Excellence in Research for Australia and the Polyunsaturated Cow. (October 20, 2010)

Once upon a time a CSIRO division undertook to develop cattle with a high percentage of polyunsaturated fat so that the beef could be marketed as a healthy product ostensibly to reduce the incidence of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease in the Australian population.

In fact a method was developed "modifying fat composition of ruminants. This was achieved by supplementing cattle with treated polyunsaturated fats, which escape the saturation process in the rumen (rumen bypass technology). Such treatment resulted in very significant changes in fat composition. Rumentek Industries Pty Ltd, using primarily mono-unsaturated fats from certain oil seeds, commercialised the procedure."

Unfortunately the product was found to be unacceptable because it suffered from unpleasant odour, taste and consistency when cooked and served.  In fact, no matter how it was served up it was close to unpalatable on top of being non-price competitive.

Overall not an unreasonable analogy for the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research's (Senator Kim Carr's) Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA).  Furthermore, by obsessing regarding the ERA, there has been a shameful neglect of worthwhile improvements for long overdue peer review assessments of grant applications from principal investigators, as well as satisfactorily increasing funding for research oncosts and reducing the micromanagement of research both by government and university administrators.

According to The Australian's Jill Rowbotham: "The ARC received more than 330,000 research pieces from more than 50,000 researchers.

On September 21 TFW reported:

149 Named to Evaluate Submissions for Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA). (September 21, 2010)

The academics who will comprise the eight groups (clusters) to evaluate the submissions made to Excellence in Research for Australia have been designated.

According to the ERA's Website:

The evaluation of data submitted for the 2010 ERA initiative by Australia’s higher education institutions will be undertaken by Research Evaluation Committees (RECs).

RECs are established at the discipline cluster level and comprise distinguished and internationally-recognised researchers with expertise in research evaluation. There are 149 REC members in total appointed from Australia and overseas, and broadly representative of the disciplines within each Cluster.

If those figures are correct, that ought to keep the evaluators out of mischief, as well as from doing worthwhile research, for some time -- they'll get a mean of 2,215 "research pieces" to assess.

Assuming the average evaluator spends four hours a day, seven days a week evaluating the "research pieces" (s)he is assigned and that (s)he spends an average of 6 minutes to evaluate and score a "research piece" that works out to 55.4-days or just on 8-weeks.

All things considered a significant proportion may require psychological counselling comparable to that being afforded the 33 Chilean miners rescued from the San José mine.

On the other hand perhaps the evaluators have been picked for their aptitude for multitasking.

Note: if the meaning of "a piece of research" is ambiguous and the apparent effort required is incorrect,  TFW will publish an update.