The Research Lottery
Many scientists rely on NHMRC Project Grants and ARC Discovery Grants for their job or the jobs of their staff. They are highly competitive with only around 1 in 5 applications winning funding. Longer grant writing times, greater competition, and what of the ever present variable of luck? And it looks like the pressures on the system and our scientists are only going to get worse.
Adrian Barnett, Danielle Herbert, Philip Clarke, Nicholas Graves
What is Success? – The Great Grant Debate
The Australian Research Council plays an important role in the provision of Government support for research in Australia; in 2013 they delivered over $800 million to the most dynamic researchers in Australia. The ARC seeks to constantly evolve, yet many of the criticisms levelled at the system are short-sighted and ignore the complexity of our funding landscape. Success is a balancing act.
Aidan Byrne
Culture Shift Required
Economies around the world are looking to innovation as an important pathway to skilled job creation and sustained growth. It is vital that Australia is an active player in developing efficient pathways to commercialise research. This will take smart investment, a culture shift in how we look at commercialisation and maintaining the availability of funding all the way from idea to industry.
Rob Shepherd
Trust: The Currency of Research
As public investors in research, the Australian community rightly expects to support high quality research that will lead to the improvement of health in the short or longer term. Every year the NHMRC receives many more applications than it can fund. So what role does trust play in the compact between taxpayer (and overall beneficiary of the research) and the funding bodies that make the hard choices?
Warwick Anderson, Clive Morris, Linda Chen
Funding from Outside the Box
Standard practice in Australian science is to apply for an ARC or NHMRC grant in order to fund your research, yet this places tremendous pressure on a limited resource. The world is changing and in a digital economy the possibilities for funding are now limited only by your imagination. From nurturing a global network of volunteers through to crowd-funding your projects, consider the digital alternatives to the traditional funding treadmill.
Paul Gardner-Stephen