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RSS SubscribeFriday 29th May 2009
European clear advantage for ARC Linkage Projects
by Rado Faletič
The recent announcement of successful ARC Linkage Projects for 2009 Round 2 shows a clear competitive advantage for proposals with European collaborators.
Whilst overall success rates are reasonably good (around 50%), projects with European collaborators have a higher success rate of 60%. Within these aggregate statistics, a number of EU Member States stand out — France (100%), Italy (75%), and Germany (67%).
Statistics for Australia’s other major collaborators provide an interesting comparison. Success rates with Canadian, Chinese or Indian collaborations are around the average (~50%), whilst proposals with New Zealand collaborations are over 60%. Surprisingly, USA collaborators have brought a lower success rate, approaching 40%.
These statistics come in the wake of recently released figures for 3rd country participation in the EC’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) (see FP7 Progress Report, 2009). The FP7 Progress Report showed that Australia was amongst the most prolific non-European participants in FP7 (in fifth place behind USA, Russia, India and China). In addition, when one considers that these other countries have far larger populations and research budgets than Australia, it is clear that Australian participation increases the chances for FP7 success.
What can be concluded from the participation rates of the above mentioned programs is that the research relationship between Australia and Europe is as strong and as important as ever.
