Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation Reports on Building Australia's Research Capacity. (December 4, 2008)

The Australian Parliament's House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation has just released its 147-page report on Building Australia's Research Capacity.

So far the popular media have ignored it; it remains to be seen how much notice Prime Minister Rudd and his cabinet will take.

The 10-member committee consisting of six Labor MPs (Vamvakinou (chair), Bidgood, Champion, Cheeseman and Symon) and four Liberal members (Bailey, (deputy chair) Jensen, Johnson and Ramsey) brought down 38 wide-ranging recommendations. The report contains no supplementary report from the Liberal minority on the committee, suggesting unanimous agreement.

Here is an excerpted list of  10 of them followed by the complete listing.

Coming just before the expected release of the Bradley higher education review it will be interesting to see how the two dovetail -- if at all.

The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation:

recommends that the quality of teaching and infrastructure at Australian primary and secondary schools be improved, particularly in the fields of maths and sciences. (1)

recommends that the Gross Expenditure on Research and Development as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product over a ten year period until it equals the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development average. (2)

recommends that the Australian Government fund the full cost of each higher degree by research program at Australian universities through the Research Training Scheme. (4)

recommends that the Australian Government increase the funding pool for Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council grants to enable a minimum success rate for applicants of 40 per cent. (11)

recommends that the Australian Government specify that competitive grants, in particular all National Health and Medical Research Council grants, fund the full cost of research in each program to which a grant has been awarded. (12)

recommends that the duration of all federal postgraduate awards with stipends for PhD students be increased to three and a half years (full-time equivalent) with the option of two six-month extensions. (14)

recommends that the Australian Postgraduate Award stipend value be increased by 50 per cent. (15)

recommends that a doubling in the annual number of International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS)
awards to accommodate a greater number of international students. (27)

recommends that the Australian Government implement a quota of 10 per cent of ARC and NHMRC successful grants to be allocated to early-career researchers who are first-time awardees. (35)

recommends an expansion of fellowship schemes targeted specifically at expatriate and international researchers. (38)

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