Overview of 2003 Reports

Research and Research Training Management Reports (RRTMRs) were introduced as part of the Knowledge and Innovation   reforms announced in December 1999. Their objectives are to:

• increase transparency in the setting and reporting of institutions’ goals for research and research training;

• encourage institutions to adopt a strategic approach to the management of research and research training; and

• inform prospective students, collaborative research partners and industry, as to how each institution has chosen to direct its research and research training activities.

Higher education institutions are required to submit a ‘Research and Research Training Management Plan’ for annual approval by the Minister in order to be eligible for funding for research and research training under section 23 subsections (1A) to (1E) of the Higher Education Funding Act 1988 (HEFA)  . A Research and Research Training Management Report (RRTMR) serves as a ‘Research and Research Training Management Plan’ for the purposes of requirements under Section 23(1E) of HEFA. Programmes encompassed by these provisions are the:

• Research Training Scheme;

• Institutional Grants Scheme;

• Research Infrastructure Block Grants Scheme;

• Australian Postgraduate Award Scheme;

• International Postgraduate Research Scholarships Scheme; and

• Regional Protection Fund.

Higher education institutions that may be funded under these programmes are listed in section 4 of HEFA and comprise all Australian public universities, Bond University, Notre Dame University, the Australian Maritime College, Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, and the Melbourne College of Divinity.

Universities’ eligibility for support under the research funding schemes listed above is contingent on their having an approved RRTMR in place. The Australian Universities Quality Agency may, as part of its audit function, ask for evidence to substantiate levels of performance claimed in the Reports.

The Reports provide increased transparency in the setting and reporting of universities’ research and research training activities. They provide a snapshot of the way each university is directing its research efforts, its areas of research strength, and how it is performing in those areas. They enable each university to demonstrate the distinctive contribution it is making to the national research and innovation system and to inform prospective students, collaborative research partners and industry as to how it has chosen to direct its research and research training activities.

Reports comprise two sections:

• Part A - in which institutions describe their objectives for research and research training, their future directions, practices and policies for managing research and research training, processes used to ensure quality research training experience, collaboration and partnerships, and arrangements to manage intellectual property issues, the commercialisation of research outcomes and contractual arrangements; and

• Part B - in which institutions report on their research and research training performance in a standardised format, which will enable performance trends over time and between institutions to be detected. Part B is intended to demonstrate the extent to which institutions have implemented the spirit and substance of the reforms announced in Knowledge and Innovation, focussing in particular on institutions’ identified research strengths.

Research and Research Training Management Reports 2003