ARC Future Fellowships

ARC Future Fellowships

Supports four-year fellowships for mid-career researchers in non-medical disciplines aligned with national science priorities.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

Future Fellowships 2026 (FT26) is the current round of the Australian Research Council's Future Fellowships scheme, which supports outstanding mid-career researchers to undertake high-quality research of national and international benefit. Each Fellowship runs for four years and includes both a salary component—paid by the ARC at one of three salary levels—and up to AUD 60,000 per year of non-salary project funding, yielding a maximum of AUD 240,000 in project funding over four years, with salary paid separately on top of that. The scheme encourages applications from researchers working in areas aligned with Australia's National Science and Research Priorities, and is open across all non-medical disciplines.

Allowable project expenditure covers research personnel (postdoctoral associates, assistants, technicians), infrastructure access, field research, expert third-party services, equipment and consumables, publication and dissemination, specialised software, up to AUD 100,000 total travel over the four-year project, web hosting, and essential carer costs. For FT26, the submission window ran 24 September to 5 November 2025. The rejoinder window ran 12–25 February 2026; the Selection Advisory Committee met 20–24 April 2026; the funding announcement is expected between 13 August and 23 October 2026. All deadlines close at 5:00 pm Canberra time.

Fellowships are hosted at the administering Australian university for the full four years. Applications must be submitted through a university Research Office via the ARC Research Management System—individual researchers cannot apply directly. The career-stage eligibility window for mid-career researchers is defined in the Fellowship Guidelines (Discovery Program Grant Guidelines – Fellowships, 2024 edition, Variation 1; GrantConnect current opportunity GO7921). A compelling application articulates a significant gap in knowledge, positions the researcher's track record as demonstrably mid-career, and links the proposed research to national priority areas. Future Fellowships are one of the ARC's most competitive schemes, with selection based on excellence of the researcher and quality and significance of the proposed research.