Address to the Senior Staff forum, Innovative Research Universities Australia, Flinders University, SA
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Professor Yovich, Professor Barber, ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured to be invited to address your Senior Staff Forum today. I am pleased that this is one of my very first speaking engagements as Minister in this new portfolio of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.
Several things have changed since 24 November.
One of the most important is that Australia now has a government that believes in research, believes in the intelligence and integrity of those who pursue it, and believes in its capacity to improve the world we live in.
There's another thing this government believes - research doesn't have to turn a dollar to justify itself. We do not demand an immediate economic pay-off from every project. The only thing we demand is excellence.
You from the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) are well placed to position yourselves right at the heart of the Rudd Government’s agenda for Australia’s future. It is an agenda based squarely on innovation.
I know that one of the defining features of the IRU institutions is the way history made you position yourselves. You were all established in the sixties and early seventies – when the state capitals all boasted long-established, resource-rich universities.
Wherever you found yourselves geographically, you were implicitly in competition with the “sandstones”. You had to differentiate yourselves in the higher education marketplace – and you did this by setting yourselves apart: by turning to innovation in your various approaches to teaching, to research, and to community engagement. You were all, in your own ways, different from what had come before.
Research Quality Framework
The Government has wasted no time in implementing its program for reform in the university sector.
Australia’s public universities have laboured for too long in a climate of neglect and negativity.
From where I sit, it’s clear that we must waste no time in doing what we can – within the budgetary constraints that we face – to bring our universities into the new century.
The first step we took has been to confirm our election commitment on the Research Quality Framework (RQF).
We have said that we will scrap it, and we have written to Vice-Chancellors to that effect.
I have set down on the public record my reasons for taking this action.
Essentially, I formed the view that the previous Government’s planned RQF lacked transparency, and that it was going to be inordinately cumbersome and costly to administer.
It was going to eat into the precious time of university researchers – time that should be spent on productive research.
Australian universities need a system of research quality assurance, but not one that was going to cost $100 million or more to drive $500 million in research funds. That idea was ludicrous.
I plan to put in place a much more streamlined, simplified system – one that is in line with world’s best practice.
Where appropriate, metrics will form the basis for assessment. Where this is not appropriate – and I stress this point –we will work with those affected in the sector to identify suitable proxies.
We will not abandon peer review – we are strongly committed to this principle as the basis for the assessment of research quality, in a range of contexts.
But the main aim is to get a system that’s fair, reasonable and as accurate as we can – one that everyone has confidence in.
I agree with you that it matters how our research effort contributes to the Australian community. The Government will look at ways to gauge this, but any such process will be separate and distinct from the research quality assessment exercise we will develop.
I will be announcing a timeline for the development of the new research quality assurance system in the coming weeks.
Academic freedom
Academic freedom is fundamental to a high-quality research environment.
This Government supports stronger public investment in research. Australia must have strong and independent universities and well-funded public sector research agencies.
I am committed to ensuring that the Australian Research Council is free of political manipulation.
The decision making processes of the ARC should be transparent, robust and free from political interference.
Federal Labor will revitalise our public research agencies, including the CSIRO, and replace the culture of short-term commercialisation with an emphasis on public research that contributes to national goals and long-term economic growth.
I have announced that we will develop charters that guarantee the intellectual freedom of researchers in our national research agencies.
The Rudd Government looks to scientific debate as an essential means of resolving difference of opinion about our options as a society.
Quality research contributes to the nation's well-being in any number of ways – by offering new solutions, creating new opportunities, suggesting new ways of understanding.
It may result in social discoveries that can be used to strengthen communities, in medical breakthroughs that save lives, in cultural insights that give meaning to our world – and, yes, it may result in technological advances that can be commercialised to generate wealth and jobs.
These are all worthwhile outcomes.
It is essential to communicate new ideas and to infuse public debate with the best research and new knowledge.
This is why the Government is committed to creating a Charter for the public research agencies.
The Charter will identify and guarantee their responsibilities and obligations. It will enshrine not only the right, but the obligation, of scientists and other researchers to participate in public research debates.
The Charter will be developed in consultation with the public research agencies - and this consultation will commence in the very near future.
Research is not a political toy for any Government to play with.
Research is a matter of vital national importance. Its outcomes have a significant impact on Australia’s ongoing prosperity and standing in the world.
It is our responsibility to seek and respect the views of those individuals most able to provide valuable insight into the issues faced by researchers and shape an environment that will deliver the best possible results for all Australians.
Australia 2020 Summit
The Prime Minister has announced the Australia 2020 Summit, to be held in April, and chaired by University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis.
As you would be aware, the Summit will gather what the Prime Minister has called "1000 of Australia's best and brightest". The ten challenges that the Summit will address include, among others:
- Productivity;
- Population, sustainability and climate change;
- Health, families and communities; and
- The arts.
The Summit will do what Governments are rarely bold enough to attempt – to look into the future, beyond short-term electoral cycles, and come up with options for solutions to these pressing issues.
Everyone can participate in the process, through submissions. I would expect that a number of people associated with the IRUA universities would be likely to be considered for direct involvement.
This, I'm sure you'll agree, is an exciting development – one that demonstrates the Rudd Government's commitment to genuine consultation and participation in this great democracy of ours.
ARC independence
Another step I have taken, early in my tenure as Minister, has been to act to restore independence to the Australian Research Council, by establishing a new Advisory Council to advise the CEO of the ARC, Professor Margaret Sheil.
The new Board has six members and will be chaired by Professor Sheil. It will advise her on strategic issues; and on policy matters relating to innovation, research, research training and public and private sector research collaboration.
Its brief will also include matters relating to the evaluation of the quality and outcomes of research and research training, in an international context.
Professor Terry Hughes, the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence of Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, is a member of the Board. I have no doubt that he will reflect the perspectives of the IRUA universities in the advice that he provides.
At this point, I cannot make any commitments about future funding levels for ARC programs. Prior to the Federal Election, however, Labor said that, in Government, we would want to see Australia's total R&D expenditure – across public and private sectors – double over time.
Research collaboration
The Australian Government recognises the importance of encouraging collaboration between research organisations as a means of meeting national research challenges. This collaboration will be central to building an effective national research capability.
Universities that make up the IRUA already play a role in collaborative projects.
To take just one example, the Centre for Comparative Genomics at Murdoch University has a key role, under the current NCRIS program, in the implementation of the Australian Bioinformatics Facility. This provides coordination and linkage nationally across specialist areas of biomolecular research.
This type of collaboration is proving effective in delivering wider access to better infrastructure.
Your universities have the potential to position yourselves very productively in the environment we hope to create.
The Government wants to examine ways of developing co-operative relationships to enable research collaboration that can tackle critical national challenges - challenges such as climate change and social inclusion.
Through collaboration, universities and other research organisations can also create intellectual property that can be commercialised by Australian businesses.
Review of the National Innovation System
The centrepiece and driver of the Rudd Government’s broad innovation agenda is the Review of the National Innovation System, recently announced.
The terms of reference of the Review are far reaching. I trust the review panel will report upon the role of the universities in the national innovation system.
Specifically, the Review will provide advice on the role of basic research; the means by which we improve collaboration between the public and private sectors - in terms of infrastructure provision, access, and utilisation.
The Review will also consider the issues of technology transfer and adaptation, and also the issue of research training and business’ access to researchers. The Review will have the opportunity to discuss the means by which universities engage the community in innovation.
The National Innovation Review will also seek to examine the full cost of research and the need for greater inter-disciplinary collaboration, including the role of the humanities.
This overall process will involve a comprehensive review of existing policies and programs, and will draw on advice from a wide range of sources, in public and private sectors.
One of the objectives of the Review is to make recommendations that would reposition Australia in the global research community. The Review also aims to find ways to bolster collaboration within the research community and between the public and private sectors.
I have asked the Panel chair, Dr Terry Cutler, to provide me with a Green Paper by the end of July 2008. The Government will respond with a White Paper.
Part of this broad process will be a review of the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program, led by Professor Mary O’Kane. I have already outlined the Government’s intention to restore public benefit as one of the primary objectives of the CRC Program.
The Review will look at a range of aspects of the current CRC program, including the application process for new CRCs.
The university sector is, in my view, the substantial underwriter of innovation in Australia. I would urge you strongly, both as individual universities and as an organisation, to make an early submission to the Review. Your views are eagerly sought.
Compacts
The Rudd Labor Government will examine ways in which universities can be more socially and economically responsive. While valuing the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, the Government takes the view that our intellectual and scientific resources can be marshalled to assist in meeting the challenges facing Australia into the 21st century.
Labor is committed to consulting widely on the introductions and operations of the planned funding compacts. Funding compacts will enhance institutional autonomy and academic freedom. They will also provide a vehicle for cultural change, structural reform and international competitiveness.
Funding compacts provide us with a means of building public confidence in the work of universities, and ensuring a platform for future public and private investment.
Funding compacts will assist in encouraging diversity, and ensure that university communities have an opportunity to work with Government in determining and taking responsibility for priority setting within institutions.
Our hubs-and-spokes model for the development of research capacity assumes that all universities will have centres of excellence in specified fields. The model also assumes that universities' priorities will concentrate on those areas, given that in a country of our size, we cannot fund all conceivable research options at every institution.
Brilliant loners who distinguish themselves in disciplines outside their university's primary areas of research will be able to work with colleagues at institutions where their field is better represented. This hubs-and-spokes model will ensure that researchers are neither forced to change universities nor denied the chance to focus on what they do best.
It shouldn't be assumed that the current crop of research- intensive universities will automatically be the hubs in this model. Any institution might become a hub for a particular field, depending on the quality, intensity and extent of its research effort.
There will be no sacred cows. Every university will have to justify its place in the system. That’s why quality assurance and peer review are so important.
Healthy rivalry and creative tension between universities will prevent ossification and give us the best chance of getting and staying internationally competitive.
Other initiatives
Time is short, but I wanted to mention very briefly two further initiatives that we are planning to lift Australia’s performance in university research.
The first is Future Fellowships. This new program will address a structural issue in Australia’s academic workforce. Through the program, we aim to encourage and enable Australia’s best and brightest mid-career researchers to stay here at home, contributing to Australian intellectual life and to Australian innovation. It is a major initiative and one that, I am glad to say, has received strong support from within the university community.
The second is a plan to boost financial support for research students through Australian Postgraduate Awards. We hope also to extend the availability of APA support, from the current three and a half years, to four years where that is necessary.
The Government is mindful of the need to align research training with areas of research excellence in individual universities, but is also aware that this approach needs to be flexible and balanced – so that "new" areas of research are not stifled. Our plans for research collaboration will also encourage and support the emergence of new research areas and interests.
Conclusion
The Government has several other initiatives in the pipeline, and I'm happy to answer questions about these, as well as the ones I have mentioned in my remarks.
I would like to conclude by reiterating that I am keen to work with you and your universities – you have so much to offer to the new Government and to our agenda for innovation.
I look forward to your contributions to the Review of the National Innovation System, and to working with you in the years ahead.