The new federal education minister has kicked off what could be a major reset of university research funding in Australia, with a review and stern letter to the Australian Research Council.
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.
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.
Stuart Robert, who as acting Education Minister vetoed six ARC approved research projects.
Lukas Coch/AAP
After 11 years of Excellence in Research for Australia, the time and costs for universities and the value it creates for other sectors (none of which made submissions to a recent review) are unknown.
Education minister Dan Tehan has been making funding announcement gradually, increasing uncertainty for researchers.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Decisions about research funding – and how those decisions are announced – should not be political and should follow a set schedule.
A Boxing Day Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Our research project sought to investigate the capacity of professional sport to communicate environmental issues and awareness.
Joe Castro/AAP
Despite the Federal Government’s teacher education reforms and the push for evidence-based teaching, less than 2% of ARC research funding is directed to educational research.
Dr Ian Moffat explaining ground penetrating radar to community members during a survey of the Innamincka Cemetery.
Julia Garnaut
The OzGRav Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery will enable Australian researchers to be at the forefront of gravitational wave astronomy.
Research in the humanities has come under attack from the Daily Telegraph in recent days.
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The decision to refuse the ARC and academic researchers a right of reply appears to be a straightforward breach of the News Corp Australia code of conduct.
Is this really how we want to decide where research funding should be allocated?
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How does Australia fare in science and research funding? Where have recent cuts been made? This infographic shows the state of science funding in Australia.
Time to make research audits more transparent?
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Government departments often commission research to help them understand and respond to policy issues. But they impose contract conditions that threaten to undermine the integrity of the work.
It’s the people that make the projects a success.
Brookhaven National Laboratory/Flickr