Some Australian research funding is now a lottery. And that’s actually good news

Key points

• The Australian Research Council (ARC) will use a conditional lottery to allocate some funding in its new Explore grant scheme. Applications will be classified as highly competitive, competitive, or not competitive, with highly competitive ones funded and non-competitive ones rejected.
• Competitive applications will enter a lottery for funding. Evidence from overseas suggests this approach can increase diversity, efficiency, and societal impact.
• The ARC Explore grant is Australia's first major conditional funding lottery.