ARC Future Fellowships

Key dates for ARC Future Fellowships 2027

The ARC Future Fellowships 2026 round (FT26) is still under assessment. The anticipated announcement period is 13 to 27 August 2026.

Release of Grant Guidelines: 23 September 2026
Round Opening: 23 September 2026
UQ R&I Information Session: TBA
UQ Notice of Intent due to the Research Office: 7 October 2026
Eligibility exemption requests due to the Research Office: 7 October 2026
Applications due to the Research Office: 12 October 2026
Requests Not to Assess due to UQ R&I: TBA
Requests Not to Assess due to the ARC: TBA
Applications close with ARC: 6 November 2026
Rejoinder Period: TBA
Anticipated announcement: 26 October 2027 to 9 November 2027

Overview

The ARC Future Fellowships grant opportunity seeks to retain and attract the best and brightest mid-career researchers to undertake high-quality research programs in areas of national and international benefit. Normally, the scheme provides four-year fellowships, and up to $60,000 in additional non-salary funding per annum, to enhance the scale and focus of Australian research, and promote collaboration across industry, research institutions and other disciplines.

Eligibility

To be eligible, the candidate must, as at the grant opportunity closing date:

have an award of PhD date on, or between, 1 March 2012 and 1 March 2022; or
have a PhD award date together with an allowable period of career interruptions that would be commensurate with an award of PhD date on, or between, 1 March 2012 and 1 March 2022.

Eligibility Exemption Request (EER)

If you received your PhD prior to 1 March 2012, and have allowable career interruptions, you will need to request an Eligibility Exemption through UQ's Research Office by following the below steps:

Familiarise yourself with the ARC’s Eligibility and Career Interruptions Statement
Use the UQ FT27 Eligibility Exemption Calculator to calculate your eligible career interruptions.
Complete and certify the UQ FT27 Eligibility Exemption Request Form.
Submit your completed Request Form, and evidence for each interruption, via email to ARC@research.uq.edu.au to request endorsement of your request.
The Reseach Office will advise you of the outcome of your request.

UQ Information Session

To assist applicants in preparing their applications, the Research Office will host an Information Session. A recording of this session will be made available on the UQ R&I presentations and slides webpage for those who are unable to attend. The session will feature a scheme overview, key findings from past rounds, the application and submission process, and a Q&A session with ARC College of Expert members.

Date: To be confirmed
Time: To be confirmed
Location: To be confirmed

How to apply

Internal Notice of Intent - due to UQ R&I by 7 October 2026

All researchers intending to submit an ARC Future Fellowship 2027 application are required to submit a mandatory internal Notice of Intent. NOIs will be collated centrally and distributed to Faculties and Institutes to maximise support to the UQ research community. If you would like to discuss your intention to apply with your local area, please contact your Faculty/Institute Research Manager.

Submit UQ Notice of Intent

Step 1. RMS updates and scheme reading

Update your full profile in the RMS ‘Person Profile’. We strongly recommend starting this process early.
Familiarise yourself with the key Australian Research Council (ARC) and UQ documentation. It is especially important to familiarise yourself with ARC's Grant Guidelines and Instructions to Applicants documents.

Step 2. Completing the application

Log into RMS and complete the application. Please ensure UQ is listed as the Administering Organisation.
Use the UQ templates available below to draft your documents to be uploaded to your application in RMS (please note that Templates for FT27 will not be available until Instructions to Applicants are released by the ARC).
Complete the application in RMS.
When ready for review, ensure all online components are complete and valid, generate a whole application PDF for your records and select 'Submit to Research Office' in RMS to submit the application.

Step 3. UQ R&I internal review and feedback

To initiate internal review, email your completed Application Certification Form and UQ Pending and Newly Funded ARC grants form to the Research Office at ARC@research.uq.edu.au.
Please note that RMS does not alert the Research Office when you create or submit an application in RMS.
If you are lodging a Request Not to Assess (RNTA), please complete the ‘Request Not to Assess’ form in RMS (instructions available below) and then submit to the Research Office for review by the date stated in key dates above.
The Research Office will review your application and provide feedback where you will have time to revise your application.

Step 4. Final submission

When your application is complete and fully compliant, the UQ Research Office will submit the application to the ARC through RMS.

Readership and researcher support

Before applying, we recommend you:

Familiarise yourself with the framework for Applying for Competitive Research Grants at UQ.
Contact your faculty or institute research manager for advice on peer readership programs.
Subscribe to the UQ R&I Mailer to stay up to date with round developments.
Access the UQ R&I Grants Library, a helpful resource of past successful proposals.
Read the UQ R&I Grant writing advice and strategy website for tips on preparing your application

Key documents

ARC

The full suite of documents including scheme guidelines and Instructions to Applicants will be available via GrantConnect, the Australian Government grants information system (login required).

Additional ARC documents

UQ

The below templates and resources are from the previous round and will be updated for the 2027 round when guidelines become available.

Mandatory Forms

Templates

Application components

Eligibility Exemption Requests (both forms are required to submit an EER)

Resources

UQ Library Support

Prepare a data management plan
Visit Publication metrics for the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project, Future Fellowship and DECRA grants for a guide on completing the Research Opportunity and Performance Evidence (ROPE) sections of your application.
View the recorded Publication metrics for your ARC grants – Future Fellowship, DECRA and Discovery Project – (UQ login required) on Zoom (held 30 September 2025). This session helps to find and analyse your publications in the Scopus and SciVal citation databases.
View the recorded Research Engagement and Impact evidence for your ARC Future Fellowship, DECRA and Discovery Project – (UQ login required) on Zoom (held 8 October 2025). This session helps to identify and track engagement and impact evidence using tools outside the citation databases such as Altmetric Explorer, PatCite (The Lens) and WorldCat.

Rejoinders and rebuttal

In the ARC assessment and rejoinder process, comments from external assessors may be made available to applicants, and applicants given the opportunity to submit a rejoinder.

Detailed information on the rejoinder process (including instructions for accessing assessment reports and submitting rejoinders) is available from the ARC website. The UQ R&I information session and internal deadlines for assessment review requests and rejoinders are shown under our Key Dates section above.

The Research Office has developed a Rejoinder Tip Sheet with FAQs (PDF, 527.6 KB) to assist you in crafting your rejoinder.