Senator Carr Temporises on Research Funding. (July 21, 2010)

In the July 7 issue of the The Australian Simon Marginson was reported by Guy Healy as having "swung his weight behind an expanded, two-tier system of research concentration. Australia needed 'a stronger layer of world-competitive research-intensive institutions' backed by differentiated government funding to build greater capacity, Professor Marginson told the Innovative Research Universities conference in Cairns. 'Politically Australian governments have so far been unable to commit to world-standard policies of research concentration,' the University of Melbourne professor of higher education added."

When the broadsheet's Andrew Trounson asked the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, for a comment regarding Professor Marginson's criticisms senator replied that he had now plans to institute "'differential' research funding to drive research concentration among universities."

In explanation of what would be "new funding guidelines" the minister said: "It is about ensuring that every university has a serious research program if they choose to develop it," he said, noting an already considerable research concentration in the system. "We want to build a hubs and spokes model in which everyone can share in success, but they have to have clear objectives and they have to take clear responsibilities." He added that there was no separate pool of research money reserved for compact negotiations but that compacts would be the "overarching instrument" through which universities, in negotiation with the government, would decide their research strategy.

Senator Carr also ruled out the immediate probability of "teaching-only universities" which in any case can be judged to be an oxymoron.

Mr Trounson sums up how Senator Carr's Collaborative Research Networks initiative will initially allocate up to $51 million "for regional universities and those with low research profiles to partner with other most likely more research-intensive universities in areas of common interest... [A] further $63m is available for subsequent rounds."

The mechanisms for allocation?

The money will be allocated on a competitive basis in a move Senator Carr said should ensure sustainable outcomes. "This is a competitive arrangement, it isn't an entitlement program." In all, 16 institutions are eligible to apply, including private universities Bond and Notre Dame.

Separately, the government has added two sections to the draft template for mission-based compact agreements that is due to be released soon. They outline the performance review processes and operational processes aimed at avoiding duplication of reporting requirements.

"There will be review provisions that outline a transparent framework, which will reinforce existing requirements under the institutional performance arrangements," Senator Carr said. "It is about ensuring we have real teeth in those compacts."

Over time he said the Excellence in Research Australia exercise would be used, where appropriate, to track whether a university was achieving its mission.

The template includes sections on teaching and learning, research and research training, and a mission statement in line with the templates used in this year's interim compacts. Full mission-based compacts are planned to commence next year.

Surely there is a better way to allocate $114 million, not to mention the resources diverted to undertake the machinations to implement Senator Carr's managerial obsessions.

Appropriately fund specific research programs, with sufficient oncosts, which are proposed by principle investigators no matter where they are affiliated.

Furthermore, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation, on June 22 tabled its report on the Inquiry into Australia's international research collaboration. The report's findings and recommendations have been welcomed by the Australian Academy of Science.

One of the matters the Committee was at pains to emphasise was that young scientists, competing against established principal investigators, were at a marked disadvantage in getting projects funded. "Research funding has been found to have the tendency to invite further funding," the report says. "As research continues, and publication and citations increase, researchers are more likely to be successful in funding rounds, but many younger early-career researchers have found it difficult to break into the funding regime."

Included in the reports 18 recommendations (see below) were proposals that:

• a small grants scheme to be established to support the travel expense of Australian early-career researchers who win time on foreign instruments and facilities that are unavailable in Australia,

• 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,

• 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,

• that [a] successor program to the International Science Linkages program has its budget increased and indexed, and, pending proven success of the new program, that the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research seek to have funding increased further in future budgets and

• that the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council allocate a fixed percentage of research funding to ‘blue-sky’ research.
  

The government is due to respond to the report in September. The full list of recommendations is given below:

__________________________