Australian Research Council (ARC) Allocates $151 million for 209 Future Fellowships Commencing in 2012. (July 25, 2012)

Of the 209 fellows 12 are Australians returning from overseas, 23 are international researchers and 174 are current Australian residents.

In announcing the awards the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, Senator Evans, singled out four projects for special mention:

• Advance the understanding of key mechanisms promoting unstable breathing in sleep and ill health and functioning from disturbed sleep;

• Explore the effects and benefits of the Gold Coast Rapid Transit rail project—the biggest public transport project in Australia;

• Focus on the health and wellbeing of adolescents in the Northern Territory, 40 per cent of whom are Indigenous, to provide an evidence base to inform health policy, identify transformative life skills and the ways to translate these into practice; and

• Investigate how animals are responding to extreme climatic events and understand if their response is fast enough for them to avoid extinction.

And the minister specifically noted that the program is designed "to increase the opportunities for highly qualified mid-career researchers to work in Australia, rather than overseas".

The metrics of the fellowships are available here.

Over the five-year period (2009-2013), Future Fellows were offered four-year fellowships ranging over three salary levels (of up to $142,806 a year) to 1,000 outstanding Australian and international researchers in the middle of their careers. In addition, each researcher’s Administering Organisation will have received up to $50,000 per year to support related infrastructure, equipment, travel and relocation costs.