Why UniSA is one of the 15 ‘fast moving’ research universities

UniSA standing acting vice-chancellor Marnie Hughes-Warrington explains why her institution is one of the 15 ‘fast moving’ research universities.

University of South Australia standing acting vice-chancellor Marnie Hughes-Warrington.

We look at our research “outside-in” says Marnie Hughes-Warrington, the University of South Australia’s deputy vice-chancellor (research and enterprise).

“It’s a business concept which is, if you look at your own university how the rest of the world sees you, how will you do differently and better what you’re currently doing.”

This approach has led the university to open up the deliberations of its research committee. “The whole university can come long,” she says. And the key performance indicators for research have been shrunk to two items: research impact and research income.

Both are doing well, Hughes-Warrington says. Research income is up, and the proportion of research income which comes from industry is also up. “And our impact has gone up because we always ask the question, ‘why are you doing it and who are you doing it for?’ “

Hughes-Warrington says UniSA has “recrafted” its system of promotions and sabbaticals for academic staff around research impact. And it doesn’t have to be the traditional measure of research impact counting papers published in journals and the number of citations they receive. It could be a piece of research which leads to a government policy change. Or it could be a creative work.

“For instance, Rising Sun Pictures, with whom we have a partnership, was short-listed for four of the five Emmys around the special effects. And we were involved in all four of those,” she says.

Industry is interested in research links with UniSA over a wide range of disciplines, Hughes-Warrington says. “We don’t assume it’s a STEM-only world. The technical is critical, absolutely critical, but they (business) want a holistic solution for a lot of their problems.”

UniSA can assemble research teams with “across the board” capability, and also partners well with other universities to deepen the talent pool, she says.