In May 2004 the Prime Minister announced 
that the Australian Government would establish Quality and Accessibility Frameworks for Publicly Funded Research as part of the Backing Australia’s Ability – Building our Future through Science and Innovation.
The aim of the Research Quality Framework initiative is to develop the basis for an improved assessment of the quality and impact of publicly funded research and an effective process to achieve this. The framework should:
- be transparent to government and taxpayers so that they are better informed about the results of the public investment in research
- ensure that all publicly funded research agencies and research providers are encouraged to focus on the quality and relevance of their research
- avoid a high cost of implementation and imposing a high administration burden on research providers.