ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)
Offers early-career Australian researchers three-year support through ARC DECRA, funding salary and project costs through their host universities.
ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) sits inside the ARC's Discovery program and is aimed at outstanding early-career researchers hosted by Australian universities. The scheme supports people in teaching-and-research or research-only roles and is designed to build independent research, leadership, and supervision capability. Each award runs for three years. The ARC pays salary and on-costs, then adds up to AUD 50,000 a year for project costs that can support postdocs, research assistants, equipment, consumables, fieldwork, third-party services, dissemination, and essential travel. Applications move through the university Administering Organisation, and the scheme is run annually for Australian university hosts. The best fit is an early career academic who can anchor a focused program of work within a university environment. Because the award is tied to career stage, applicants need to show strong independence, a credible research plan, and enough institutional support to turn salary support into a clear project trajectory. Medical research is excluded, so the scheme remains squarely within the ARC's non-medical research remit.
Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.