ARC Future Fellowships

Key dates for ARC Future Fellowships 2026

Release of Grant Guidelines: 19 September 2025
Round Opening: 24 September 2025
UQ R&I Information Session: 3 October 2025
UQ Notice of Intent due to the Research Office: 6 October 2025
Eligibility exemption requests due to the Research Office: 6 October 2025
Applications due to the Research Office: 8 October 2025
Requests Not to Assess due to UQ R&I: 17 October 2025
Requests Not to Assess due to the ARC: 22 October 2025
Applications close with ARC: 5 November 2025
Rejoinder Period: 12 - 25 February 2026
Anticipated announcement: 6 - 17 July 2026

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 2011 and 1 March 2021; 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 2011 and 1 March 2021.

Eligibility Exemption Request (EER)

If your PhD was awarded before 1 March 2011, you will be required to submit an Eligibility Exemption Request (EER) to determine your eligibility to apply for FT26.
Please complete the Eligibility Exemption Request Calculator to calculate your eligible career interruptions, and submit this with the Eligibility Exemption Request Form, career interruption evidence and evidence of your PhD award date as soon as possible.
For further information or any questions about an EER, please contact ARC@research.uq.edu.au.

UQ Information Session

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

How to apply

Internal Notice of Intent - due to UQ R&I by 6 October 2025

All researchers intending to submit an ARC Future Fellowship 2026 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.

NOIs can be completed and submitted here: https://survey.app.uq.edu.au/2026-Future-Fellowships-Notice-of-Intent

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 FT26 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 the internal review, email the following documents to ARC@research.uq.edu.au:
- applicant signed FT26 Application Certification Form
- UQ Pending and Newly Funded ARC grants form
- UQ FT26 Budget Tool
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:

Contact your faculty or institute research manager for advice on peer readership programs.
Join 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.

Key documents

ARC

The full suite of documents including scheme guidelines and Instructions to Applicants are now available from GrantConnect, the Australian Government grants information system.

Additional ARC documents

UQ

Mandatory Forms

Templates

Application components

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

Resources

A range of resources and workshops from the UQ library are also available to assist researchers applying for this scheme

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.

UQ Rejoinder Information Session

To assist you to prepare rejoinders, the Research Office holds rejoinder information sessions involving senior academics who have served on the ARC's College of Experts and posts the session materials when they become available. Details will be circulated closer to the date.