$1.5 Billion for 2011 Research Block Grants Announced. (February 24, 2011)

In announcing the $1,500 million research block grant allocation for 2011  the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr said: "This year’s research block grants will help our universities tackle research workforce issues and meet the indirect costs of competitive research, helping to continue Australia’s world-class research reputation."

DIISR defines the Sustainable Research Excellence in Universities (SRE) initiative as addressing the gap in funding for the indirect costs of university research.

And the funding for the Sustainable Research Excellence (SRE) portion of the block grant for 2011 totals $122 million which has been divided into three segments: SRE Base = $24,383,000; SRE Threshold 1 = $15,849,000; and SRE Threshold 2 = $81,686,000. DIISR also states that the SRE "recognises that achieving research excellence on a sustainable basis is dependent on universities' capacity to strategically manage their resources to meet costs associated with research activities. It also recognises a need for mechanisms and incentives to support universities to stretch their research performance over time".

And just what is entailed is indicated in this note on the table of funding allocations: "Threshold 2 to be finalised following compacts discussions in 2011." Threshold 2 amounts to 67% of the allocation.

Now you may have thought that the appropriate awarding of adequate oncosts to researchers winning competitive grants from the ARC or NHMRC would be to include them in the grants won by those researchers, but you would be missing the point -- by doing so you diminish your control over the universities and reduce your ability to "encourage" agreement to sign up to "compacts" which government of the day considers to be in its interests. But is it really in the best interests of the nation?

Mind you, university administrations would of course also lose direct control of a significant portion of  funding.

Is this really the way to get the best value for the nation's research dollar as compared to designing competitive research grants so that the recipients, who are considered to have presented the best submissions on peer review, are awarded adequate oncosts as part of the award?