Sir Gareth Roberts, Chairman  Expert Advisory Group: "If you do invest in this sort of quality research framework, it will pay huge dividends, otherwise, with the rise of China and other nations, in 10 years, Australia will be struggling." (March 21, 2005)

    In December last year TFW reported that following the May announcement by the Coalition Government that it was committed to developing a framework on which to base the quality of publicly funded research it had designated a group of thirteen to undertake "wide-ranging consultations, release an issues paper and hold a major stakeholder forum." Ultimately the Framework was "to measure the quality of research conducted in Australia’s universities and Publicly Funded Research Agencies (PFRAs), as well as benefits of research to the wider community."  And according to the Department of Education, Science and Training, "This initiative will develop the basis for a more consistent and comprehensive approach to assessing the quality and impact of publicly funded research."

Chairman of the "Expert Advisory Group" is Sir Gareth Roberts who currently chairs the research committee of England's Higher Eduction Funding Council Board. The Department of Education, Science and Training's disparate advisory group of 13 (see below) met for the first time on March 17 to thrash out matters such as how to measure the social impact of research and whether different disciplines should be assessed in different ways.
Dr Nelson is to receive a fifteen point discussion paper from the group before the end of the week following which the research community will be given five weeks to comment on the issues. A national seminar is scheduled for June.

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review's Sophie Morris Professor Roberts didn't mince his words.

    I would be on a big crusade to say there should be additional funding. When you're introducing changes, you don't want to lower morale. You want to make sure the more research-intensive universities get more research monies that they can really use to good advantage to do leading-edge research, [but] at the same time, you want to make sure there is additional funding for the less research-intensive universities to develop a new mission to help their communities.

   [Australia needs to] double or triple [such] third-stream funding.

It was clear that Professor Roberts did not mean that such a funding increase should be at the expense of research funding for the research-intensive institutions.

If you do invest in this sort of quality research framework, it will pay huge dividends; otherwise, with the rise of China and other nations, in 10 years, Australia will be struggling.

And in what appeared to be an oblique suggestion that he wanted neither his nor his committee's time wasted Sophie Morris reports, "He called on Dr Nelson to reveal how much of the overall research funding pool would be allocated according to the new framework that his team will devise."

Note added March 23: The Higher Education Section of The Australian today ran an interview by Brendan O'Keefe of Sir Gareth Roberts. Professor Roberts told O'Keefe in regard to criticisms voiced in Australia that an undertaking similar to Britain's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) would be unsustainably costly, administratively burdensome and unfair, "In the UK the cost of the RAE is about 1% of the money being distributed. In Britain or Australia, the cost of distributing the money that comes from people putting in bids to the ARC is about 4%." He then added that scientific literature citations for British science were "in a league of their own.  Those countries that don't have funding linked to quality - The Netherlands is the prime example - are now changing their course to link funding to research; Italy is doing an RAE along the lines of UK, and the Germans are about to introduce one." And he concluded, "The drive is coming from the treasury because they recognise that having a good research base improves the health and wealth of the nation."

    But Professor Roberts, a physicist also cautioned, "We need to make sure that arts and humanities are protected."

    The group meets again in June and then September, and is scheduled to present a final report in December to Dr Nelson.

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Members of the Research Framework Expert Advisory Group	Qualifications as listed in DEST's media release
Sir Professor Gareth Roberts, Chairman	International representative - United Kingdom. President of Wolfson College, Oxford. Appointed to serve on the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Board from August 1997 for three years and was reappointed in 2000 and again in 2002 until August 2005. He chairs the Board’s Research Committee and led the UK-wide review of research assessment, which reported to the UK funding bodies in 2003. Sir Gareth was formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield and in 2001 became the President of Wolfson College, Oxford.
Professor Paul Callaghan	International representative - New Zealand. Director of The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Professor Callaghan chaired the Moderation Panel of New Zealand’s Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF), in 2003. A key function of the Moderation Panel was to ensure consistent standards, both within and between Peer Review Panels. Professor Callaghan has a BSc (Hons) (Wellington) and DPhil DSc (Oxford) and membership of FRSNZ, FRS FInstP, and FNZIP.
Dr Michael Barber	Representing the CSIRO. Executive Director, Science Planning, CSIRO. Dr Barber oversees the assessment, development and promotion of CSIRO's scientific excellence and talent to ensure CSIRO's sustained leadership in scientific and technological excellence and thus the organisation's impact on and relevance to the nation. Prior to joining CSIRO, Dr Barber was Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at The University of Western Australia.
Professor Ian Chubb	Representing the Group of Eight Became Chair of the Group of Eight in November 2003. Professor Chubb was appointed Vice-Chancellor of The Australian National University in 2001, having been Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University; Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Monash University; and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong.     Between 1990 and 1993, Professor Chubb was Chair of the Higher Education Council, and concurrently Deputy Chair of the National Board of Employment, Education and Training. He also served as Interim Chair, then Deputy Chair, of the National Committee for Quality in Higher Education. Between 2000 and 2002 Professor Chubb served on the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. He is a serving member of the Foreign Affairs Council, and is a Director of the Australia-New Zealand School of Government. He also served in various capacities on the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council.
Professor Peter Høj	Representing the Australian Research Council (ARC). Commenced as CEO of the ARC on 1st October 2004. He was previously Managing Director of the Australian Wine Research Institute, based in Adelaide. Professor Høj was educated at the University of Copenhagen, majoring in Biochemistry and Chemistry. He has a Master of Science Degree in biochemistry and genetics and a PhD in photosynthesis. Since arriving in Australia in 1987 he has worked as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at La Trobe University and Professor of Viticultural Science and Oenology at the University of Adelaide. In 1992 he was awarded the Boehringer-Mannheim medal by the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Dr Ian O Smith	Representing The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). Commenced as Executive Director, ANSTO in May 2004. Dr Smith had, since 1995, been the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Enterprise & International) at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Among other roles, Dr Smith has held senior management positions with the Comalco Research Centre and CRA Advanced Technical Development.
Dr Robin Batterham	Chief Scientist of Australia and Chief Technologist, Rio Tinto Limited. Dr Batterham’s career has focused on research and technology, in both the public and private sectors. As Chief Scientist, Dr Batterham provides advice to the Australian Government on science and innovation matters, promoting linkages between science, industry and government. He also helps to ensure public investment in science and technology is properly focused on issues of national priority. He is executive officer of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.     Dr Batterham is Chairman of the International Network for Acid Prevention and is President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (2004-05). He also holds a number of government appointments, including membership on the Commonwealth, States and Territories Advisory Council on Innovation, the Australian Research Council, the Science Prizes Committee, the Coordination Committee on Science and Technology, the Cooperative Research Centres’ Committee and the Victorian Government’s Innovation Economy Advisory Board. He is also an advisor to the Australian Institute of Commercialisation.
Professor Peter Sheehan	Representing the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. The Chair of the AVCC’s working group on the Research Quality Framework. He is Vice-Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University. Professor Sheehan has a Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (1965) from the University of Sydney. In 1973 he was appointed Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland and later Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Postgraduate Studies) at that University.     Professor Sheehan’s appointments include: Chair, National Panel (Social Sciences and Humanities) of Australian Research Grants Committee (1980-1985); Chair, Queen Elizabeth II Fellowships and Australian Research Grants Committee (1983-1985); Chair, Commonwealth Cinematograph Films Board of Review (1986-1987); President of the International Congress of Psychology (1988); Chair, Humanities and Social Sciences Panel of Australian Research Council (1990-1991); President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (1991-1993); and Chair, Research Grants Committee of Australian Research Council (1992-1993).
Mr Phil Clark	Representing the Business Council of Australia (BCA) The Managing Partner and CEO of Minter Ellison. He has overall responsibility for his firm's operations in Australia, Asia Pacific, the United Kingdom and United States. Prior to joining Minter Ellison in 1995, Mr Clark worked with ABN Amro Australia and prior to that, managed another major law firm. He has also worked in the oil industry and with the Pratt Group.     His appointments outside Minter Ellison include a directorship of St James Ethics Centre and various charitable organisations. He is also a member of Australian Davos Connection and serves on several advisory boards, including the International Chamber of Commerce, European Australian Business Council and Australian Graduate School of Management.
Professor Ross Milbourne	Representing the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN). Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Technology, Sydney. Previously he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Adelaide. His areas of research are monetary economics, macroeconomics and economic growth. His current area of interest is economic growth in open economies and the role of technology diffusion.
Professor Anne Edwards	Representing the Innovative Research Universities Australia (IRUA). The Convenor of the IRUA. Professor Edwards is Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University. Her previous appointments include: Deputy Vice-Chancellor Flinders University; Professor of Sociology at Monash University; and positions of Head of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts. Professor Edwards holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and a PhD from the University of London and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.     Professor Edwards is currently a member of the Australian Universities Teaching Committee and a member of the Board of the Australian Vice-Chancellor's Committee (2002-2003). She was a member of the Australian Research Council (1994-1997), and Deputy Chair (1997). Professor Edwards was also a member of the Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority (1993 to 2000), and Deputy Chair and Chair of the Authority's Research Committee (1994). In 2000 she was a member of the South Australian Film Corporation Board and she became the Chair of the Board of the Adelaide Central School of Art. She is a founding trustee of the South Australian Women's Trust.
Professor Alan Pettigrew	Representing the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Appointed CEO of the NHMRC, commencing January 2001. Prior to this appointment, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Planning and Resources) at the University of NSW. Professor Pettigrew was NHMRC’s representative on DEST’s National Research Infrastructure Taskforce.     Professor Pettigrew has held academic appointments at the University of Sydney and prior to joining the University of NSW was Executive Dean of the Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences at the University of Queensland. Professor Pettigrew's research concerned the development of the nervous system and involved both laboratory and clinical studies. He has had a long standing involvement with the NHMRC through his activities on the Grants Committee, including serving as Chair of the Committee, and on the Research Committee. Professor Pettigrew has also served on the Board of Uniquest at the University of Queensland and on the Board of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute.
Dr Evan Arthur	Representing the Department of Education Science and Training (DEST). The Group Manager of the Innovation and Research Systems Group in the Department of DEST. Dr Arthur was educated at Newcastle (Australia) and Cambridge (UK) universities. His doctoral thesis was in the area of Stoic Philosophy. He joined the Australian Public Service in 1981 and has worked in the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs as well as DEST. Dr Arthur has worked on issues such as: refugee policy; labour market programs; teacher professional development; research policy; recognition of overseas qualifications; and the use of information technology in education.