ARC DECRA (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award)

The Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) is the Australian Research Council’s dedicated early-career fellowship, sitting inside the Discovery Program alongside Discovery Projects and the ARC Future Fellowship. Where a Discovery Project funds a defined piece of research regardless of who on the team is at what career stage, DECRA funds a person: an early-career researcher’s salary plus a project-funding allowance, for three consecutive years.

Eligibility

DECRA eligibility is set by a PhD-conferral window measured back from the round’s closing date, not by job title or current employment status — an applicant can be in a teaching-and-research or a research-only position. The ARC adjusts the window for documented career interruptions (parental leave, carer responsibilities, medical conditions, and similar), so two applicants with PhDs conferred in the same calendar year can have different effective eligibility depending on interruptions claimed. Applicants who already hold a DECRA are not eligible to hold a second one concurrently, though the scheme’s rules on concurrent holding of a DECRA alongside a Discovery Project (as Chief Investigator) differ from its rules on holding two personnel fellowships at once — always check the current year’s Grant Guidelines rather than assume a rule carries over from a prior round.

Funding and duration

A DECRA runs for three consecutive years and funds the recipient’s salary (an on-cost-inclusive figure set annually by the ARC) plus a separate, capped pool of project funds — reported at up to $50,000 per year — for costs such as equipment, travel, fieldwork, or a research assistant. The ARC typically funds around 200 new DECRA projects per annual round, though the exact number and total spend shift year to year with available NCGP funding. As with every ARC scheme, the awarding institution is the formal recipient and administrator of the grant, not the individual researcher.

How to apply

DECRA applications are lodged through the ARC’s Research Management System (RMS) by an eligible Australian administering organisation (almost always a university) on the applicant’s behalf, following the same National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) mechanics as every other Discovery Program scheme, including a rejoinder period after assessor reports are released and before final ARC College of Experts ranking. Application rounds run annually with dates set by the ARC’s own NCGP Scheme Calendar rather than a fixed date every year — check the current round’s key dates rather than assume a prior year’s timeline repeats. Grant Guidelines, published separately for each round, are the authoritative source for that round’s exact eligibility window, funding rates, and assessment criteria; university research offices typically hold an internal DECRA information session ahead of each round to walk applicants through institution-specific submission requirements.

How it differs from other ARC personnel schemes

DECRA is one of three ARC-funded personnel fellowships that sit at different career stages within the Discovery Program: DECRA for early-career researchers, the Future Fellowship for mid-career researchers (a four-year award), and the Australian Laureate Fellowship for senior, internationally eminent researchers (a five-year award). All three exclude clinical and other medical research, which sits with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) instead — a candidate proposing a clinical trial or disease-prevention research program should look to an NHMRC scheme such as the NHMRC Investigator Grant, not DECRA.