The Australian Research Council is to support early and mid-career researchers with funding worth AU$248 million in 2011.
The ARC future fellowships and discovery early career researcher awards, announced on 14 November, will be used to support a total of 480 researchers.
A total of AU$144m has been awarded to 203 mid-career researchers through the fellowships scheme, which promotes research in areas of national importance by attracting to, and retaining in Australia, the best mid-career researchers.
Almost AU$104m has been awarded to 277 researchers under the DECRA scheme, which supports and provides opportunities for promising early-career researchers.
The DECRA funding brings the total awarded this year under the ARC discovery projects to more than AU$344m, an increase of around AU$20m on last year.
“This support for our researchers is crucial if we want to keep Australia ‘the clever country’, one which continues to come up with solutions to the big problems and issues facing Australians and the world every day,” said Kim Carr, the innovation minister.