Australian Research Council Act 2001

support Australian universities in conducting excellent research, including collaborative research with local, national and international partners, for Australia’s economic, social, environmental and cultural benefit; and

promote and conduct activities to shape and foster the Australian research landscape and community, including by supporting academic career pathways, expanding Indigenous knowledge systems and evaluating the excellence, impact and depth of Australian research; and

support Australian universities to attract and retain academic researchers and promote quality academic jobs; and

support research integrity, promote ethical research and facilitate access to research publications and research data; and

uphold peer review as a core process to identify excellent research; and

administer funding of excellent pure basic research, strategic basic research and applied research in all disciplines under the National Competitive Grants Program, except experimental development; and

administer funding for nationally significant research programs; and

provide expert advice on research to the Commonwealth Government; and

partner with other Commonwealth entities to deliver research grants by those other entities.

Research does not include medical research (see section 4). The National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 deals with funding for medical research.