Why the ARC decided to use lotteries to pick grant winners
The ARC will use a lottery to allocate Explore grants among equally competitive applications.
The Australian Research Council announced it will use a conditional lottery that will decide some of its new Explore grant funding. Reviewers rate applications as highly or not competitive.
Highly competitive ones get funded. Non-competitive ones get nothing.
Competitive applications go into a lottery. Lotteries sound odd but evidence worldwide shows they work.
Lotteries reduce human bias in tight decisions and increase diversity. The British Academy saw more applications from researchers with an Asian and British Asian background after introducing one.
Lotteries also let scientists propose riskier ideas because they know prestige won't tip the scales. The Swiss National Science Foundation already uses lotteries as a tiebreaker.
Chance plays a part in any system. The ARC has simply made it honest and measurable.
Why it mattersResearchers have a fairer shot at funding. The science may become bolder. Safer proposals no longer have an edge in close calls.
AustraliaAustralian scientists get equal odds regardless of university prestige in competitive grants, and the lottery approach could spread to other Australian research funders.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 2 h ago
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