The Turnbull Government has announced an Australian-first panel of experts who will lead landmark efforts outlined in the National Innovation and Science Agenda to measure the value of research in Australia.
Australia is a world leader in the quality of our research but falls behind when it comes to commercialising good ideas and collaborating with industry. That’s why this Steering Committee will provide invaluable advice and guidance on the way forward for our national assessment of research engagement and impact.
The Steering Committee’s new measures will, as part of our National Innovation and Science Agenda, be used to help encourage universities to improve collaboration and focus on research that directly benefits for Australia.
We need a clearer picture of the engagement and impact of research conducted in our universities to ensure we are providing the right incentives, culture and practices to foster collaborative research that returns economic dividends and importantly, improves the lives of all Australians.
We are directly investing around $3.5 billion in university research in 2015-16 and it is vital we maximise the possibility for investments like this to deliver economic and social returns for the nation.
The Committee, which includes higher education and industry leaders, will help to develop a process that uses clear and transparent measures of non-academic impact, and industry and end-user engagement, to assess our nation’s university research performance and inform future funding structures.
The members of the Committee are:
• Mr Graeme Whickman, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company Australia
• Dr Shanny Dyer, Managing Director, Wavefront Biometric Technologies
• Mr Ken Boal, Vice-President, Cisco Australia and New Zealand
• Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson, University of Technology Sydney and Griffith University
• Professor Ian Jacobs, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of New South Wales
• Ms Belinda Robinson, CEO, Universities Australia
• Professor Scott Bowman, Vice-Chancellor and President, CQ University Australia
• Professor Anne Kelso, CEO, National Health and Medical Research Council
• Mr Mark Cully, Chief Economist, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science
• Dr Alan Finkel, Chief Scientist
• Professor Shearer West, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Sheffield.
The Steering Committee will be co-chaired by Professor Aidan Byrne, Chief Executive Officer of the ARC, and Mr Dominic English, Group Manager, Research and Economic Group, Department of Education and Training.
The members of the Steering Committee have been appointed for a term of two years.