanding of just where they fit in the Rudd government's scheme of things, the fellowships are worth examining.

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, has laid considerable emphasis on the Labor government's Future Fellowship program, allocating $326 million over four years for "top mid-career researchers... offering 1,000 talented Australian and international mid-career researchers four-year fellowships of up to $140,000 a year. Host organisations will receive up to an additional $50,000 a year to support related infrastructure and equipment for research projects".

On the other hand the fact that of the 25 Federation Fellowships that were on offer this year (they offer a stipend of $250,000 pa over five years) only 14 were awarded.

There was no announcement as to why 11 of the fellowship places weren't taken up, i.e. was there insufficient interest by applicants of sufficient calibre?

If so, that ought to be of serious concern to Senator Carr and a matter for critical examination.

Furthermore, as is shown in the table below, of the 14 Fellows for 2008, 11 are resident Australians, of whom three are second-time awardees, one is an expat while only two are foreign nationals.

In short the fabric of Australian scholarship isn't much altered unless it is argued, as a negative consideration, that the 11 resident Fellows would have taken up overseas appointments had they not been awarded Federation Fellowships.