Purpose:
– To respond to enquiries into research and funding policy in the Oceania region.
– To respond, as appropriate, to international enquiries and discussions.
– To be proactive in preparing for the next review of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (date unknown) to build a strong case for the inclusion of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. This will build on the work of an earlier working group on Research Classification.
Members:
Gabriele Bammer (chair), Martin Bliemel, Beth Fulton, Iain Gordon, Teatulohi (Lohi) Matainaho, Ken Taylor, Zee Upton
Completed activities:
1. May 2024: Australian Research Council (ARC) Policy Review of the National Competitive Grants Program
– submission made 13/5/24 (PDF 186KB) on the review process for “interdisciplinary” grant applications.
Information about the review is also available: [Moderator update – In December 2024, the link to general information on the review was no longer available and so the link structure has been left in place but the active link deleted: arc.gov.au/engage-us/consultations/policy-review-national-competitive-grants-program. A PDF of the review is still available: https://www.arc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-04/Policy%20Review%20Discussion%20Paper.pdf (PDF 1MB)].
2. June and July 2023: Discussion paper “Looking at the Future of Transdisciplinary Research” prepared by the International Science Council Centre for Science Futures
– comment submitted 30/6/23 (PDF 98KB)
It is published on this webpage (scroll down to “open online forum discussion”); the webpage also has the link to the discussion paper: [Moderator update – In December 2024, this link was no longer available on the International Science Council website and so the link structure has been left in place but the active link deleted: futures.council.science/publications/transdisciplinary. The following webpage provides a link to the discussion paper and other comments as blog posts: https://council.science/publications/future-transdisciplinary-research/.
3. December 2022, April 2023, August 2023 and February 2024: Australian Universities Accord
– submission made 16/12/22 (PDF 191KB) on the priorities
– submission made 11/4/23 (PDF 216KB) in response to the discussion paper released on 22/2/23
– submission made 31/8/23 (PDF 187KB) in response to the interim report released on 19/7/23.
After release of the final report on 25/2/24, the working group chair wrote a short article which was published in Future Campus on 28/2/24.
Information about the review is also available
4. March 2023: Refreshing Australia’s National Science and Research Priorities and National Science Statement.
– submission made 29/3/23 (PDF 209KB)
– response provided to draft priorities 28/9/23 (PDF 129KB)
Information about the review is also available.
5. December 2022 and February 2023: Review of the Australian Research Council
– submission made 13/12/22 (PDF 205KB)
– participated in an online focus group 24/2/23
Information about the review is also available.
The report of the Review of the Australian Research Council (ARC) has been released.
Given that the review was focused on the legislative underpinning of the ARC, it is not surprising that interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research are not mentioned. Regrettably only one of the 14 case studies presented (Case study 10: the Australian origins of global wifi) comes even close to illustrating what working across disciplines can do, mentioning the “highly collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to solving a profoundly stubborn engineering problem”, bringing together “mathematics, radioastronomy and electrical engineering” (p. 45). None of the cases describe the benefits of bringing in the expertise of stakeholders affected by the problem under investigation, which is a hallmark of transdisciplinary research.
In the Executive Summary (p. 3) the report mentions: “Unsurprisingly, the Panel has received extensive and detailed feedback from a wide range of individuals and stakeholders in relation to both the activities of the ARC and research in Australian universities more generally. The submissions we received, which will be published along with this report, include valuable advice and suggestions outside the scope of this review.” We trust that there will be an opportunity for these submissions, especially those supporting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, to be considered as changes to the ARC are implemented.