China's National Natural Science Foundation on It's 25^th Anniversary Gets Reviewed.    29/10/11

    Almost everyone we talked to [said] their research-funding mechanisms are 'the best in China. [More]

Israel's Public Universities Offer Private Master's Programs to Augment Funding.    28/10/11

    And Melbourne University's Simon Marginson says Australian universities have been too focused on getting "bums on seats". [More]

Chief Scientist’s Health of Australian Science report, due in 2012.    25/10/11 [More]

Like It or Not Metrics-Based Assessments are Here to Stay.    21/10/11

    However, Many of the things you can count, don't count. Many of the things you can't count, do count. [More]

Science Announces Western Australian is Winner of "Dance Your Ph.D".    21/10/11

    The winner didn't have a video camera instead the team shot 2200 still photographs of the dance and used stop-motion animation. [More]

The AAAS as Lobbyist.    21/10/11

     It's becoming increasingly active in lobbying for science with the executive and legislative branches of the US federal government. [More]

Royal Society Report Proposes a World Nuclear Forum.    20/10/11

    The report discusses best practices for nuclear power programs including "cradle-to-grave" care of nuclear fuel. [More] 

The Impact that Won't Go Away.    19/10/11

    Perhaps it's not surprising that the concept of scraping the ERA's retrospective assessments affecting block research funding is not particularly attractive to university administrations. [More]

Will Australia's Carbon Tax Cause the Sky to Fall?    17/10/11 [More]

Critical Correspondence to Nature From Australia Regarding Universities' Administrative Bloat.    17/10/11

    We believe that there is a pressing need to cut the cost of bureaucracy [and rechannel] into research. [More]

David Sainsbury Elected Chancellor of Cambridge University.    17/10/11  [More]

Senator Carr Praises Science -- Parkes Observatory to Have Budget Cut of 40%.    15/10/11

    Senator Carr: We will not compromise our commitment to discovery. [More]

NSF and the Conundrum of Impact.    14/10/11

    Since 1997 the NSF has used two criteria to judge 1) intellectual merit, 2) "broader impacts" which has come to be seen by researchers to require expert tutoring in order to avoid self harm. [More]

Provisional PCAST Agenda for the November 2, 2011 Meeting Announced.    14/10/11 [More]

AAAS Policy Alert Refers to Australia's Chief Scientist.    14/10/11

    In a recent speech echoing (and quoting in part) a statement by the AAAS Board of Directors... [More]

Cambridge to Vote This Weekend on Who Will Be Its Next Chancellor.    13/10/11

    Leading candidate is former Minister for Science under Labour, David Sainsbury. [More] 

Prime Minister's Science Prizes for 2011 Announced.    13/10/11

    This year’s Prime Minister's Prize for Science has been awarded to Professors Ezio Rizzardo and David Solomon from the CSIRO and the University of Melbourne. [More]

Australia's Alaskan Born, Harvard Trained 2011 Physics Nobel Laureate Speaks Out.    12/10/11

    My children have had great teachers, but that might be because there are a lot of scientists in the ACT. [More] 

The 2011 Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure a Vacuous Exercise.    12/10/11

     To summarise the views of three knowledgeable academics as damning with faint praise surely is being over charitable. [More]

2011 Nobel Prize in Economics for Analyses of Cause and Effect in the Macroeconomy.    11/10/11

    How are GDP and inflation affected by a temporary increase in the interest rate or a tax cut? [More]

Chief Scientist Delivers Inaugural National Tertiary Education Union Lecture.    09/10/11

    Matters which cut to the core of science and which form the very basis of science and of an informed, progressive and enlightened society are apparently under siege. [More] 

NIH Rate of Grant Success Drops to 17.4%.    09/10/11 [More]

Japan to Boost Overall Science Budget by 5.8%.    07/10/11

    Overall science-related spending in Japan next year to rise by 5.8%, to US$14.7 billion. [More]

Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2011-12.    06/10/11 [More]

2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for he Discovery of Quasicrystals".    06/10/11

     Awarded to Dan Shechtman, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa Israel. [More]

2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the Discovery of Accelerating Expansion of the Universe.    05/10/11

    Awarded to Saul Perlmutter, and jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae". [More]

2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for Discoveries in the Immune System.    04/10/11

    "One half jointly to Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity and the other half to Ralph M. Steinman for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity". [More] 

European Commission Issues an Agenda for the Modernisation of Europe's Higher Education Systems.    03/10/11

     The European Commission outlines what it sees needs to be done to advance higher education in the European Union. [More]