The Case for Open and Competitive Research Funding

9 December 2013 Conor King Executive Director

Australia needs a coherent research funding structure which seeks to…selectively fund research of the highest quality wherever it may be found and…concentrate research funding to build world-class research universities which have the capacity to compete at the highest international level.

Group of Eight, Policy Note Number 4 http://www.go8.edu.au/... Emphasis added

So,

What has been the impact of competitive research funding?

Do we need a significant change in approach?

Overview

1. How has research funding developed and with what impact?

– The Howard legacy

2. Why competition works

3. The productivity response

4. Australia linking to the world

5. The challenges ahead

HOW HAS RESEARCH FUNDING CHANGED AND WITH WHAT IMPACT?

Creating the research block grant structure: 2001 Research training scheme

• For research training, initially tied to students

Institutional Grants Scheme

• Open use to support research

• Became Joint Research Engagement

Research Infrastructure Block Grants

Plus scholarships and other smaller schemes

Back in 2000-2001..

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

2000-01

IGS-RTS RIBG ARC-NHMRC

60%

6%

34%

Health and Medical Research

1998: Wills Review

• Let to additional $614 million over 6 years for the NHMRC, doubling funding

2004: Grant Review

• $500 million over five years from 2006-07 for health and medical research

• $170 million for the Australia Fellowship scheme

Backing Australia’s Ability (2001)

• $736 million for ARC grants over five years, effectively doubling funding by 2005-06

• Research infrastructure $583 million for Research Infrastructure Block Grants and Systemic Infrastructure Initiative

• Continue R&D start program, $535 million over 5 years

• Reforming the R&D tax concession

• Expanding the Cooperative Research Centres Program, $227 million

Backing Australia’s Ability 2 (2004)

• Embed ARC and RIBG changes

• National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy with $542 million over five year

• $305 million over seven years for the CSIRO National Flagships Initiative

Labor 2007 -2013

• ERA

• Created SRE

• Extension to RIBG

• Extended research scholarships

• Future fellows

• Additional infrastructure projects

The balance switches..

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

2000-01 2004-05 2009-10 2014-15

IGS-RTS RIBG-SRE ARC-NHMRC

60%

6%

33% 37% 45%

13% 9% 10%

34%

45%

53%

55%

WHY COMPETITION WORKS

Funding is competitive and open

Both:

• Research block grants

• Driven by output based formulae

• National competitive grants

• Peer assessment, project by project

How Australian universities respond

• Universities compete, with productivity rising rapidly

• Find the routes that stimulate good research

• Who to work with

• Exploring international links

• But relative positions have not altered a lot

Hence share of Research Block Grant..

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

ATN

Go8

IRU

Ahead of world benchmarks

Top 500 universities are top 5%

• Like an ATAR of 95

AWRU

• from 13 in 2003 to 19 in 2013

• Top 100, two in 2003 to five in 2013

Benchmark

• On population Australia at 0.5% of world should have 2 to 3

• On GDP, Australia at 1% of world should have 5 to 6

Australia and the world rankings 19 Australian universities ranked in the ARWU Top 500

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

AUS NLD CAN GBR DEU USA ITA FRA JPN PRC

ARWU Top 500 Universities per million people

Concentration?

• Nature of competition

– Without the pressure the leaders would relax

– Not intended that some win out but that all do better

• Basis for selection?

• Why bother Australian universities at all?

• Break link with student size?

Low EFTSL Providers

• Charles Darwin

• Sunshine Coast

• Federation

• Southern Cross

• UNE

• Canberra

• CQU

• Southern Qld

• ANU

• Flinders

THE PRODUCTIVITY RESPONSE

Publications

0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

300%

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Australia IRU

Change on 2001 – Australia and the IRU

Source: SCOPUS

Publications Change on 2001 by Country

Source: SCOPUS

Research revenue – other sources

$0

$100

$200

$300

$400

$500

$600

$700

$800

$900

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Mill

ion

s

Category 2 Category 3

Research Income Private and Other Government sources (2001-2011)

Source: HERDC

Future researchers

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

PhD Completions 2001-2012

Source: Department of Education

LINKING TO INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH

The modern research environment

• Research increasingly requires the interaction of

considerable resources, which no single university or subset of universities can provide.

• Increasing number of institutions per academic paper

• Global endeavour

• Digital world makes researchers part of global networks

Global research

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Affiliations per Publication (IRU) – 2003-2012

Source: SCOPUS

Global research

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

% of Australian Publications with International Collaboration

Source: SCOPUS

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

The questions ahead

1. Balance of university allocated and grant council allocated

• Both competitive

• Ensuring best research outcomes

2. Research benefit: Impact beyond the academy

• A balancing factor for the breadth of objectives for research

• A means to encourage an d reward based on achievements

Access to research grants..

-

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

2001 2005 2010

Competitive Grant Funding (Indexation Adjusted) per Researcher FTE

The questions ahead

3. The pressure on the grant councils

• The work involved for pure competitive assessment

• Hence, options about longer grants

• Reward the better known

• Back to basics: the random test of efficacy

The questions ahead

4. Research and growth in student places

• Pressure to focus on the established disciplines

• The economists dilemma

• Protection of known versus support for new

• Break link students to research base

The questions ahead

5. Infrastructure

• Bigger than any institution

• Requires shared use, with open access

Conclusions

• The competitive system has been productive

• Australia has a much stronger research sector

• Concentration an argument for an easy time for those selected