Lisa Bero, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
A new screening tool to help study reviewers identify what’s fake or shoddy in research may be on the horizon. And everyday people can apply some of the same critical analysis tools.
Australian researchers will welcome the newly announced review of how their main source of non-medical federal funding, the Australian Research Council, operates. There’s a lot to consider.
The Coalition government showed a disdain for the arts, humanities and social sciences. The plight of these disciplines requires action from the incoming Labor government on three fronts.
In Australia, space defence gets billions of dollars in funding, and commercial projects get hundreds of millions. Space science gets only $2 million a year.
A Senate committee is discussing a bill designed to shore up the independence of the Australian Research Council, after recent high-profile cases of ministers vetoing research grants.
Tay-Sachs is a rare and fatal neurodegerative disorder that most commonly affects children. Researchers have developed the first Tay-Sachs treatment to reach clinical trials.
The male-dominated makeup of the industry partners who are meant to lead the commercialisation of research could undermine the work towards gender equity in Australian universities.
Australia has world-class research but low rates of research commercialisation by global standards. The scale and cultural focus of the government’s plan mean it could have an impact on this problem.
Decisions on research funding are too complex for a pub test. Assessing grant applications requires a high level of expertise and diligence, which the minister simply disregarded.
Basic research is best when it’s allowed to proceed on merit, rather than with political interference, says an open letter from 63 leading researchers protesting government interference in ARC grants.
After years of government rhetoric about boosting the commercial benefits from university research, Australia’s record is still among the worst in the developed world.
Academics in all areas have deep concerns about their ability to undertake research during the pandemic and the flow-on effects of this. Women and early career researchers were particularly hard hit.
Islamophobia increased post-9/11. Twenty years later, American Muslims are still dealing with the mental health effects – and research barriers limit what is known about what puts them at risk.
Director, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute & Professor of Medical Biology, and an honorary principal fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria