Recognising the Full Costs of University Research: The Discussion Paper. (October 1, 2008)

Toward the end of last month the minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, released the issues and discussion papers provided to it by the Allen Consulting Group dealing with recognising the full costs of university research.

The discussion paper is aimed at determining just how much of a shortfall there is in competitive grant allocations, what has been done about it in other countries, in particular the UK, USA, Canada, Sweden and New Zealand, and what should be done about it in Australia to overcome the iniquity of the current governmental approach.

The two papers, totalling 96 pages, are available on line.

The report proposes a model for Australia that is based on a minimum fixed percentage of 50% of project funding to cover the indirect costs of competitive research. Allen Consulting believes this funding would ensure that indirect costs incurred in research supported through competitive grants are adequately funded. The discussion paper goes on to recommend "universities would be offered two options: they could accept fixed percentage funding of indirect costs, or they could opt for full project based costing. Those universities that judged the investment to be worthwhile would establish the accounting systems for project based costing in order to track costs associated with competitive grant-supported research. Initially the fixed percentage approach would apply to all universities. Those universities wishing to move to the project based costing approach could do so when they were ready".

Just where will Senator Carr and the federal Labor Cabinet go from here?

Certainly the popular media have taken no note of the issue, and yet the effectiveness of Australia's university research is intimately bound to the resolution of a stultifying state of affairs.

Here we reprint the Discussion Paper's Executive Summary in full: