Days numbered for taxpayer-funded research projects on Tibetan philosophy and warfare in ancient Tonga
NUTTY academic research projects from Tibetan philosophy to office gossip and warfare in ancient Tonga that cost taxpayers up to $3.5 billion a year are facing a government crackdown.
NSW
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NUTTY academic research projects from Tibetan philosophy to office gossip and warfare in ancient Tonga that cost taxpayers up to $3.5 billion a year are facing a government crackdown.
Research projects will be forensically scrutinised to ensure they have a benefit to the economy or to families under a rigorous plan that will determine which future applications receive public funding.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham said yesterday taxpayers “expect to see how their investment in research is paying dividends”.
Senator Birmingham said a clearer view was needed on what Australian researchers were achieving along with focusing the nation’s brightest minds on how to help families and businesses.
The Daily Telegraph has revealed that millions of dollars of taxpayer funds destined for vital research have been handed to arty academics for social engineering projects.
Researchers at one of Australia’s top universities were awarded $105,000 to study “a new philosophical vision of what it means to be human”, through the Australian Research Council (ARC).
Australian National University (ANU) academics got $467,997 to “investigate warfare in the ancient Tongan state through a study of earthwork fortifications”.
The government and the ARC have been closely studying how much worth many projects have been to the economy and to families — and will use the information when deciding on future funding.
The Commonwealth already has slashed ARC funding by $68 million after it gave $357m in grants to 899 research ¬programs last year.
The Productivity Commission last week found that universities were too focused on simply publishing research because the career prospects of staff depended more on their publishing resume than their teaching record.
Sen Birmingham said new measures that focused on the impact of university research and engagement with business and industry followed a pilot Engagement and Impact Assessment.
“Research is about discovery but it also needs to be about directly tackling some of the issues Australia faces,” he said.
“We want to keep universities focused on research that has wider economic and social benefits.
“By ensuring researchers outline the way they’re engaging with businesses and industry and assessing the impact their work is having these new measures will act as an incentive to drive more of that valuable work.”
Sen Birmingham said the government would continue to look for ways to improve value for money from research programs.
Among the new measurements for projects will how much income has been made by commercialising them and how much income is made by each researcher.
Explanations of how research has engaged end-users and how work has had an impact in simple, plain English also will be required.
A University of Sydney study to work out whether colleagues chatting in open-plan offices “creates annoyance” and affects productivity cost taxpayers $405,000. The impact of feminism on contemporary Australian art explored by University of Melbourne researchers came with a $195,000 price tag.
One critic said it was “absurd that taxpayer money is being spent on these kinds of obscure -projects”.