Editorial-11 April 2002
The Federation Fellowship Program: the State of Play |
One of the commitments made by the Federal Government in
Backing Australia's Ability was "to attract and retain leading
researchers in key positions, [and] part of the new funds to be provided [are] for national
competitive
research
grants [which] will be used to introduce 25 new Federation Fellowships
worth $225,000 a year for five years." The administration of those fellowships
and vetting the applications for them
has fallen to the Australian Research Council (ARC).
Just prior to the change of
the guard last November, the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the then Minister
for Education, Training and Youth Affairs, David Kemp, announced that of the 25
Federation Fellowship places, 15 had been filled. The 10 left vacant have been
carried over and are now the subject of a second round of applications.
The ARC puts the matter succinctly -
Selection Process
Applications were assessed by a special committee drawn from the Expert Advisory Committees of the ARC.
Selection Criteria
The primary assessment criteria for Fellowships were:
investigator (60%)
significance and innovation (20%)
approach (10%), and
national benefit (10%).
Summary of Outcomes
There were 181 applications for Federation Fellowships, of which 15 were awarded support.
Of those 15 awardees, 8 are resident Australians, 6 had been
expatriates for varying lengths of time, and one is a German national who since
1992 had been at the Department of Medical
Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
A complete list of the successful applicants together with
two page summaries of their qualifications and research interests
are available
online.
It is not the point of this editorial to judge the quality of the appointments, quite simply we would not be qualified to do so, but there are several matters that are striking and worthy of comment.
Just over 8% of the applicants were considered of sufficient standard to warrant the awarding of a fellowship.
The ARC's selected set of statistics doesn't disclose what percentage of applicants were resident in Australia, how many were expatriate and how many foreign nationals were sufficiently attracted by the fellowships to lodge an application -- were those data released and sufficiently detailed, they might be quite instructive.
What we do know is that so far only 8 Australian residents qualified for Federation Fellowships while but 7 individuals resident overseas were considered to be of sufficient calibre to meet the objectives of the fellowship plan*. In short, 40% of the places went unfilled.
To call the Federation Fellowship scheme a failure at this juncture would be premature, but if the aim of the program is to galvanise Australian academe, neither does it give the impression of being a strong starter. And that's serious and very worrying. Quite simply the carrot doesn't appear to be that attractive to the best the academic world has to offer.
Something's wrong in our academic world; it takes only a cursory examination of the approach taken by the Canadians, the Irish and the major players in the European Community to cite a few, to see how they are increasing their support for research and development in general and their higher educational systems in particular, to appreciate the widening gulf between them and us. Not to acknowledge that simply exacerbates the problem.
And rebukes by the Minister for Education, Science and Training implying that the universities are attempting to screw the poor by trying to fatten themselves are not helpful. The good doctor appears intent on further traumatizing the patient. Our children and theirs in turn will bear the consequences and so may his.
*The aims of the Federation Fellowships as stated by the ARC "were to:
attract and retain leading Australian researchers in key positions
attract outstanding overseas researchers whose research is demonstrated to be of national benefit to Australia
support research that will result in economic, environmental and social benefits for Australia
expand Australia's knowledge base and research capability
support excellent, internationally competitive research by individuals
build and sustain world-class research teams and linkages."
Alex Reisner
The Funneled Web