Margaret Sheil says Australian Research Council must win trust back after “political interference”

The government must “clarify exactly what the Australian Research Council is for and who it is there for”, the chair of a sweeping review of the ARC has said.

Margaret Sheil (pictured) told the annual Universities Australia conference on 23 February that the research sector’s trust in the council would be a key focus of the review panel’s recommendations.

That trust has “largely been broken because of ministerial interference”, she said. This includes the vetoing of recommended grants since 2005, most recently in 2021 by Stuart Robert, acting education minister at the time.

Administrative issues are also prominent in the submission process, and Sheil said some of the feedback had already been passed on to the council.

Sheil revealed that some overseas experts had been reluctant to work with the ARC after several rounds of ministerial intervention in ARC decisions in recent years. “It was hard to get international reviewers to respond, particularly after periods of political interference, because they felt it [peer review] wasn’t being valued,” she said.

Reinstating a formal board for the ARC—after the previous one was abolished in 2006—would help address “a lack of continuity…and a lack of support for the ARC chief executive”, she said.

The review has identified several issues with the legislation underpinning the ARC, Sheil said. These include a lack of a clear brief that the ARC is there to support university and university partner research, despite that being how it operates in practice, and a lack of direction on the level of funding for basic research.

The ARC traditionally does not support medical research, but that is also missing from the legislation, she said.

Research quality

Sheil confirmed the likelihood that future research quality assessment would be more streamlined than the now-suspended Excellence in Research for Australia and Engagement and Impact processes.

She said that these once-useful processes had been affected by “the law of diminishing returns”, acknowledging concerns from some that the newly created Indigenous research classification was now not going to be assessed.

The ARC’s future role might be to provide advice on “specific capabilities” in government priority research areas, alongside more automated metrics systems, Sheil said. It could also help in assessing research quality across the sector more broadly.

Sheil’s report to education minister Jason Clare is due at the end of March. It covers the legislation underpinning the council and is not advising on the overall level of funding available for the council to distribute.

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Cathy Foley will report on Australia’s challenges, strengths and opportunities

Australian chief scientist Cathy Foley has been asked to lead a “national conversation” on science priorities.

Foley (pictured) was asked by industry and science minister Ed Husic to advise on refreshing Australia’s national science and research priorities and National Science Statement.

In a statement on 23 February, Husic said he wanted “to hear the views of a wide range of Australians on the issues they are facing that require a solution drawing on the breadth of our science and research communities”.

A discussion paper suggests that the new priorities should be “evidence-based” as well as “supporting and embedding First Nations knowledge and knowledge systems”. It asks for feedback on Australia’s challenges, strengths and “opportunities we should seize”.

The priorities will guide government strategy and investment, but the paper says they will not exclude other scientific research from taking place.

Foley will hold discussions with industry and researchers, and an online portal has been set up for public submissions.

Resilient future

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering chief executive Kylie Walker welcomed the review, saying that “there’s a need to refresh the priorities to define and develop Australian research strengths in crucial areas for our resilient future—such as low-emissions technologies and modern manufacturing”. 

Walker said that any priorities should also recognise the importance of international collaboration.

New priorities were last set in 2015. The first round of consultation will close on 31 March, with a final statement of priorities expected in September.

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Updated regulations will offer fresh opportunities to Australian institutions, Indian high commissioner says

Australian universities should make new campuses in India a “high priority”, the Indian high commissioner to Australia has said.

The call, made at Universities Australia’s annual conference on 22 February, was later backed by Australian education minister Jason Clare.

High commissioner Manpreet Vohra told the conference that as part of India’s ambitious education policy, new regulations around setting up Indian campuses would soon be released. He urged Australian universities to prioritise this opportunity.

Australia has been very successful in attracting an increasing number of Indian students, he said, but “even with the 100,000-odd students that you have in your campuses, that is just a minuscule part” of the Indian student body, he said.

The call came with a hint of access to Indian government research funding for joint projects. In response to an audience question about the possibility, Vohra said: “Yes, I imagine it would be…I’m sure they’ll be responsive to all of that.”

Comprehensive relationship

University of Queensland chancellor Peter Varghese said that Australia’s relationship with India was changing and “education is going to be the most important strand in the India-Australia relationship”.

“Australia is looking to create a comprehensive relationship with India” in a geopolitical climate where innovation is “the new currency of influence”, he said.

Varghese said that “research is an important part of what we can do, given the quality of our people and our institutions and the same qualities over there”.

Delegation

Clare is going to India with a delegation of 11 Australian vice-chancellors later this week. He will sign an agreement giving greater mutual recognition of higher education qualifications.

Clare told Sky News that setting up campuses in India to serve students who were unable to come to Australia was a way Australia could “help” India. He named the University of Wollongong as likely to be among the first to do so.

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This week: visa extensions, research animals and support for the Voice to Parliament

In depth: The government must “clarify exactly what the Australian Research Council is for and who it is there for”, the chair of a sweeping review of the ARC has said.

Full story: Trust in the ARC has been lost, review leader says

 
Also this week from Research Professional News

Chief scientist to lead discussions on national research priorities—Cathy Foley will report on Australia’s challenges, strengths and opportunities

Look to India, universities told—Updated regulations will offer fresh opportunities to Australian institutions, Indian high commissioner says

Researchers’ best friend—How detection dogs are improving Australian conservation research

Universities urged to support ‘yes’ vote in Australian referendum—Failure to support constitutional reform to give Indigenous Australians better representation would be “political”

Australian Universities Accord discussion paper launched—Paper’s 49 questions on fees, research and national challenges throw university reforms open

Government backs taskforce’s work on foreign interference—University Foreign Interference Taskforce praised by Australian government, but ARC performance is under review

Here is the rest of the Australia news this week…

Engineering academy supports Voice

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering has said that it “strongly supports” the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a representative advisory body for First Nations people. “Establishing the Voice will provide a forum for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to make representations to federal parliament and executive government on matters that affect them,” the academy said in a statement on 23 February. It says it will “encourage” academy fellows to support the ‘yes’ campaign in a referendum later this year.

Visa extensions granted

International students in areas of skills shortages have been granted a two-year extension to their Australian work rights. In an announcement on 21 February, education minister Jason Clare said that for qualifying students, this would mean a jump from two years to four years for bachelor’s graduates, from three to five for master’s degrees and from four to six years for PhDs. He later told Radio National that some other international education providers were “eating our lunch” and that the new visas would help attract students as well as filling skills gaps. A full list of eligible occupations will be published before the extension comes into force on 1 July. 

Archaeologist freed

A researcher from an Australian university has been freed after being taken hostage by a Papua New Guinean criminal gang. According to The Guardian, Bryce Barker of the University of Southern Queensland has been released alongside the other hostages and will soon be reunited with his family.

Assurances on research animals

The new operators of Western Australia’s Animal Resources Centre have promised to maintain any animal lines that will be needed in the future by researchers. At a briefing on 20 February, representatives from private company Ozgene answered researchers’ questions and said that specialist animal strains would be maintained “as long as they continue to be needed by the client base”. The centre is the major supplier of research animals to Australian laboratories, but the Western Australian government was unable to keep supporting it after financial difficulties in 2021. Ozgene is expected to fully take over the operation by the end of May this year.

Humanities and creative arts director for ARC

The Australian Research Council has appointed an executive director in the field of humanities and creative arts. Alison Ross is a professor of philosophy at Monash University, a former holder of an ARC Future Fellowship and a former deputy dean of research in the university’s arts faculty. An ARC statement said she “brings significant expert advice and guidance in research excellence to the ARC”.

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How detection dogs are improving Australian conservation research

After the devastating 2019 Australian bushfires, animal rescuers knew they had limited time to find and treat burned and injured koalas.

Koalas are notoriously difficult for humans to spot in the wild, meaning that rescuers feared many of the endangered animals would be lost in the aftermath of the blaze.

But where humans struggle to find koalas, for one species it is all in a day’s work. Rescuers decided to enlist the help of man’s best friend in their search, turning to the University of the Sunshine Coast and its Detection Dogs for Conservation programme.

The programme, launched in 2015, uses rescue dogs to support ecological research, making the most of their superior sniffing powers to track and rescue rare plants and animals, including koalas. After the bushfires, the dogs used the skills they had picked up during their work on previous research projects to help locate more than 100 animals in need of medical attention.

Success stories

This is just one of the ways in which dogs are becoming invaluable in Australian conservation work and research, according to Emma Bennett, a researcher at Monash University and inaugural president of the Australasian Conservation Dog Network.

The network includes researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast, the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, as well as leading dog trainers and handlers. It aims to share best practice on how to use dogs to support the natural world.

Bennett says there has been “massive growth” in the use of dogs for conservation in recent years. A paper published in 2021 by three researchers in Germany found that “dogs have been increasingly used to detect rare and elusive species or traces of them” over the last century, “but it is only recently that they have garnered serious attention by ecologists from all over the world”.

A separate paper published in 2020 by three researchers at the Detection Dogs for Conservation programme argued that budgetary pressures in conservation work have seen researchers increasingly turn to dogs for help.

In the paper, Romane Cristescu, Céline Frère and Russell Miller wrote that “consistent and extensive underfunding has necessitated creative thinking to address conservation issues on a low budget”, and that dogs used in conservation work “have proven to repeatedly outperform alternative survey methods in terms of accuracy, efficiency or cost”.

Bennett herself got into the field of conservation through studies on how wind farms affect animals; dogs were the perfect tool for finding bats and birds felled by the turbines. She now runs a conservation consultancy in western Victoria.

Dogs bring a whole new dimension to conservation surveys, Bennett says. Where traditional surveys use primarily visual clues, and sometimes audio such as frog and bird calls, dogs’ superior noses can pick up the smallest trace of animal droppings.

“What dogs do is add a third, really different tool,” she says.

Rewarding work

The known range of three endangered animals—koalas, quolls and the tiny marsupials phascogales—has been extended by dog-assisted surveys that found them in places where they were believed to be absent.

One dog has detected the alligator weed plant, which can choke a waterway, in places where it was still underground and not visible at all.

Bennett is currently using dogs to detect hawkweed, which is “a tiny little plant”. Finding plants using dogs requires a little more work, Bennett says, because dogs are less interested in plants than in small animals—but she has a trick up her sleeve, also known as a tennis ball (used as a reward for a find).

Dogs’ adaptability has seen their use, and the publication of papers on how best to use them, become almost mainstream in conservation research in recent years.

Bennett says that New Zealand researchers in particular are “world leaders” at using dogs in conservation work, with their use going back to the late 1800s. Unlike Australia, New Zealand allows registered dogs to work for researchers or the government in national parks (although in Australia, some state departments of conservation now have their own detector dogs).

Conservation dogs are different from many other working dogs, Bennett says, because they need to work in a range of environments, which is one reason the Australasian Conservation Dog Network was set up in 2017 to share knowledge.

“They’re working from the top of the mountains to out on the ocean and from the rainforest to the desert,” she says. Dogs have been used to detect owls, to find rare plants in need of protection and to tell when Tasmanian devils are fertile. In some cases, they have even let their handlers know not only which species is present but which individuals.

Training troubles

Using conservation dogs is not without its drawbacks, Bennett says. One major issue can be getting access to sites. Dogs are normally banned from national parks, and many farmers can be unhappy at the thought of unknown dogs near their livestock.

Animal ethics committees need to give permission for research using dogs as well, and some guidelines aren’t yet adjusted to using dogs in this way.

And they are high maintenance, needing “daily” training, Bennett says. However, they are not always expensive to acquire; many working breeds end up in shelters because they are not suitable as pets.

These are exactly the kind of dogs that researchers need—Bennett says almost any dog can be trained to find things, but it’s the “work ethic” that makes a good detector, often found in traditional working breeds such as border collies and Australian kelpies.

And a dog can’t be packed away in a cupboard after use. One of the issues the network is dealing with is coming up with welfare guidelines, particularly as dogs start to be more widely used.

“It’s just making sure that if we’re going to start going down a route where [research] organisations own dogs, we have a whole-of-life plan for them once they’ve finished their service,” Bennett says.

Despite the effort involved in training and caring for detection dogs, their superior senses in sniffing out endangered animals and plants means that the rise of these four-legged research assistants is unlikely to slow down any time soon.

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Failure to support constitutional reform to give Indigenous Australians better representation would be “political”

Australian universities should take a position on the proposed Voice to Parliament, a co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue group at the University of New South Wales has told a national gathering.

The Voice to Parliament is a proposed advisory group containing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which would be enshrined in the Australian constitution. Prime minister Anthony Albanese has announced that a referendum will be held on the matter.

Megan Davis (pictured), a constitutional lawyer who is pro vice-chancellor for Indigenous issues at the university, told Universities Australia’s annual conference on 22 February that silence over the referendum would be a “political” decision.

Her university has committed to supporting the ‘yes’ vote in the referendum, and many universities have come out in support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a petition for the constitutional change, but have not yet made a statement on the Voice to Parliament.

“The decision not to support is political…Silence is political,” she said. “Universities work on dispossessed land.”

The stance taken by the University of New South Wales has made it a leader “for not hiding behind what all universities know is false: objectivity”, Davis said.

Gathering support

Davis told Research Professional News that she expected to keep talking to universities over the coming months about getting explicit support.

In her keynote speech, she said that a detailed proposal on the form of the Voice to Parliament would be released within a month, once a referendum date is set.

Public support is key to the process, she said. “It’s Australians we are asking to say ‘yes’ to this because if you take it to the politicians we will never get there.”

Davis concluded her speech with a full reading of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which was met with a standing ovation by the conference audience.

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Paper’s 49 questions on fees, research and national challenges throw university reforms open

Rebalanced student fees, a new mix of higher education institutions and ways to increase research “responsiveness” to national challenges are all on the table under the proposed Australian Universities Accord.

Launching a discussion paper at Universities Australia’s annual conference on 22 February, accord review chair Mary O’Kane said her panel had identified three main areas in need of change: capability and skills; equity issues; and research.

The discussion paper contains 49 questions for the sector, with the aim of coming up with solutions for the next “10, 20, 30 years”, she said.

Dealing with expected massive growth in demand for Australian university places is one of the paper’s key questions, but the answers are still open, O’Kane said. “You tell us—that’s the point, that’s what this [process] is about.”

On the former government’s Job-Ready Graduates fees package, the discussion paper notes the Australian Productivity Commission’s recent finding that there was “little evidence” that differential fees were helping solve skills shortages. The paper also says the sector has asked for change.

“Some stakeholders have proposed a single [student] contribution rate, while others promote options to rebalance the amount students pay so there is less variation between fields of education,” the discussion paper says.

It suggests that overall levels of spending on basic research need to be improved, with industry investment in this area very low.

The accord is intended to interact with the current review of the Australian Research Council, and the paper says it wants to establish “whether the current [research funding] arrangements provide sufficient focus on quality, opportunity to focus on clear missions of national importance, and support for the specialisation of different institutions across Australian higher education”.

Innovation and access

On research commercialisation, O’Kane told the conference that the quality of Australian research was very good but the resulting production of “widgets and services” was not in line with comparable countries. She said there was a role for end users in driving the process. “We need industry and government to get better at asking us how to solve things,” she said.

“In terms of international innovation rankings such as the Global Innovation Index, Australia has for many years scored poorly compared to OECD peers, with Australia ranking 37th in knowledge and technology outputs,” the discussion paper says. “While universities are good at collaborating with other research organisations, an ongoing, multi-decadal question in Australia is why the links and collaboration between industry and universities are not stronger and more productive.”

Equity of higher education access is also a focus, and O’Kane said she would like to see university access reach “parity point with underrepresented groups”, meaning that such groups were in university in proportion to their actual numbers.

Universities Australia welcomed the discussion paper’s focus on equity, as well as saying that the accord was “our chance to get the policy and funding settings right”.

Public responses to the discussion paper are open until 11 April, with an interim report from the review panel expected by 30 June and a final report to education minister Jason Clare due at the end of the year.

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University Foreign Interference Taskforce praised by Australian government, but ARC performance is under review

The Australian government says it welcomes a recent report’s recognition of the University Foreign Interference Taskforce’s “substantial work”.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security’s report was issued in 2022 to the former government. In a response issued on 14 February, Anthony Albanese’s government said it “will continue to support and collaborate with universities in policy development, capability building, guidelines implementation, information sharing and an overall positive partnership to deepen universities’ resilience against foreign interference”.

The government response backed a “transparent” process, with regular taskforce reports to the government. It also said it would help universities train staff and students on how to deal with security issues, via the taskforce’s training working group. Under the taskforce’s guidelines, universities must have dedicated staff managing their security response.

The taskforce is a collaboration between universities and the government.

The government will also move to further limit “talent recruitment” programmes. The Defence Industry Security Program will not be available “to institutions with exposure to talent recruitment programmes that is assessed to be a security issue”. Membership in the programme is a prerequisite for winning some Department of Defence contracts.

National security

Some recommendations, such as having the national security agency include higher education and research in its annual report to parliament, were not supported by the government. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation already uses multiple channels to report threats, it said.

The government also simply “noted” a recommendation that any foreign-backed “harassment, intimidation and censorship” on campus should be reported publicly. The government response said the National Security Hotline was already available for reports.

No new action will be taken on the controversial Chinese-backed Confucius Institutes and other links with Chinese government entities. The response said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had been formally notified of 56 such arrangements and they had all been assessed, with the department “actively engaging” with the universities. Monash University’s joint research with a large Chinese aviation company, which was a special target of the committee’s report, is due to end this year, the response said.

It also said that the Department of Education was moving to discuss foreign interference issues with the Australian Research Council. It will review active ARC grants to assess whether they still meet security guidelines. It will also report to education minister Jason Clare on the ARC’s performance in assessing foreign interference risks.

Universities Australia welcomed the government response, saying the University Foreign Interference Taskforce was “world-leading and increasingly guiding other nations as they respond to the very real national security challenges facing universities”.

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State’s first medical research strategy focuses on infrastructure and staffing

Western Australia is to target six priority areas in its bid to become a world leader in medical research.

The state launched a 10-year health and medical research strategy on 9 February, targeting Aboriginal health, consumer engagement, “precision” health, regional and remote health, digital healthcare and prevention.

“Precision” health research involves the production of therapeutics. The strategy says the state’s universities and research institutes are already strong in this area.

It commits to tracking the progress of medical research translation and adjusting policy to “actively facilitate the timely translation of research findings into practice”.

Among its strategic goals are attracting and retaining research talent in key areas, better integration of research in the state’s healthcare system and improved industry and consumer collaboration with researchers.

Existing infrastructure will be reviewed to identify opportunities, followed by a “refinement” period of improving infrastructure.

The plan does not come with specific spending promises but says it will guide funding to strategic areas, seek co-investment and ensure the state can “secure an equitable share in Commonwealth health and medical research funding”.

Red tape

It also commits to reducing red tape by aligning the funding processes of Western Australia’s various health research funding programmes. These include the Future Health Research and Innovation Fund, which runs numerous programmes and currently has three A$2.5 million research fellowships open for applications, with extra money expected to come from the fellows’ institutions. It has also issued a A$5m “challenge” to researchers to find solutions to healthcare issues in the remote Pilbara region (pictured).

Western Australian health and medical researchers and user communities have been urged to “own” the strategy, with state support.

Stephen Dawson, the state’s minister for medical research, said the strategy would “create an environment where our researchers have the tools they need to transform brilliant ideas into real change”.

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Chief scientist says quantum research is a national strength that must be further developed

Australia has the potential to lead the world in quantum research, the nation’s chief scientist Cathy Foley has told a national forum, but it needs to make some strategic decisions.

Her comments came as the sector awaits the release of a quantum strategy by the federal government, with hints that quantum research may benefit from the A$15 billion National Reconstruction Fund.

Foley told a seminar on 7 February, run by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, that Australia had a good quantum base. “Researchers across Australia recognised [quantum’s potential] and really focused on it for the last 20+ years…and that has set us up beautifully,” she said.

“We’ve graduated two and a half thousand PhDs in quantum over the last 20 years, which is extraordinary,” she said. Australia ranks sixth in the world for quantum research and very few other countries have an explicit strategy to develop the technology, she added.

National strategy

Foley is the chair of a national committee on quantum research advising industry minister Ed Husic. The Department of Industry, Science and Resources is developing a national strategy, with a final document expected soon.

Husic told ABC radio on 14 February that quantum technology was an “ambition for the nation, and we want to see it fulfilled through the National Reconstruction Fund”.

Foley cited the recently announced Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology as an example of Australia’s leadership. The centre, at the University of Queensland, will receive A$35 million to develop quantum technology for use in biological sciences, such as miniature sensors.

Foley said that while states and the federal government had “got behind” the technology, it was now at the stage where industry needed to get involved to develop uses.

She said quantum computers could potentially revolutionise the design of chemicals because of their superior processing power.

However, Foley said, Australia’s size meant it needed to “be a collaborator” with groups such as the Quad nations (Australia, India, Japan and the US) and the Aukus (Australia, the UK and the US) partnership.

Broad-ranging agenda

The Australian Quantum Alliance of industry and researchers, launched last year, has sparked global interest and attracted potential commercial investors, according to alliance member Vikram Sharma, who also sits on the advisory committee.

“It provides a bit of a front door,” he said. “We’re now setting out a particularly exciting and broad-ranging agenda for quantum in Australia.”

Jim Rabeau, who heads the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform, told the forum that Australia had “to decide in some sense what we are going to be famous for”.

The key to future staff being able to drive the sector is in university training and even in vocational colleges, to ensure the right skills are available when new uses emerge, he said.

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This week: grants criticism, a defence programme and a resurgence in international student numbers

In depth: Western Australia is to target six priority areas in its bid to become a world leader in medical research.

Full story: Western Australia aims for health leadership with 10-year strategy

 
Also this week from Research Professional News

Australia ‘ahead of the game’ on quantum—Chief scientist says quantum research is a national strength that must be further developed

Bring Australia’s R&D spending up to speed, government told—Falling levels of research spending criticised by sector in pre-budget submissions

Universities make case for share of A$15bn reconstruction fund—Basic research is needed to feed innovation pipeline, Australian inquiry told

Here is the rest of the Australia news this week…

Grants administration criticised

A parliamentary inquiry has been told that red tape and “arcane” requirements such as formatting continue to waste researchers’ time. The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit’s inquiry into federal grants administration heard on 10 February that although the GrantConnect system made government grants more visible, there were multiple hubs for applying for them. Labor Party MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah, a medical doctor and member of the committee, said her personal experience with applying for medical research grants had been a “nightmare”. She said researchers lacked a “line of sight” beyond their university’s systems into granting bodies such as the Medical Research Future Fund and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Hunt joins Melbourne

Former health minister Greg Hunt has been named an honorary professor at the University of Melbourne. Hunt, who was minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, retired from parliament at the last election. He will chair the advisory board for innovation and enterprise in the faculty of medicine, dentistry and health sciences and contribute to entrepreneurial and research translation programmes, the university said in a statement. 

Defence Trailblazer beds down

The University of Adelaide’s defence research Trailblazer programme is taking shape with the appointment of a board and senior staff. The programme, one of six Trailblazer university programmes nationwide, has attracted a total of A$250 million in government and partner funding, a university statement said. The federal government is contributing A$50m and the University of New South Wales is a partner in the project. Adelaide says the programme will create a A$1.5 billion benefit to the economy over 10 years.

International students coming back

Universities Australia says that the international student market is continuing to recover. At nearly 60,000, twice as many international students arrived in Australia in January 2023 as in the same period in 2022. Catriona Jackson, chief executive of the vice-chancellors’ group, said there was “still a way to go” in making a full recovery but that her organisation was “pleased” by the trend. She said the numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics would not include the post-January rush of Chinese students booking flights after the Chinese government mandated on-campus attendance for its international students.

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Falling levels of research spending criticised by sector in pre-budget submissions

Australia’s level of investment in R&D has been singled out by the sector in pre-budget submissions to the federal government.

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering called for “an independent review of Australia’s research sector, with a view to raising sector-wide funding to an internationally competitive level”. This call was also made by the Australian Academy of Science.

The vice-chancellors’ group Universities Australia told the government that “at 1.79 per cent of GDP, Australia lags behind its competitors” in total research spending.

Although some reduction in spending has come from industry, government spending is also falling, Universities Australia said in its submission, and universities are having to contribute more.

The government should recognise “the importance to Australia of basic research, including the need to attract, develop and maintain the talented researchers that will sustain this basic research effort”.

The vice-chancellors also used their submission to criticise the “generous” amount going to the R&D Tax Incentive, saying some of that money should go to direct funding programmes supporting university-industry collaboration.

It asked for a greater “long-term investment” in university research.

Science Future Fund

Science and Technology Australia called for a Science Future Fund to be established, saying this would help boost the national rate of investment in R&D.

The fund would be similar to the A$20 billion Medical Research Future Fund, with Science and Technology Australia calculating that it would generate an economic return of up to A$2.3bn a year. The fund could “deliver breakthroughs that will turbocharge labour productivity [and] generate new higher-wage jobs in new industries”.

In less ambitious proposals, the group, which represents scientists and technologists, asked for more money to flow via the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council, a stronger commitment to spending on research infrastructure and a better focus on climate science and “clean tech”.

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering also called for greater support for developing the science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce through a range of measures, from fully funding courses to supporting an Indigenous Stem network.

The budget is due to be released on 9 May.

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Basic research is needed to feed innovation pipeline, Australian inquiry told

Universities have made their pitch to have access to the A$15 billion National Reconstruction Fund for their R&D work.

Submissions to a Senate inquiry into the yet-to-be-established NRF show that researchers are concerned about too much spending on development and not enough on basic research.

The fund will provide financial options, but not grants, to support a range of priority funding areas, from renewable energy to defence capability.

Both the vice-chancellors’ group Universities Australia and the Australian Technology Network of Universities called for the board of the fund to include a representative from the university sector.

“The NRF can form a vital part of the research ecosystem and stimulate investment in all stages of R&D by providing tangible and achievable pathways for research, the relevant workforce, startups and scale-ups,” the ATN submission says.

Universities Australia’s submission says the fund should “invest in projects that involve substantial amounts of R&D and are driven by university-industry collaboration”.

“The creation of the NRF will help retain and develop Australia’s world-class research workforce by providing the opportunities and career pathways that will keep our best and brightest in the country and attract researchers from around the world,” it says.

The vice-chancellors’ submission gives several “case studies” of university-industry collaboration on new technologies. It urges the government to make better knowledge transfer between researchers and industry one of the fund’s priorities.

University partners

A submission from the Innovative Research Universities group said that Australia differed from other advanced economies in that a greater proportion of its R&D took place in universities. “Through both their research and teaching, Australian universities provide key inputs into industry innovation,” it said.

The IRU said the NRF should prioritise schemes that allow “universities and university researchers to be partners in industry-led projects”.

“NRF investments can also build upon successful models of university-industry collaboration…established with support from other Australian government programmes.”

Some of the expected profits from the fund should be channelled back into research to help “drive future innovation”, the IRU said.

The Australian Academy of Science has told the inquiry that the fund needs a dedicated science advisory body, beyond the fund’s board, to offer advice on cutting-edge scientific projects.

The Senate committee is due to report to parliament by 10 March.

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Australian medical institutes say early difficulty in winning funding is causing an “exodus” of talent

An “exodus” of talent from Australian medical research can only be avoided by changes to the way grants are issued, the country’s body for medical research institutes has said.

In its pre-budget submission to the federal government, the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes says that not enough National Health and Medical Research Council grants are going to early and mid-career researchers.

The AAMRI asks for 241 more NHMRC Ideas Grants to be funded in the federal budget on 9 May, earmarked for researchers who completed their PhD within the past 10 years.

The association says that researchers are leaving the field when they can’t find funding. “Every time one of these highly skilled medical researchers is unable to secure funding to continue their research, about 20 years of past training expertise is lost.”

The submission’s other main request is for backup funding to cover work supported by the Medical Research Future Fund. MRFF grants do not come with the kind of infrastructure support that other medical research grants do, the association says.

“The ability to meet the systemic costs of research is critical to a medical research institute’s capacity to undertake high-quality research and make groundbreaking discoveries that can deliver better health outcomes for the community,” the submission says.

Indirect costs

Earlier in February, the AAMRI released its annual snapshot of the sector, in which it “found a A$381 million gap between the costs of carrying out vital medical research and the funding independent Australian medical research institutes received”.

It found that for every dollar spent on research, another 63 cents was spent on “indirect costs”. Grants that paid only for direct research costs failed to take into account factors such as facilities, imaging equipment and professional support. “These are all part of the pipeline that is needed to turn a research idea into a treatment or diagnostic tool for the Australian public,” the association said.

AAMRI president Kathryn North said a lot of institutes were starting to “really struggle” with increasing indirect costs.

The report also said that despite small gains in the number of women in senior research positions, these roles were still “dominated by men”.

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State government of New South Wales rejects recommendations of parliamentary animal welfare inquiry

The New South Wales government has decided not to ban the forced swim test and forced inhalation of smoke by animals in the course of research.

The decision by the NSW government has been slammed as “lacklustre” and “disappointing” by animal welfare groups, which said the practices were cruel.

The decision was part of the government’s response to a 2022 NSW parliamentary inquiry into animal use in research. In the response, the inquiry’s recommendations were mainly marked “noted” or “supported in principle”.

A recommendation that regular audits of all animal research facilities be reinstated was not taken up, with the NSW government saying it would continue to take “a risk-based approach to compliance audit and inspection”.

A full review of the state’s Animal Research Act was not promised, with the government saying it would “consider options to address the matters raised in this inquiry”. Nor did it commit to a call for NSW to lead a push for national reporting requirements.

The only fully supported recommendation was annual reporting on funding of animal-based research and development of alternatives.

Humane Research Australia said the response failed to back measures that had been supported “by those supportive of and opposed to animal research alike”.

The original report, written in 2022 by a state parliamentary committee, covered a range of issues on the use and welfare of research animals. Consultant veterinarian Malcolm France said the committee’s work had been “the first major review of the ethical issues around animal research that has taken place in Australia for a very long time”.

Openness agreement

The government response came as the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching released its final draft of an “openness agreement” for Australian researchers.

This agreement would commit research institutions to providing public information about their use of animals, including issuing annual reports.

The council plans to launch the agreement at its annual conference in August. Several institutions are considering signing up, with a New Zealand agreement already in place.

France, who is the convenor of the council’s working group on the agreement, said there was “significant interest” from institutions in the agreement, although some were awaiting the finalised version before committing.

The NSW government’s response on animal welfare did not commit it to supporting the agreement process, but France said the council was pleased the government had agreed to consider it.

Animal Resources Centre

Meanwhile, progress on the transfer of Western Australia’s Animal Resources Centre, one of the largest suppliers of research animals, continues.

In its latest update, sent to stakeholders on 3 February, the Western Australian science department said that work to transfer the operation to the private animal supplier Ozgene was continuing. It said that prices would remain stable throughout 2023.

Ozgene plans to build a new facility for the operation, but the latest update says it is not currently making employment offers to existing workers at the centre.

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This week: university-industry grants, AI cheating and A$310 million from the Medical Research Future Fund

In depth: An “exodus” of talent from Australian medical research can only be avoided by changes to the way grants are issued, the country’s body for medical research institutes has said.

Full story: Change grants system to retain researchers, government urged

 
Also this week from Research Professional News

Forced swim test to continue in NSW animal research—State government of New South Wales rejects recommendations of parliamentary animal welfare inquiry

PhDs under pressure—Study outlines impact of Covid-19 on PhD students’ mental health

More research needed on climate adaptation, university event hears—Australia is “grossly underinvesting in adaptation research” as it focuses on reducing carbon

Time to rethink research, Australian government told—Science academy’s pre-budget submission slams “inefficient system” and low investment in R&D

Here is the rest of the Australia news this week…

Linkage funding announced

The latest round of Australian Research Council Linkage Project grants has awarded A$40 million to 81 projects. The grants, announced on 7 February, support collaborative research between universities and industry. This round includes A$552,000 for an Australian National University-based project on improving biosecurity surveillance, A$347,000 for the University of Canberra to work with a rural publisher on issues around local news provision, and A$389,000 for the University of New South Wales to improve ocean current measurement. ARC chief executive Judi Zielke said the money would attract A$58.9m in additional cash and in-kind support from 26 universities and 210 partner organisations. The round had a success rate of 42 per cent.

MRFF outlines A$310m agenda

The Medical Research Future Fund has outlined its 2023 grants programme, with A$310 million available. The money is offered through a range of contestable funding schemes aimed at issues including chronic respiratory conditions, maternal health and applied research in healthcare. The funding includes a A$100m scheme to fund research infrastructure.

Teqsa warns universities about AI cheating

Australian universities have been warned to be alert to the use of artificial intelligence in cheating by students. Peter Coaldrake, chief commissioner of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, has written to universities asking them to consider all aspects of how the technology is used, including “the potential use of AI by researchers to write grant applications, analyse data or write scientific papers”. Teqsa is developing an online “masterclass” to help universities deal with the issue. Coaldrake said that in 2022, Teqsa helped block 150 commercial cheating websites.

Female scientists’ stories told

An article charting the history of women working in chemistry in Australia has been released. The article, published on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, appeared in the Australian Journal of Chemistry and honours chemists such as Isabel Joy Bear, Enid Plante and Annabelle Duncan. Co-author Nicole McNamara said that “the experiences of these women are not unique to any sector, and many of these sexist attitudes remain pervasive today…But there’s no question about the very real strides made by Joy Bear and other powerful women of her calibre to effect change.”

Accelerator grants open

Research grants under the federal Economic Accelerator programme are now available for applications. The A$10 million worth of Seed Grants are available for work in renewable and low-emission technology, medical science, resources and agriculture, and forestry and fisheries. Each grant will be worth up to A$500,000. Projects need to be “pursuing a commercial outcome”. Future rounds will include later phases in research commercialisation.

Trailblazer hub launched

Curtin university has launched its first research hub under the federal Trailblazer Universities programme. The Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer Hub will be led by Ross Waring, who has an academic background and 25 years’ experience in industry. The University of Queensland and James Cook University, along with more than 30 commercial partners, are part of the hub.

Tudge resigns

Shadow education minister Alan Tudge has resigned from parliament. Tudge was minister for education from the end of 2020 until the May 2022 election, although another minister was acting for him for much of that time. Senator Sarah Henderson has been named as the new shadow minister.

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Study outlines impact of Covid-19 on PhD students’ mental health

The Covid-19 pandemic caused wellbeing to plummet across the general population as the rules and restrictions took their toll, but student mental health seemed to suffer more than most.

Some worry that PhD students had a particularly tough time as they continued their research during the long periods of lockdown.

One PhD student tells Research Professional News that she felt a lack of support both academically and pastorally. And she believes she is far from alone.

“I have heard some awful stories at various universities, which could and should have been addressed compassionately, holistically and with more emotional intelligence and care,” she says.

A recent study on the mental health of higher degree by research (HDR) students—those whose postgraduate degrees are for the most part research—during Covid has revealed the negative impact of the pandemic, with researchers calling for the higher education sector to be better prepared as a result.

Published in December, the study—Risks to Mental Health of HDR Students During a Global Pandemic—involved researchers at the University of Southern Queensland investigating mental health indicators among such students at a regional university in Queensland.

They found that while doctoral researchers reported that some conditions of the pandemic—such as having to work from home—increased their productivity and improved their work-life balance, the majority of findings revealed negative impacts for research students as a result of Covid-19.

These impacts included increased anxiety and stress, poorer general health and academic functioning, and disruptions to overall wellness, mental health and mood.

A total of 231 HDR students, both male and female, completed the Brunel Mood Scale, assessing depression and fatigue among other indicators of mental ill health. Results showed that the reported mood among students was generally more negative than in the general population, although it was more positive than at earlier stages of the pandemic.

A total of 52 participants reported mood profiles that indicated a higher risk of mental ill health. Mood profiles varied significantly by gender, age, study mode, location and whether students were international or domestic. Three focus groups were used in the research, which revealed mental health and wellbeing as key themes of concern to HDR students themselves.

The study’s five authors concluded that “support mechanisms to safeguard the mental health and wellbeing of HDR students should be a priority for universities”.

Future support

Speaking to Research Professional News, the paper’s lead author, Charlotte Brownlow, and her colleagues said that student support services were of critical importance throughout the pandemic period, and that a takeaway message from their study was that “when the dark clouds of a pandemic roll in, a business-as-usual approach towards HDR students should not be seen as an adequate response”.

“During the pandemic, many international HDR students lost their part-time jobs, were ineligible for Australian government support, unable to travel home, fearful for their families, and with their research often suspended. Some were desperate,” the authors said.

“We would like to see a clearly defined package of financial, emotional and educational support for international students rolled out quickly across the sector, with government backing, in the event of a future pandemic.”

They also point out that the students who were at highest risk of mental ill health during the pandemic “tended to be younger, female, full-time and international students”.

And while most HDR students “coped well” during the pandemic, “for almost a quarter of our sample, the risk of mental ill health represented a significant threat to the successful completion of their studies”.

Peter Chesworth, acting chief executive at the vice-chancellors’ group Universities Australia, says that universities understood the wide-ranging pressures faced by students and researchers during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the consequent disruptions to study and learning.

“Extra resources were allocated to mental health and wellbeing support, and a range of other initiatives were set up to bring researchers together where it was safe to do,” he says.

“Many of the mechanisms that universities already had in place to support HDR students were also adapted for an online environment, to reduce the risk that the pandemic would deprive them of opportunities they would otherwise have experienced in the natural course of their studies.”

Ongoing issue

However, worries over HDR students’ mental health and wellbeing did not start during the pandemic—in Australia, it has been a consistent cause for concern in recent years.

In 2019, a submission made to the Mental Health Productivity Commission Inquiry from the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations highlighted a study of more than 6,500 students at two universities, which found that over 19 per cent of students currently had a mental health disorder, while more than 67 per cent of students were experiencing sub-clinical distress.

The issue is by no means confined to Australian higher education: there are many studies across the globe attempting to shed light on the problem. A recent UK study found that a culture of trial by fire existed in some areas of the academic research space, with many PhD candidates believing they ‘had to suffer’ for the sake of their studies. More than a third said they had considered giving up altogether due to mental health concerns.

A separate study exploring the prevalence of mental health problems in PhD students in Belgium revealed in 2017 that students undertaking postgraduate research were at a particularly high risk of developing depression and mental health problems, with distress significantly more prevalent among graduate research students than among undergraduates.

Universities are well aware of the problem. A spokesperson for the University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university and a member of the Group of Eight universities, said it had implemented a range of support measures for its HDR students. These included financial assistance, academic support, mental wellbeing support and peer support programmes.

“We also know PhD students can face a particular range of challenges and pressures, and that for many, these have become more pronounced during the pandemic,” the spokesperson said, adding that the university was “in the process of developing a bespoke wellbeing programme for our higher degree by research students, to provide targeted and appropriate support for our HDR candidates from the beginning of their studies”.

But some students feel that more needs to be done to improve help for HDRs. University of Western Australia PhD candidate Michelle Bordoni says that she did feel supported by her supervisors, who “openly discussed mental health issues that might arise” during her work.

“They have taken the time to explain to me the ways in which I can find support within this university, should I feel like I need it at any time during my studies,” she says.

However, Bordoni worries that students at other other institutions may not receive the same support. “I feel like there might still be some disparity among universities in terms on the assistance they provide,” she adds.

In the wake of Covid-19, PhD students will likely be looking for universities to step up their support.

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Science academy’s pre-budget submission slams “inefficient system” and low investment in R&D

Australia needs a “comprehensive and independent review of the science and research sector”, the Australian Academy of Science has told the federal government.

In a pre-budget submission released on 7 February, the academy said the current situation was “unsustainable” and repeated its calls for R&D spending to rise to 3 per cent of GDP.

“Australia should decide the skills and capabilities we need to build and the research strengths we need to sustain them,” academy president Chennupati Jagadish said.

He called on the government to “reposition Australian science to advance national prosperity and global competitiveness”.

The academy’s submission said the 2020 rate of R&D investment of 1.79 per cent was a symptom of an undifferentiated economy with disproportionate reliance on mining and agriculture.

It said that if the levels of investment from 10 years ago had been maintained, the country would be putting another A$10.6 billion a year into R&D.

Bureaucratised and inefficient

The “30-year-old” research and science system has devolved into “an overly bureaucratised and inefficient system” spread across 13 portfolios. A national review would be “an opportunity to optimise the system’s performance and identify efficiencies and unmet needs”.

Research policy should move to supporting key strategic aims with big-picture funds and support along the lines of the Medical Research Future Fund, it said.

“Moving the dial on our R&D investment will not be achieved by another small grants programme or research initiative.”

Along with those calls, the academy slammed a “notable gap” in data on national R&D statistics, which it said meant “that our policies are not adequately informed by evidence or an understanding of what is and isn’t effective for our ecosystem”.

The Australian budget is expected on 9 May.

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Australia is “grossly underinvesting in adaptation research” as it focuses on reducing carbon

Efforts in Australia to combat climate change need to put more focus on adaptation, a top researcher has said.

Mark Howden told the Australian National University’s annual climate update conference on 6 February that there was a global imbalance in research and spending between reducing carbon and coping with the consequences. Howden is director of the ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions and a vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

He said that some of the most heavily affected nations, such as Pacific islands, were more concerned about adaptation than emissions reduction, given that they were low emitters to begin with. They wanted help with issues such as disaster management.

“We are grossly underinvesting in adaptation [research],” he said.

While the Australian government’s 2022 targets show a strong focus on reducing emissions, “the challenge in my view is that that does not have to come at the expense of managing risks”.

Howden said that recent research had shown the world was “significantly underestimating climate risk and hence significantly underestimating the rate at which we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.

“The more we let climate change rip, the less our ability to manage the consequences,” he warned.

Carbon removal

The update also emphasised the need for better development and use of “negative carbon” technologies, which remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Deanna D’Alessandro, who heads the University of Sydney’s Net Zero Initiative, said it was almost impossible to meet global targets without including removal of carbon. “This is going to take everything that we have to throw at it,” she said.

Australia has an opportunity to “fundamentally rethink carbon”, with carbon “hubs” capturing and repurposing emissions, she added.

Howden said that there was no pathway to keeping temperature rises to 1.5C or even 2C “without significant negative emissions”.

Kristin Tilley, Australia’s ambassador for climate change, told the forum that the nation was still hopeful of being chosen to host the Cop31 climate meeting in 2026 “in partnership” with Pacific nations. She said Australia wanted to put Pacific voices at the centre of the discussions.

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Cooperative Research Australia says successful CRC model should be expanded and built upon

Australia needs to better coordinate its R&D programmes, the umbrella body for the Cooperative Research Centres has said.

Cooperative Research Australia, which oversees the collaborative industry-academia CRCs, used its pre-budget submission in January to call for greater cross-departmental coordination and a set of shared principles on R&D.

It called for more money for CRCs, pointing to a recently released report that said the CRC programme returned up to A$5.61 for every dollar invested from 2012 to 2020. Annual investment in the programme should be restored to at least 2008 levels, Cooperative Research Australia said.  

The submission asked for several of the key recommendations of the report, which was written by the consultancy ACIL Allen, to be funded. One of those was that the 10-year life of CRCs should be increased to 15 years for health-related CRCs. The 10-year limit has resulted in “the absence of a pipeline of health-related CRCs, [a] consequent gap in industry-led health research and thus ongoing cost to the nation of resolvable health challenges”.

Other recommendations backed by Cooperative Research Australia include funding for transitions at the beginning and end of CRCs and expansion of the CRC programme model to other areas of government activity.

The CRC programme “provides a well-established and well-understood model for industry-led research and the development of productive collaboration between research institutions and business”, and this should be built upon and expanded, the submission said.

Tax and stipends

Other changes called for include the introduction of a 20 per cent tax rebate as a “collaboration premium” for R&D projects that bring together researchers and industry. The umbrella body wants the premium to apply to the employment of fresh graduates.

It also wants a review of PhD stipend rates, to address issues around attracting and retaining candidates. “We see scholars abandoning research training at a greater rate as they contend with the cost of living and a hot labour market,” the submission said.

Cooperative Research Australia also called for an increase in national research investment as a proportion of GDP, from 1.8 per cent to 3 per cent, and a programme to give researchers better commercialisation skills.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is due to release the federal budget on 9 May.

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Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt fires research funding salvo as he announces intention to step down

Brian Schmidt is to step down from his role as vice-chancellor of the Australian National University—and he used his announcement to take aim at Australia’s research funding system.

In his annual ANU vice-chancellor’s address on 2 February, Schmidt (pictured) said that “Australia’s future is in peril unless it ramps up its investment in research”.

He said that even after stepping down as ANU vice-chancellor at the end of this year, he would continue to advocate for better funding. “I hope government will listen and help engage business and philanthropy in the cause,” he said.

“We have been working in a financially constrained environment. The Australian government has slowly shrunk its support of foundational research,” he continued. “It has never been harder for a researcher to win a competitive grant. And when they do, we face the dilemma of how to cover the gap in funding between the dollars in the grant and the true cost of the project.”

“Research is like the nation’s superannuation—if you save money now by not investing, you have a much poorer future. We have run a major deficit last year, and will again this year, but we are on a path to recovery—this is not the time to turn away from excellence down the blind alley of mediocrity.”

Making progress

Schmidt, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2011 for his work in physics, has been vocal on research issues in recent years. He became vice-chancellor at the ANU in 2016. After stepping down, he will return to a research and teaching role as a professor at the university.

Among his successes, Schmidt listed increased participation of women in ANU research, a high rate of commercialisation and a unilateral decision to top up postgraduate research stipends by A$5,000 a year.

“We continue to see fewer people from diverse backgrounds reach the highest levels academically or professionally. But we are making progress,” he said. 

On 1 February, Schmidt commenced his role as chair of the Group of Eight research-intensive universities. Deputy chair Mark Scott, vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, will replace Schmidt as chair in 2024, a Group of Eight spokesperson said.

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This week: US tech collaboration, education department changes and a Macfarlane Burnet online collection

In depth: Australia needs to better coordinate its R&D programmes, the umbrella body for the Cooperative Research Centres has said.

Full story: R&D needs better coordination, Australian government told

 
Also this week from Research Professional News

‘Australia’s future is in peril,’ says departing ANU vice-chancellor—Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt fires research funding salvo as he announces intention to step down

Australian archives and libraries left waiting for budget lifeline—National Cultural Policy promises more attention to resources but provides few funding details

Australian mental health research fund set for reboot—Streamlined priorities and clearer guidelines on the way for national research mission

Here is the rest of the Australia news this week…

Husic in talks over US collaboration

Australian industry minister Ed Husic is in talks with senior US officials on future technological collaboration. On 1 February, Husic met Gina Raimondo, the US secretary of commerce. He said the meeting “provided an opportunity to reinforce Australia as a safe, secure partner in scientific and technological collaboration”, adding that he wanted Australia to be a “partner of choice” for the US.

Cook to head education department

Tony Cook is to replace Michele Bruniges as secretary of Australia’s Department of Education. Cook, who is currently deputy secretary for higher education and research policy, will take over the role in April. The vice-chancellors’ group Universities Australia welcomed Cook’s appointment and thanked Bruniges, who is retiring, for her work during the pandemic.

Macfarlane Burnet collection online

An extensive archive on the work and life of Australian scientist Macfarlane Burnet has been digitised by the Australian Academy of Science. The academy’s collection of papers includes material related to his Nobel Prize-winning work on viruses and immunology. The digitisation project was carried out in conjunction with the National Library of Australia.

More experts appointed at ARC

The Australian Research Council has appointed 94 members to its college of experts. The group, which helps assess research proposals, now has 269 members from universities, industry and major research organisations in the public sector. ARC chief executive Judi Zielke said the new members would “ensure the continuing effectiveness of the ARC college of experts”.

Psychedelics approved for use

Australia is to become the first country in the world to officially recognise MDMA and psilocybin as medicines, following a decision by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Limited and prescribed medical use of the drugs will be allowed, according to an announcement on 3 February. Edith Cowan University researcher Stephen Bright said in a statement that “recognising that illegal drugs like MDMA and psilocybin have medical utility is an important step in drug policy reform; however, the safe provision of these treatments requires extensive training, which is why they have been limited to clinical research in Australia to date”. Some scientists have called for additional research before the use of MDMA to treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder becomes widespread.

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National Cultural Policy promises more attention to resources but provides few funding details

Australia’s major collecting institutions must wait until the May federal budget to know if their funding shortfalls will be addressed.

A National Cultural Policy released on 30 January promises better management of arts resources but provides few funding details.

The policy, launched by prime minister Anthony Albanese, commits the government to investing in “creative infrastructure” such as libraries, museums, galleries and archives.

A new body called Creative Australia will take over many of the functions of the existing Australia Council for the Arts and will oversee “research and advocacy” for the arts sector.

“There is an ongoing issue with respect to long-term neglect of core funding for the collecting institutions, for both capital and operations,” the policy document noted, but it added that funding was a matter for the upcoming budget.

Singling out the role of the major collecting institutions in providing material to students and researchers, it promises an extended digitisation programme and a greater focus on preserving and protecting cultural archives related to Indigenous communities.

“This commitment to access will inspire future creative and academic work that critically engages with our changing responses and interpretations to history and culture,” it says.

Leaky and ageing

Among the funding problems affecting collecting institutions are the deterioration of the collection of the National Archives of Australia, leaking buildings at the National Gallery of Australia and ageing buildings at the National Library of Australia.

An analysis by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation shows that the real-terms funding of most institutions has dropped in recent years.

Arts minister Tony Burke appointed five independent panels to review various aspects of arts policy last year. Their consolidated advice was also published on 30 January. It recommended continued funding for Trove, the National Library of Australia’s online archive, which has recently been threatened; however, Trove is not specifically mentioned in the new policy.

The advice also said that “cultural infrastructure, including galleries, libraries, museums, archives and digital collections, [should be] restored, built and maintained”.

The new policy includes a triennial report on “the state of culture” in Australia.

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Streamlined priorities and clearer guidelines on the way for national research mission

The Medical Research Future Fund’s A$125 million mental health research “mission” is to get a streamlined set of priorities.

As the MRFF’s Million Minds mission reaches the halfway point of its 10-year duration, a new draft roadmap is being considered by the Department of Health and Aged Care. This would replace the existing five priority areas.

A 2022 report prepared for the MRFF by the University of Technology Sydney found that researchers wanted clearer guidelines on the types of project the mission would fund in the future, and more information about how its priorities were set.

The UTS report, which was completed in June and released in October, was followed by a public consultation on the changes. The new roadmap was drafted by an expert advisory panel appointed in April 2022.

The UTS report noted that even with funding from the MRFF and the National Health and Medical Research Council, along with state and private funding, mental health research in Australia “is underfunded compared to other medical research areas and is not fully proportional to the burden of disease”.

The mission’s current priorities are: the origins of mental illness; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health; children and youth; critical and emerging priorities; and research capacity and resources.

The proposed new priorities are: better understanding of the contributing factors of mental illness; ensuring population wellbeing in the face of critical and emerging challenges; and timely access to evidence-based treatment and prevention. They will be backed by a wider set of research principles.

Uneven distribution

While the UTS review found that the Million Minds mission funds were going to the existing priority areas, the distribution was uneven: only 11 per cent of funding addressed the origins of mental illness, while two-thirds of spending was going to “critical and emerging priorities”. Existing projects were making “solid progress” on mission principles, the report said.

Because of the early stage of the research, translation into practice was low, although “the majority of projects had explicitly included translation activities in their research design”.

Mission-funded researchers reported that the projects were helping develop their professional capabilities and the overall research capacity of their organisations.

The UTS report also recommended changes to ensure that funded research was more closely aligned to the new roadmap and to MRFF standards.

The fund still has about A$60m left to spend, with A$8m in mental health research grants currently open for applications until 29 March.

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Updated guidance says well-established Australian universities must prove quality of at least half their research

Australian universities have been given a set of research goals to meet if they wish to retain their university status.

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency released the updated rules in a “guidance note” published on 25 January.

Institutions that have been established for more than 10 years will have a higher hurdle to jump, with a requirement of “world standard” research, or “national standing” level in the case of Australia-specific research, in at least half of their fields of education, the Teqsa guidance says.

Universities under 10 years old will only need to meet the standards in 30 per cent of fields, until they reach a decade of operation.

Specialist universities, meanwhile, must meet the standard in all their specialist fields.

Some research infrastructure issues are also covered by the rules, including appropriately qualified academic staff, a university research policy framework and attention to integrity issues.

The note warns that universities must devote sufficient resources to their research work and not engage in padding practices such as “casual employment of high-profile researchers for part of a year to augment the provider’s research profile and output”.

Research regime changes

Consultation in September 2022 helped to inform the guidance note and led the agency to say that it would consider evidence other than Australian Research Council judgments when assessing research. The Excellence in Research for Australia benchmarking process, which is now on hold, remains in the new rules, but provisions have been made to include any replacement system.

The consultation revealed concerns among some universities about how the standards would be defined, especially while Era is in doubt and the ARC’s constitution is under review.

Teqsa said it would review the new rules after the completion of the current review of the ARC. The agency’s processes “will adapt to any research regime changes implemented by the Australian government”, the guidance note says.

Following the consultation, it also reminded universities that while a small number of key staff or projects were often relied on to provide quality in some fields, “providers need to plan for what they will do to manage these potential risks” of overreliance.

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Australian Senate inquiry asks for more time to report as deadline for legislation nears

Researchers and end users hoping to access Australia’s new National Reconstruction Fund must wait a little longer for it to take shape.

In December, a Senate inquiry into the fund’s founding legislation, by the Standing Committees on Economics, asked for a deadline extension. It is now due to report by 10 March, with submissions open until 9 February.

Although few submissions have been made public yet, the Group of Eight research-intensive universities has endorsed the fund as “a vote of confidence in Australian ideas, innovation and research” that will help to keep the best researchers working in the country.

A separate consultation on the fund, by the federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources, is also underway.

The A$15 billion fund will invest in seven priority areas: renewables and low-emission technologies; medical science; transport; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; resources; defence capability; and “enabling” capabilities.

It is the Labor government’s biggest-ticket item in the technology sector, promising to “transform” industry. The government plans for it to eventually turn a profit, with its disbursement methods including loans and taking equity in ventures.

Among its goals are commercialisation of Australian medical research and support for “early-stage R&D” in priority areas not covered by current funding.

‘Stronger pathways’

The departmental consultation is seeking input on how the fund could create “stronger pathways” for development of ideas coming from Australian research. It is also asking what rate of return the fund should expect and what other areas need reform to allow the fund to succeed.

Legislation to create the fund is currently before parliament, and the government wants it passed before the May budget.

The fund will be guided by a reference group and run by an independent board, both of which are yet to be appointed.

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This week: DNA reforms in Queensland and logistical issues around the return of Chinese students

In depth: Australian universities have been given a set of research goals to meet if they wish to retain their university status.

Full story: Reach ‘world standard’ or lose university status, institutions told

 
Also this week from Research Professional News

A$15bn National Reconstruction Fund still taking shape—Australian Senate committee asks for more time to report as deadline for legislation nears

Cracks in the system—Full review of Australian Research Council reveals widespread calls for change

Australia signs up to Unesco education treaty—Universities welcome move to improve mutual recognition of qualifications between countries

New South Wales announces A$40m biosciences boost—Biosciences Fund will support research in agriculture, medical sciences and clean energy

Here is the rest of the Australia news this week…

China order causes ‘logistical issues’

Australian universities are bracing for “logistical issues” after China ordered thousands of its international students to study on campus. Universities had been preparing for a full return to on-campus delivery in the second semester, following the end of special concessions by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said the sector would welcome the extra students but noted “obvious logistical issues”. Most universities will begin the main academic year at the end of February.

New species found in social media images

Citizen scientists and images on Facebook have helped Western Australian researchers identify six new plant species. The plants, all types of carnivorous sundews, were included in images on Facebook and the iNaturalist website, then identified by scientists from Curtin University. Researcher Thilo Krueger said the use of such images increased the chance of finding new species, which could be restricted to small areas or appear for only short periods of time.

DNA reforms planned

The Queensland government has said that it will put A$95 million into responding to a scathing report on the state’s forensic DNA services. The report, by an independent commission, said there were serious scientific failings at the state’s DNA testing laboratory. The laboratory “had not been able to keep pace with…quickly developing science and has, in some cases, failed to produce quality results”. Some failings affected the outcome of criminal cases, including one involving the murder of a 13-year-old girl. The state government’s response includes establishing a dedicated forensic agency as part of the justice portfolio. Criminal proceedings against some staff members have been foreshadowed.

Robotics strategy group formed

Senior researchers from the Australian National University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation are among eight members of a new national robotics strategy advisory group. The group, which will report to industry minister Ed Husic on how to develop and use robotics in Australia, is chaired by Bronwyn Fox, chief scientist at CSIRO. It also includes representatives from CSIRO’s Main Sequence venture fund, New South Wales chief scientist Hugh Durrant-Whyte and Sue Keay from the Robotics Australia Group.

Remote studies audit underway

The Australian National Audit Office is investigating a national programme set up in 2020 for university students from remote regions. The service delivery audit is asking whether “an appropriate governance framework” was established and if proper evaluation is being carried out. The programme has an estimated cost of A$400 million over five years.

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Full review of Australian Research Council reveals widespread calls for change

With a public funding pot of A$800 million to dish out to researchers each year, the Australian Research Council is vital for the country’s research.

ARC funding keeps many university research programmes afloat, makes or breaks careers with its project grants and fellowships, and drives industry-focused research through its Linkages grant programme.

But widespread disquiet with the authority prompted incoming education minister Jason Clare to order a full review of ARC’s founding act last year—and submissions from the sector to a consultation for the review reveal a myriad of urgent concerns that review chair Margaret Sheil must grapple with.

Funding levels

Although overall funding levels are not explicitly on the table in the current review, they were mentioned by plenty of submissions made public so far.

Universities Australia has repeated last year’s call for more money. In March 2022, it said ARC funding and processes were in need of improvement and called for “adequate, long-term, indexed funding”. It doubled down in its submission to the review, saying it wanted the government to work with the sector and “develop an appropriate model for funding the full cost of research”.

UA said the hundreds of millions flowing from the Medical Research Future Fund (now around A$600m per year) has diverted “overheads” to medical projects, adversely affecting other research. Winning funding now “results in an increasing burden on universities”, UA said, as they have to fund the cost of their own success.

The Group of Eight quoted 2021 research budget figures from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources to back its claim that, “over the last decade, real funding by the ARC has declined with an estimated cumulative shortfall of $1.25 billion against 2012-13 funding levels”, which it said put “further pressure on the ability of universities to undertake basic research”.

Basic vs commercial research

Depending on their perspective, different parts of the sector want more or less focus on “basic” research. After years of focus on commercial applications, many feel the pendulum has swung too far.

Most trenchant was the submission from the Australian Academy of Science, which said that a “shocking” incoherence in Australia’s research support system is “an indictment of the approaches that fundamentally imply knowledge is only important if it can be commercialised—or relate to some ill-defined national interest test”.

The Australian Institute of Physics said it was “important to recognise that many technological and scientific breakthroughs were enabled by fundamental research that, at the time it was carried out, had no foreseeable commercial application”.

The Group of Eight research universities—whose members get the lion’s share of Australian top-level research funding—want the ARC’s founding legislation to “explicitly legislate the balance of funding between basic research and applied research to provide an explicit commitment to basic research”.

Vetoes and the Haldane Principle

Since 2017, 22 ARC grants chosen by peer review have been vetoed at ministerial level.

UA’s and the Group of Eight’s submissions stress the importance of the so-called “Haldane Principle”, which holds that the best people to make decisions on which research should be funded are researchers themselves  rather than politicians.

Both bodies, and most other submissions, want the veto scrapped—which is politically unlikely—and if that doesn’t happen, UA and the Group of Eight want the reasons for any veto to be given to federal parliament.

The Australian Institute of Physics, which has been one of the most vocal critics of the ARC’s processes, told the review that the veto “damages Australia’s international reputation”.

“We recommend that the minister has no veto power over research grants,” it wrote.

Quality control

In September 2022, the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) assessment process was paused, followed by the Engagement and Impact process in December. Universities Australia wants the ERA to be scrapped altogether and a consultation to be carried out on other “options to provide assurance of the high-quality research performed by Australian universities”.

“The current exercise…is highly expensive and far exceeds what would be required for assurance,” it wrote.

The Group of Eight also wants the two processes scrapped for good, saying that the ERA fails to measure volume of excellent research and has not even been used to guide government funding decisions for the past seven years.

The Academy of Science has flatly recommended: “Abolish the ERA.”

Administration and governance

Low success rates and onerous application processes are common at many funders, but several peak bodies mentioned the burden imposed by the ARC on researchers.

In its submission, the Australian Academy of Science’s Early- and Mid-Career Researcher Forum said the application process—with some applications running to 80 pages—was discouraging some from applying, particularly researchers with “caring responsibilities who work part-time and/or who are on short contracts”.

Universities Australia wants an initial screening process developed to reduce the workload, an approach also floated by the EMCR Forum.

Given that ARC’s woes have been longstanding, culminating in an unexpected change of chief executive at the end of 2021, several submissions focus on better governance.

Universities Australia backed the idea of a legislated board with an independent chair, saying: “The ARC is the only key funder of research without support of a board or council.”

The Academy of Science even called for a greater role for the humanities in the ARC’s governance, saying that “vested interests” had been given a voice in advisory groups while learned academies had not.

The bigger picture

Untangling the ARC’s place in the wider research picture will not be easy.

The Group of Eight universities were at pains to point out that their submission on the ARC did not supersede “the generational reform of the entire university research system that will be considered during the Australian Universities Accord process”.

The Accord process, now underway, is reviewing everything from funding to research, and its terms of reference explicitly mandate coordination with the ARC review. 

The Australian Academy of Science says even the ARC review and the Accord process are not enough, and has called for a sweeping national review of all Australia’s federal research programmes.

“Australia’s approach is now simply the sum of multiple, rarely coordinated interventions with the obvious result: fragmentation, duplication and gaps,” the academy said.

The ARC itself has not made a submission to the review, despite Zielke suggesting earlier that it might work with other organisations to do so.

Sheil is due to report back to Clare by the end of March.

While the consensus from the sector is clear, the outcome may depend on the government’s political will for change.

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Biosciences Fund will support research in agriculture, medical sciences and clean energy

Bioscience research in New South Wales is to receive a A$40 million boost with the launch of a state-funded programme.

The NSW Biosciences Fund, launched on 18 January, is aimed at developing capability in selected areas of expertise.

Around A$10m a year over four years will go to three priority research areas—agriculture and agrifoods, medical and life sciences, and clean energy and waste—in a competitive grant process. Projects will also need to align with the state’s recently created R&D Roadmap, which includes areas such as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, vaccines and renewable power generation.

In December, NSW also announced it would spend A$117m on two programmes to beef up the state’s research infrastructure. One will provide A$31m over one year for “shared research and innovation infrastructure”, while the other will spend A$86m over four years on NSW research facilities that are included in Australia’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.

Competitive edge

Hugh Durrant-Whyte, the state’s chief scientist, said the Biosciences Fund would flow to areas where NSW already had “a competitive edge”.

These include “fields such as biomanufacturing, genetic engineering, synthetic biology and agrifoods”.

Biosciences Fund grants will only go to NSW-based organisations and will be allocated by an independent panel. The first round of applications closes on 20 March.

NSW already has a fund aimed at physical sciences research.

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Universities welcome move to improve mutual recognition of qualifications between countries

Australian universities have welcomed a treaty allowing Australian qualifications to be recognised globally.

The Unesco Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications Concerning Higher Education was ratified by Australia in December.

The treaty, brokered by Unesco, the UN’s education and science agency, commits nations to mutually recognising qualifications, with some conditions. It includes provisions for non-traditional learning, such as online education and microcredentials.

The vice-chancellors’ group Universities Australia said the treaty would create “opportunities for Australia’s universities to expand their operations overseas”.

Acting Universities Australia chief executive Peter Chesworth said students from more than 144 countries studied in Australia. “This agreement ensures they can take their education, skills and knowledge anywhere, contributing to the development of new relationships and building understanding between nations.”

Greater opportunities

Australian education minister Jason Clare said the convention would help Australia’s 1.4 million university students, including both domestic and international students.

“Their Australian qualification, whether undertaken onshore, offshore or online, will be recognised in other countries, helping them to access higher education abroad [and] pursue greater employment opportunities,” he said.

The treaty also covers some vocational training pathways. It commits countries to recognising each other’s qualifications “unless substantial differences can be shown between the general requirements for access” between jurisdictions.

As well as boosting the recognition of Australian qualifications overseas, the ratification means Australia must recognise qualifications from other member countries if they meet the treaty’s conditions.

The treaty, which was first created in 2019, now includes 21 countries at various levels of participation, including the UK and Japan, although major trading partners including China, India and the US have not yet signed up.

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