policy & reform
$ 43.2 billion in core university funding,” says the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, Chris Evans.“ Our investment continues to grow and between 2012 and 2015, we will invest a further $ 58.9 billion. The Gillard government recognises that research and innovation go hand-in-hand and translates into new jobs and new opportunities for Australians.
“ Our investment has created a 24 per cent increase in the amount of research being undertaken, a 16 per cent increase in the number of patents being secured and a 9 per cent increase in the number of researchers employed.”
But even though the government is continuing to increase research funding, it is struggling to fully fund all researchers and keep up with the amount of applications it receives.“ The government has increased funding for university research but at the same time the number of researchers seeking grants is actually growing faster,” says Professor Graeme Wright, Curtin University deputy vice-chancellor of research and development.
“ It is imperative that we can keep the system competitive to attain research funding because if we don’ t then researchers will drop out and no one will benefit from that. Another issue is the timing and size of research grants. We need researchers to be fully funded so they don’ t have to spend their time seeking income from other sources.”
Wright, who has a PhD in spatial sciences, has an extensive role that includes the oversight of all research, research training and commercialisation and knowledge transfer activities within Curtin University.
He is regularly meeting industry players and seeking opportunities for Curtin researchers to attain the necessary funds to complete their studies and believes it
is imperative that all areas of research are given due consideration.“ The ERA 2012 report shows that 22 fields of research were granted funds, with the collective group of medical and health services receiving the highest amount of $ 3.4 billion out of a total of $ 8.77 billion,” Wright says.“ The next two highest were biological sciences and engineering at just under $ 1 billion. That is a big gap and we need to ensure that all areas of research are given equal consideration.”
In the 2012-13 financial year the ARC is providing about $ 880 million to universities and other eligible organisations through the National Competitive Grants Program.
“ The ERA 2012 results confirm that researchers at Australian universities compete with the world’ s best in a wide range of disciplines,” says Professor Aidan Byrne, the ARC chief executive officer.
“ They demonstrate that world standard research performance occurs at Australian universities of all kinds, in all states and territories. The results also provide assurance to Australian taxpayers that their investment in university-based research is well founded.
“ The ratings achieved by Australian universities were higher overall in ERA 2012 than in ERA 2010, and the range of fields of research assessed was wider,” says Byrne.“ In 16 of the 22 broad fields of research assessed in ERA, more universities are rated at world standard or higher in 2012 than in 2010.”
Australia has five universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities top 100 for the first time ever, with 19 universities in the top 500. Australia now has the third highest number of universities in the top 100. Only the UK and the US have higher.
“ However, ERA ratings provide a more detailed picture of performance relative to world standard than ranking systems,” Byrne says.“ ERA results pinpoint the specific research strengths of each Australian university, as well as the breadth of capacity across the sector by discipline.”
While Australia may be moving up the ranking systems in terms of research performance, we could be doing better in terms of providing more comprehensive funding to a wider group of fields. We all lose out when a research application remains unfunded no matter what area the application comes from. ■
20 | February 2013