policy & reform
Professor Brett Kirk Professor Graeme Wright universities are performing above the world standard for research, including four performing well above world standard, according to the Excellence in Research for Australia( ERA) 2012 national report, more and more academics are looking to private funding to help secure vital research.
“ Success rates in applying for grants funding are near 20 per cent,” says Professor Les Field, vice-president and deputy vice-chancellor( research) at the University of NSW.
“ There is a waste of excellent research potential in the exceptional research that simply misses the cut and doesn’ t get funded. Success rates at near 20 per cent means that the research sector is unsustainable, it is difficult to start a research career and when you are in there is a high probability that funding will dry up.”
Field is responsible for the strategic research direction and overall research performance of UNSW, and in particular, maintaining and advancing the university’ s profile in research and research training, as well as technology transfer.
He believes there are three key areas that need to be addressed with the current system of allocating funding grants.
“ Firstly, the fact that most of our research is never fully funded is the largest issue facing research. When we win a grant from our main agencies to undertake a research program, it takes at least another dollar for each grant dollar to actually do the research. These are the indirect or hidden costs like providing lab space, IT, the library, insurance, administration support and other costs so the more successful you are at winning research grants the more dollars you have to find to actually make the research happen.
“ The research agencies only partly cover the indirect costs and for a large research intensive university like UNSW, the shortfall runs to hundreds of millions of dollars each year that we have to find to support the research program.
“ Secondly, supporting major facilities and research infrastructure. For a university like UNSW, where there is a significant fraction of our research effort in the physical sciences, engineering and health / medical / biomedical areas, much of the research effort relies on access to large equipment and facilities which are an expensive but essential part of being able to undertake cutting-edge research.
“ Thirdly, support for longer-term programs. In a tight budget environment, the tendency is to pull back on commitments into longer term. Most research is not really something that you can do well in stops-and-starts. The best research environment is one where we do have a view to the longer term – you can tackle bigger and more significant problems, you can build up stable teams and expertise.”
Field believes that governments need to set specific agendas for research and prioritise where needed.
“ Governments need to firstly provide the strategic directions, broad priorities and a commitment to research programs that are supported,” he says.
“ Secondly, once we have the direction and commitment then we should do whatever we do properly, so if we decide that research in an area or on a project or problem is important then we should commit to supporting it properly to achieve the intended outcome.
“ In many instances this is a long term commitment, which will transcend the term of some governments but we need mechanisms to accommodate longer term programs,” Field says.
The federal government will provide about $ 1.67 billion in research block funding in 2013 through a number of programs administered by the ARC, National Health and Medical Research Council( NHMRC), Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education and many other government departments.
In 2011( the latest period available) Australian universities also received $ 1.35 billion in competitive grant funding( largely from ARC and NHMRC), $ 414 million in other federal government funding and $ 108 million in Co-operative Research Centre Funding.
“ Between 2008 and 2011, this government invested more than
www. campusreview. com. au February 2013 | 19