The Office of the Chief Scientist today releases the Health of Australian Science report and it’s an intriguing read. The report was compiled to help the office and the public understand the current state…
Australia is preparing to join a worldwide push to map the wider social returns on investments in science. This week Professor Julia Lane, who developed and led the US National Science Foundations’s Science…
Nations half the size of Australia spend more on scientific research, have higher employment levels for scientists, and greater appeal to foreign investors, according to a report on Australia’s global…
The University of Melbourne was founded in 1885 with five professors teaching 15 students. In 1952, at the start of the post-war tertiary boom, there were around 3,000 Australian academics teaching 30,000…
Australia’s usually mild-mannered medical researchers marched in the streets a year ago to protest mooted government budget cuts. In the face of widespread outcry, the government chose to maintain the…
After almost five years at the helm of the Australian Research Council (ARC), Margaret Sheil will this week step down to take up the position of Provost at the University of Melbourne. Professor Sheil…
At a time when unprecedented levels of investment are being made in university infrastructure in nations such as China and India, it is worth reflecting on how Australia has built its notable areas of…
Fundamentally, there are two big motives for research. On the on hand there is intellectual ambition: the desire to know and understand the word, to appreciate the best that has been said and thought on…
Australia desperately needs to invest more on research into Asia if we’re to better understand a part of the world so vital for our future economic prosperity. But not only do we need more research, we…
One of the important benefits that the public expects from publicly funded health and medical research is access to the published findings of that research. Patient groups, health consumers, advocacy groups…
Australia’s flagship institute for indigenous studies has stopped giving out research grants as it diverts funding to save a century of cultural recordings from oblivion. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal…
The world is in a state of transition. The Indian and Chinese economies continue to grow at around 9 and 10 per cent respectively each year, while the North Atlantic economies - the 20th century epicentre…
There is common assumption that those of us who undertake applied research with the commercial world must be biased. This month the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), which…
Chance is something researchers feel could be important when their applications for scientific research funding are assessed and discussed in peer review. Now this hunch has been supported by an analysis…
Nearly 40% of academics under 30 and one-third of staff aged 30-39 years plan to leave the Australian higher education sector within 10 years, according to a new report, raising the prospect of severe…
Implementing the vision of a government report that called for more university funding could boost Australia’s national productivity levels by 5.6% by 2040, according to a study commissioned by a university…
Funding shortfalls are hurting Australia’s agricultural research sector at a time when climate change, a looming food crisis and water shortages are demanding more innovation than ever, according to academics…
You really have to wonder what kind of message the New South Wales Government is trying to send about its attitude to science. Was the announcement of funding cuts to research during Science Week just…
Imagine the following conversation between a finance academic and his or her supervisor during an annual performance review: Academic: So, do you think I am ready for a promotion? Supervisor: Well, I see…
Death threats against climate scientists may make researchers reluctant to engage in public debate or even turn research students off the study of climate change altogether, the head of the government…
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, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
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