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Annual Research Conference
21 November 2009
Last week USC conducted its third annual research conference, showcasing its most successful projects. These included work in aquaculture, the health professions, child safety, the social aspects of sustainability, and creative writing. Time and circumstances permitting, there could have been presentations on tropical and sub-tropical forestry, horticulture, Australian history, and several other themes. The conference was attended by staff and students, members of the community, and the leaders of regional organisations. The keynote speaker, Hagen Stehr AO, Chairman of Clean Seas Tuna Limited and Australian Tuna Fisheries, praised the ability of USC’s scientists to work with industry. It was a very successful occasion.
This conference marked a watershed in the development of research at USC. It was the first time it could be reported to the conference that research income, refereed publications and numbers of graduating research students were all rising steadily. And in the case of research income, that it is rising rapidly to significant levels. Researchers brought in more than $6 million in grants last year.
Why does this matter?
First, research income (from competitive grants), refereed publications and numbers of graduating research students are the core measures of research productivity throughout the world. They are used in various ways as the standard measures of both the quantity and quality of research. Most national innovation systems – which is how countries think of their research effort – use these measures as the drivers of government funding of research in universities and other research institutions.
Second, the operating grant that all Australian universities receive from the Commonwealth, is based on student enrolments. This funds the normal research activities undertaken by all academic staff, but it is insufficient for the development of major research programs. Unless a university can win additional funding through the competitive grants game, it is most unlikely that it can support sustained, quality research.
Third, it is very difficult these days for researchers who are not part of a major program to maintain the quality of their research and make a real impact on their discipline and society. Such nationally and internationally significant research increasingly requires teams of researchers; networks of research partners; money to fund projects, PhD students, post doctoral fellows and the like; and usually, specialised infrastructure.
USC has embarked on a mission to catalyse the economic, social and environmental advancement of the region and sees research, along with teaching and community engagement, as a pillar of this enterprise. To achieve this it is necessary for USC to concentrate its research effort in a limited number of major programs. At this stage these are aquaculture and forestry, sustainability and climate change adaptation, and more dispersed activity in the health sciences. This concentration is not only because USC still has limited research resources, but also because it is the way to connect up with the rest of Australia’s rapidly evolving innovation system.
On the world stage, Australia has punched above its weight in research and cannot afford to let this slip. As researchers increasingly cooperate across international borders in response to the need to solve more complex problems, Australia is developing more systematic approaches of its own. USC is doing likewise so that this region is recognised as a research leader in social, economic and environmental innovation.
Professor Greg Hill is Acting Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.