The National Collaborative Research Infrastructure 2004 - 2011. (February 24, 2005)

    Under Backing Australia’s Ability II the Federal Government has committed $542 million to fund a National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) from 2004/5-2010/11. Significant funding is promised to begin in 2006/07 (see table).

The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) has designated an advisory committee to assist the Department on how to wisely allocate the funding. According to DEST "The Advisory Committee will advise the Government on the development of the NCRIS. It will report to the Minister for Education, Science and Training, but will not be required to provide a
formal report. ...The Advisory Committee will advance the implementation of the NCRIS to the stage where guidelines are issued and the ongoing governance arrangements to oversee the operations of the NCRIS are in place."

The Chair is Professor Rory Hume, formerly Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of New South Wales:
      Dr Michael Barber, Executive Director, Science Planning, CSIRO
      Dr Robin Batterham, The Chief Scientist
      Professor Ian Chubb, Vice-Chancellor, Australian National University (representing the    Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee)
      Dr Phil McFadden, Chief Scientist, Geoscience Australia (representing the National    Academies Forum);
      Mr Peter Nissen, National Broadband Advisor for Education
      Professor Alan Pettigrew, CEO, National Health and Medical Research Council
      Dr Ian Smith, Executive Director, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
      Dr Stephen Walker, Executive Director, Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Australian Research Council
      Dr Evan Arthur, Group Manager, Innovation and Research Systems Group, DEST
      Mr Colin Walters, Group Manager, Science Group, DEST

The advisory committee set out its milestones in its November 2004 paper (table below) and the deadline  for making submissions is approaching.

The Group of Eight has now announced that members of the Go8 Deputy Vice-Chancellors (Research) committee is finalising a Go8 response to the 35 page discussion paper released by the Advisory Committee in November 2004. The Go8 paper supports a more strategic system for the funding and management of Australia’s stock of research infrastructure and notes the many challenges universities face in providing research infrastructure comparable to that available in top performing research countries. The full Go8 response will be posted on the Go8 website by mid March.