Former education minister Simon Birmingham rejected 11 grants worth a combined $4.2 million that were recommended for federal funding by the Australian Research Council, a senate hearing has been told.
The grants, all of which were for humanities research projects, were vetoed by Birmingham during the 2017-18 financial year. They included six ARC Discovery proposals, three early-career grant applications and two Future Fellow awards.
There has been a backlash on social media, with many academics describing Birmingham’s action as “political interference”.
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