45 pages, 6MB, PDF - Australian Research Council

The ARC—overview and
opportunities
Presented to Indonesian delegation
9 February 2016
Mr Justin Withers
Director, Policy and Integrity
The Australian Research Council
Presentation Overview
•
•
•
•
Australian Research Council overview
National Competitive Grants Programme
Excellence in Research for Australia
National Innovation and Science Agenda
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Australian Research Council Overview
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
The Australian Research Council (1)
• The ARC is a Commonwealth entity within the Australian
Government.
• The ARC’s main responsibilities are:
— providing funding for research through the competitive funding schemes
of the National Competitive Grants Programme (NCGP)
— evaluating the quality of research in universities under the Excellence in
Research for Australia (ERA)
— providing policy advice on research matters to Government; and
— together with the National Health and Medical Research Council
(NHMRC), administering the Australian Research Integrity Committee
(ARIC)
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
The Australian Research Council (2)
• The ARC’s mission is to deliver policy and programmes that
advance Aust. research and innovation globally and benefit the
community.
• In seeking to achieve its mission, the ARC:
— supports the highest quality fundamental and applied research and
research training through national competition across all disciplines
— the ARC brokers partnerships between researchers and industry,
government, community organisations and the international community.
• Clinical and other medical research is primarily supported by the NHMRC.
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
2015–16 Federal Budget—$429 billion
2015–16 Federal Budget—R&D $9.7 billion
Commonwealth Investment in R&D 2015–16 ($m)
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
National Competitive Grants Programme
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
ARC NCGP funding by Fields of Research 2002–2014
ARC NCGP % funding by institution 2008–2015
IRU
ATN
Go8
Unaligned unis
& others
National Competitive Grants Programme
Discovery Programme
Linkage Programme
Area of box represents funding over the period 2011–2015.
N.B. - Centres of Excellence, SRIs, not awarded in every year.
- ITRP and DECRA only funding since 2012
ARC NCGP funding by scheme 2008–2015
Discovery Programme objectives
• Fund excellent, internationally competitive research by individuals
and teams that will produce high quality outcomes
• Build Australia’s research capacity through supporting and
facilitating research training and career opportunities for excellent
Australian and international researchers
• Support research in priority areas that will deliver national benefits
• Enhance research capacity and outcomes through support for
international collaboration
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Key funding features of Discovery schemes
• Discovery Projects and Discovery Indigenous schemes primarily
award project costs (travel, equipment, staff, etc.)
• Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA) scheme
primarily awards a salary for the awardee, with a small allocation of
project costs
• Laureate Fellowships scheme awards a salary top-up plus funding
for a team of postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers
• Each scheme has different selection criteria, rules and funding limits,
as each serves a different purpose
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Discovery Projects—success and return rates
Web: arc.gov.au
arc.gov.au II Email:
Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Communications@arc.gov.au
Web:
DECRA—success rates
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Linkage Programme objectives
• Support excellent collaborative research initiatives involving
partnerships between higher education organisations and with other
sectors in Australia and internationally
• Foster research training and career opportunities that enable
researchers and research students to gain experience working in
industry settings
• Support collaborative research in priority areas that will deliver
national benefits
• Enhance capacity to deliver national benefits by investing in largescale collaborative research programmes
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Key funding features of Linkage schemes
• Linkage Projects scheme primarily award project costs (accessing
infrastructure, equipment, travel, hiring personnel etc.)
• Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme provides
funding for large-scale cooperative initiatives
• ARC Centres of Excellence scheme supports large teams to
undertake focused and sustained investigations into, and find
solutions to, challenging and important problems
• Other programmes: Industrial Transformation Research Programme
scheme and Special Research Initiatives scheme
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Linkage Projects—success and return rates
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Linkage Projects
Linkages
2011–2015
Higher Education
Government
Industry/business
Non-profit/other
ITRP
Linkages
All rounds
Higher Education
Government
Industry/Other
Current Centres
of Excellence—
Collaborations
Centre of Excellence
Australian Org.
International Higher Ed.
Government
Support for international collaboration
• To pursue its mission, the ARC is guided by a strong commitment to
four principles:
— Excellence in programme and policy delivery to support
excellence in research
— Engagement with and responsiveness to all stakeholders to
support relevant programme and policy development
— Benefit to the community through economic and social return on
investment, informed decision making, and efficient operations
— Accountability through transparent, efficient and effective
processes and adherence to ethical standards
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Support for international collaboration
• All ARC funding schemes are open to international applicants
applying through eligible Australian organisations
• Support for international collaboration is incorporated within ARC’s
funding schemes
• Partner Investigators (PIs) can be based overseas.
• Project funding for travel, including for overseas PIs, to support
international collaboration
• For more information on International Collaboration in ARC schemes:
www.arc.gov.au > International
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
International collaboration on ARC-funded
projects 2009–2015
*Outcomes for 2015 do not include funding for Future Fellowships.
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Percentage of international collaboration on
ARC-funded projects 2016
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
ARC-funded projects involving international collaboration
with Indonesia, by scheme, 2015
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
ARC-funded projects involving international
collaboration with Indonesia, by scheme, 2016
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Total ARC funding by allocation year, for
projects collaborating with Indonesia
Funding allocation year
Total $
Total # of
projects
2012
2013
2014
$13,933,073
$14,761,880
$18,398,251
68
70
69
2015
2016
$17,799,015 $15,938,068
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
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47
Excellence in Research for Australia
(ERA) 2015
What is ERA?
• ERA evaluates the quality of the research undertaken in Australian
universities against national and international benchmarks
• The outcomes (ratings) are determined and moderated by
committees of distinguished researchers from Australia and
overseas
• The unit of evaluation is broadly defined as the Field of Research
(FoR) within an institution based on the Australia and New Zealand
Standard Classification (ANZSRC)
• The indicators used in ERA include a range of metrics such as
citation profiles which are common to disciplines in the natural
sciences, and peer review of a sample of research outputs which is
more broadly common in the humanities and social sciences
• ERA is a comprehensive collection—the data submitted by
universities covers all eligible researchers and their research outputs
The ERA rating scale
Rating
5
The Unit of Evaluation profile is characterised by evidence of
outstanding performance well above world standard presented
by the suite of indicators used for evaluation.
4
The Unit of Evaluation profile is characterised by evidence of
performance above world standard presented by the suite of
indicators used for evaluation.
3
The Unit of Evaluation profile is characterised by evidence of
average performance at world standard presented by the suite
of indicators used for evaluation.
2
The Unit of Evaluation profile is characterised by evidence of
performance below world standard presented by the suite of
indicators used for evaluation.
1
The Unit of Evaluation profile is characterised by evidence of
performance well below world standard presented by the suite
of indicators used for evaluation.
Objectives of ERA?
• Establish an evaluation framework that gives government,
industry, business and the wider community assurance of the
excellence of research conducted in Australia’s institutions
• Provide a national stock take of discipline-level research
• Identify excellence across the full spectrum of research
performance
• Identify emerging research areas and opportunities for further
development
• Allow for comparison of Australia’s research nationally and
internationally for all discipline areas
ERA Unit of Evaluation—the FoRs
2-digit
4-digits
6-digits
19 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing
1901 Art Theory and Criticism
1902 Film, Television and Digital Media
1903 Journalism and Professional Writing
1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing
>
190401 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Performing Arts
>
190402 Creative Writing (incl. Playwriting)
>
190403 Dance
>
190404 Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies
>
190405 Māori Performing Arts
>
190406 Music Composition
>
190407 Music Performance
>
190408 Music Therapy
>
190409 Musicology and Ethnomusicology
> 190410 Pacific Peoples Performing Arts
1905 Visual Arts and Crafts
1999 Other Studies in Creative Arts and Writing
*The ERA Unit is not the department nor the individual researcher
ERA 2015—Outcomes
ERA 2015 results are available in: State of Australian
University Research 2015-2016 , Volume 1, ERA
National Report.*
ERA 2015 outcomes show Australia’s universities
continue to produce high-quality research across a
wide range of disciplines.
Overall research quality is improving and reflects
ERA’s role in focussing universities on research
quality.
Of the UoEs assessed in both ERA 2015 and the
previous round, ERA 2012, 56 per cent of these
maintained the same rating, while 29 per cent
improved their rating by one.
The ERA results show an extraordinary breadth of
outstanding research performance in Australia.
*Available at: www.arc.gov.au.
ERA 2012 to ERA 2015 Growth
• There was steady growth in Australia’s university research
activity between the ERA 2012 and ERA 2015 rounds, including
increases in:
— the total number of assessed UoEs, up 6% to 2460
— the number of research outputs submitted, up 5% to
432,747
— the number of research staff submitted, up 11% to 67,579
— total number of patents, up 20% to 936
Distribution of ERA 2015 ratings
across all Australian universities
High Performing two-digit
Units of Evaluation
Two-digit Fields of Research codes:
01 Mathematical Sciences
02 Physical Sciences
03 Chemical Sciences
05 Environmental Sciences
07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
09 Engineering
11 Medical and Health Sciences
17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
18 Law and Legal Studies
21 History and Archaeology
National Innovation and Science Agenda
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
National Innovation and Science Agenda
• In December 2015, the Aust. Government announced the National
Innovation and Science Agenda, providing $1.1 billion over four
years to support innovation across the economy
• The ARC will implement two main initiatives under the Agenda:
— Impact and engagement assessment at a university level by discipline,
as a companion to the ERA exercise
— From 1 July 2016, the ARC Linkage Projects scheme will be open to
continuous applications and decision-making will be fast tracked to
better support collaborative research with industry
• More information at www.innovation.gov.au
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Impact and Engagement Assessment
• National Innovation and Science Agenda includes $11.2 million over
five years ($2.2 million on average) to conduct a national
assessment measuring impact and engagement in university
research
• Government invests $3.5 billion a year in university research
• ARC and Department of Education to develop methodology in 2016,
including extensive sector consultation
• Pilot assessment in 2017
• Full assessment in 2018 as a companion to ERA
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Boosting the Commercial Returns
from Research
•
Boosting the Commercial Returns from research is a key component
of the Government’s innovation agenda
•
The strategy aims to improve Australia’s economic performance through
better translation of publicly funded research into commercial and practical
outcomes
•
The strategy includes a suite of complementary actions the Government
will take to improve collaboration between the research sector and
industry to enhance research commercialisation and better application of
research
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Focusing Government Investment—
Research Priorities
•
Science and Research Priorities and corresponding Practical Research
Challenges developed by Government
•
Designed to increase investment in areas of immediate and critical
importance to Australia and its place in the world
-
•
soil and water
transport
cybersecurity
energy
resources
advanced manufacturing
environmental change
Health
More information at www.science.gov.au
Web: arc.gov.au I Email: Communications@arc.gov.au
Thank you