Annual Report 1996-97

Sub-programme 2.2: Targeted Research and Scientific Development

Objective

To maintain and strengthen Australia's knowledge base and research capabilities by developing an effective research and research training system focussed on the higher education sector and thereby enhance their contribution to national economic development, international competitiveness and the attainment of social goals.

Resources

Description

The sub-programme provides targeted funding to researchers and to universities and other bodies for research grants, research fellowships, research centres, postgraduate awards and research infrastructure. Funding is provided primarily for basic research but also for applied research and experimental development. The research is supported in all major discipline areas except for clinical medicine and dentistry.

Most of the funds are allocated competitively on the advice of the Australian Research Council. Other funding for research and research training is provided through the research quantum component of the university operating grant.

Funds (called large grants) are allocated to individual researchers or teams for specific research projects. Of the 3 012 applications for the 1997 round, 640 were successful (21 per cent). The average grant size was $55 600. A further 1 269 large grants were approved for continuing projects, giving a total of 1 909 grants funded for 1997. Funded projects include:

• a study of the transport and regulation of iron, iodine and copper within wheat grains;
• the history of Aboriginal writing from its beginnings in the late eighteenth century; and
• the investigation of star-forming galaxies, exploring clustering in radio galaxies, and studying the outermost parts of nearby clusters of galaxies.

At 1 March 1997 there were 3 284 applications for funding in 1998, an increase of nine per cent over 1996.

Projects completed during 1996-97 have been highly productive in terms of publications, patents, computer programmes and public broadcasts. The projects have also been beneficial in terms of providing research training and industry linkages.

Block grants provided to institutions to support high quality research projects and pilot research projects of modest cost are called small grants. Each institution receives a base grant of $50 000, with the remaining funds distributed in proportion to the institution’s success in obtaining large grants over the previous two years.

A total of $27.1m was allocated in 1997, with 2 307 projects funded.

The International Research Projects facilitate collaboration between Australian researchers and researchers from other countries including Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and the organisation EARTHWATCH.

International Reciprocal Research Fellowship agreements have been negotiated with agencies in Germany, the Republic of Korea and France. An amount of $1.5m was allocated to fund these fellowships in 1996-97.

The Collaborative Research Grants Scheme encourages research collaboration between higher education institutions and industry. In 1997 the Commonwealth provided $14m for 201 new grants (an increase of 53 per cent over 1996), and $12.3m for 187 ongoing grants. The average value of a grant is $70 000 with an equivalent amount being provided by the industry partner.

The Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA) Scheme provides three types of awards for students undertaking higher degree studies at Australian institutions:

• the APA (with stipend) - in 1997 there were 1 605 new awards and 3 000 continuing awards;
• the APA (Industry), also with a stipend - in 1997 there were 205 new awards and 375 continuing awards; and
• the APA (without stipend) which provides an exemption from HECS but no stipend - 21 500 scholarships were provided in 1997.

The Research Fellowship Scheme provides opportunities for outstanding researchers to conduct research in Australian higher education institutions and other organisations.

An amount of $27.3m has been allocated for research fellowships in 1997. The success of the scheme is indicated by the continuing strong demand for fellowships and the exceptionally high standard of the applicants. For 1997, 837 applications were received and 112 fellowships awarded (13 per cent).

The Overseas Postgraduate Research Scholarships Scheme attracts excellent overseas postgraduate students to Australia to enhance the national research effort and standing in areas of research priority. In 1997, 300 new scholarships were allocated and the cost for new and continuing scholarships was $15m.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Researchers Development Scheme encourages improved research conducted by Indigenous people. Eleven grants were awarded in 1996 and 1997. The funding available was $200 000. Research into the experiences, perceptions and development of a sense of self among Nyoongar children as a result of participating in sporting activities, and a study of smoking among Indigenous people were two of the projects funded.

The Research Centres Scheme (with $18m allocated in 1997) supports two types of centres which are chosen and reviewed in three-year cycles:

• Special Research Centres (19 in 1997 including eight new centres), which are established on the basis of research excellence and their potential to contribute to the economic, social and cultural development of Australia. Covering research in diverse fields, including basic engineering science, mineral geology, theoretical atomic physics, environmental and cross cultural studies, each receives from $400 000 to $800 000 annually; and
• Key Centres of Teaching and Research (15), based in existing departments in higher education institutions, which respond to demands for expertise in particular fields. They also promote cooperation between higher education and industry.

Grants-in-Aid, totalling $1.5m for 1996-97, were allocated to the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and the National Academies Forum. A small grant to the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science assists secondary school students to attend the Association’s annual congress, held in Canberra in 1996 and in Adelaide in 1997.

The Research Infrastructure Scheme directly supports institutions to maintain and develop their research infrastructure such as equipment, special facilities, support staff, outfitting and maintenance, with two categories of grant:

• Block Grants (allocated $85.2m in 1997 compared with $75.6m in 1996); and
• Equipment and Facilities Grants ($19.3m in 1997), supporting cooperative projects across two or more institutions. As a result of a recent review, the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University will also be allocated $2m for each of 1998 and 1999 from this grant.

The Special Research Initiatives Scheme provides $0.5m annually in support of networking activities among Australian researchers. The scheme enhances collaboration among researchers already supported by Australian Research Council schemes, promoting innovation and improving the quality and effectiveness of that research.

The Anglo-Australian Telescope Board is an independent bi-national authority which is funded under an agreement between the governments of Australia and the United Kingdom. The Board manages the world class optical telescope and the collaborative research-oriented facilities of the Anglo-Australian Observatory, including the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope (both at Siding Spring Observatory outside Coonabarabran), and a laboratory in Sydney. The Australian Government contributed $3.3m to the Board in 1996-1997. The Anglo-Australian Telescope was judged the world’s best performing optical telescope in February 1997, in an international comparison of 25 telescopes published in the prestigious Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Performance Information

Strategies used to meet the Targeted Research and Scientific Development objective include:

• promoting excellence in basic and applied research;
• selectivity in the allocation of resources;
• concentration of research resources in centres of excellence;
• improving collaboration between universities and industry;
• supporting research training and research careers;
• promoting the commercialisation of research outcomes;
• promoting further international cooperation in research; and
• developing and maintaining high quality research infrastructure.

Measures of targeted research and scientific development are made by:

• peer reviewed quality assessments of research outcomes;
• periodic reviews of elements of the sub-programme;
• collection of information on the outcomes and achievements of grants;
• a range of indicators and statistics relating to research capacity, activity and performance; and
• the Composite Index, which is a measure of research performance.

The Composite Index provides a measure of research resources and results. It is primarily used as an allocative mechanism for the research quantum part of the operating grants, and as a component in the formula for the allocation of Australian Postgraduate Awards.

The Composite Index is a weighted aggregate of the shares of income received by educational institutions from national competitive research grant schemes, other public sector research funding, industry and other funding for research, the number of higher degree research completions and a weighted measure of research and scholarly publication in different categories. In 1996 and 1997 the relative weightings were as follows: financial data 82.5 per cent, publications 12.5 per cent and higher degree research completions 5 per cent.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts periodic surveys of research expenditure and collects statistics on human resources in the higher education sector. This information, and information from departmental sources (outlined below) is used to measure the research capacity, activity and performance of the higher education sector.

The Department collects a variety of research and research training related information and data on:

• research funding received from various sources such as National Competitive research grants, other public sector research funding and industry;
• postgraduate research students, including completions, numbers and level of course;
• the numbers of teaching and research staff, and research only academic staff;
• the number of research and scholarly publications in various categories; and
• institutional finances, including operating revenue sources.

Performance Outcomes

In 1995 the Bureau estimated that higher education expenditure on research and development was $2 039m, an increase for the year of eight per cent over the 1994 estimate. From available figures, the Department estimates that in 1996-97 the research and research training component of the operating grant was increased to $1 173m.

DEETYA’s research data collection shows that total university research income (other than the operating grants) increased from $588m in 1994 to $636m in 1995. The higher degree research student load (expressed in equivalent full-time student units) remained relatively stable, increasing slightly from 25 138 EFTSU in 1995 to 25 718 EFTSU in 1996.

In 1996-97 the Department continued to develop the Higher Education Research Management Enterprise System, which is a computerised facility used to manage and administer the allocation of research grants. The outcomes of computerising key aspects of the research grants selection cycle include:

• reduced administrative costs;
• improved management;
• improved information management, based on good quality and accessible data, to support policy development; and
• improved access to research funding for research applicants.

The Research Evaluation Scheme, with a budget in 1996-97 of $651 000, assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of the sub-programme by:

• reviewing the outcomes of research supported by Commonwealth funding;
• evaluating research funding schemes; and
• assisting research communities to establish goals, and priorities and strategies to achieve them.

Evaluation activities undertaken in 1996-97 include:

• four external review reports of large grant outcomes, covering plant physiology, marine biology, atmospheric and oceanographic sciences, and education. These are the last to be completed of a series of 24 across a range of disciplines;
• the commissioning and development of research strategies for 12 disciplines. Eight of these research strategies have been published. A further four strategies are in progress in the areas of the humanities, social sciences, management and information technology;
• evaluations of the Large Grants Scheme and the Small Grants Scheme which were commenced during 1996-97:
  • the principal objective of the Large Grants Scheme evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of the funding in supporting basic research and maintaining the research base across the disciplines. In addition, the evaluation will gauge the quality of this research in national and international terms. The final report of the evaluation is expected in July 1998, and
  • the Small Grants Scheme evaluation is assessing the operation of the scheme since the last review in 1992. Issues being considered include the appropriateness of its objectives, the extent to which institutional interpretation of the objectives has enabled the objectives to be met, the scheme's effectiveness and scope, and the development of appropriate performance indicators for the scheme. The final report of the evaluation is expected in late August 1997; and
• the Research Evaluation Scheme, which in 1996 began a new evaluation phase called Across Scheme Evaluations to improve accountability and produce more strategic, policy oriented information. Two such evaluations were commissioned in 1996-97:
  • the evaluation of industry-linked research to assess whether, and to what extent, the funding has met the Government’s objectives of supporting university and industry research interactions. The final report of the evaluation is expected in January 1998, and
  • the evaluation of biological science research which is reviewing the effectiveness of support given to the biological sciences, and to what extent the funding has achieved the Government’s objective for improved research and research training in the biological sciences. The final report of the evaluation is expected in February 1998.