Australia's Federation Fellowships Are in the News Again. (February 14, 2007)

    Australia's Federation Fellowships were established under the Australian Government's 2001 Backing Australia's Ability, to be administered by the Australian Research Council (ARC).

The Federation Fellowships have been designed to  provide internationally competitive salaries, which are intended to encourage outstanding researchers to either remain in Australia, if expatriates to return, and according to the ARC non-Australian researchers currently working overseas are particularly encouraged.

Federation Fellows who commenced in 2006 have been awarded an annual salary of $250,970 and the ARC will also provide an additional annual $65,252 (26%) for on-costs. In addition the host organisations must provide support for Federation Fellows which at least matches the salary. So for example universities who accept a Federation Fellow must find something over $300,000 annually for each Fellow. In many cases this will be come from the universities block grant allocation.

Finally in certain cases the ARC may provide some successful applicants with "a start-up project grant of up to $400,000 to assist researchers who may not otherwise have been able to work on their proposed project as expeditiously as those researchers with continuing access to significant resources at their proposed host organisation."

Currently the ARC is reviewing the five-year-old program through an independent committee being chaired by John Grace, acting chief executive of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. It is charged with providing "expert and strategic advice to the CEO of the ARC on:

• the effectiveness of the Federation Fellowships scheme in meeting its core objectives

• the impact of the stated preference of the scheme for Federation Fellowships to be given to early- to mid-career researchers who will play a leadership role in building Australia’s internationally competitive research capacity

• the continued relevance of the scheme (that is, the appropriateness of the objectives in light of developments in the research environment) and

• possible changes that could be made to enhance the scheme.

To date the committee has received according to The Australian's Bernard Lane something over ninety submissions and Mr Lane has singled out the views of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies' Executive Director, Bradley Smith.

Mr Smith takes exception to the rule that foreign nationals may only be awarded five of the 25 fellowships annually.  He told The Australian, "You're hardly going to build a dynamic international intellectual exchange if you're going to limit yourself like that."

Speaking for FASTS Mr Smith indicated that the Fellowship program has been of limited success in achieving its stated goals:

• To attract and retain outstanding researchers of international renown

• To build and strengthen world-class research capability in Australia

• To expand Australia's knowledge base by supporting ground-breaking, internationally competitive research

• To forge strong links among researchers, industry and the international research community

• To support research that will result in economic, environmental, social or cultural benefits for Australia

And FASTS, in its submission to the review committee says it is not enough for Fellows to be leaders in their field, they should be public intellectuals able to explain their work and its wider significance. "As disputes over genetically modified organisms, nuclear weapons, energy and stem-cell research have demonstrated, social, ethical and political considerations are commonly an integral part of scientific practice, whether scientists like it or not."

Of course not all of the 120 or so Federation Fellows would have the desire or skills to be effective advocates, but FASTS has a point that those who do should be encouraged.

One of the matters that ought to be considered is a comparison of the Federation Fellow program to the Canada Research Chairs.

According to its website, "In 2000, the Government of Canada created a new permanent program to establish 2000 research professorships—Canada Research Chairs—in universities across the country by 2008. The Canada Research Chairs Program invests $300 million a year to attract and retain some of the world's most accomplished and promising minds."

Canadian universities both nominate Canada Research Chairs and administer their funds.

Each eligible degree-granting institution receives an allocation of Chairs. For each Chair, a university nominates a researcher whose work complements its strategic research plan and who meets the program's high standards.

Three members of a college of reviewers, composed of experts from around the world, assess each nomination and recommend whether to support it.

There are two types of Canada Research Chair:

Tier 1 Chairs, tenable for seven years and renewable, are for outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields. For each Tier 1 Chair, the university receives C$200,000 (A$220,000) annually for seven years.

Tier 2 Chairs, tenable for five years and renewable once, are for exceptional emerging researchers, acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field. For each Tier 2 Chair, the university receives C$100,000 (A$110,000) annually for five years.

Chairholders are also eligible for infrastructure support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to help acquire state-of-the-art equipment essential to their work.*

 

 

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*CFI will contribute 40% of the total cost of the infrastructure project and the institution and its partners are responsible for securing the remaining funding. Small universities (those that receive less than one per cent of total granting agency funding) may request up to 100% of the eligible costs of the Canada Research Chair infrastructure project if the total cost of the project does not exceed C$75,000 (A$82,500).