Australia does well in world academic rankings but the success rate for researchers applying for grants is only about 20 per cent.
The research sector is unsustainable, it is difficult to start a research career and when you are in there is a high probability that funding will dry up.
Professor Brett Kirk is one of the lucky ones. The associate deputy vice-chancellor, research at Curtin University is part of a team that has received an $840,000 Australian Research Council (ARC) grant over five years
This has been topped up with $667,000 of partner cash funding – to explore bioengineered bioscaffolds for Achilles tendinopathy treatment.
Researchers from the universities of Western Australia, Curtin, Griffith and Auckland, and staff at Orthocell, Sir Charles Gardener Hospital and Uniservices in Auckland, are all working on the project.
“Tendinopathy is a painful tendon as a result of overuse,” Kirk says. “Achilles tendinopathies, are often the most disabling tendinopathies because they prevent normal walking, representing a substantial burden to quality of life and the Australian economy.
“A significant contributor to the high costs associated with Achilles tendinopathy is the high rate of further surgery due to poor surgical healing. To improve surgical outcomes this project will develop new understanding of normal tendon behaviour (captured by predictive computational models), develop novel bioreactor tissue from cell-seeded bioscaffolds, and using the computational model and bioreactor tissue, investigate new surgical methods for tendinopathy treatment.”
Kirk says that the submission was pulled together very quickly. “We actually put the proposal together in a very short period of time – a couple of months.”
“There was a six-month time frame between the submission and the awarding of the grant. It is great that we are able to undertake this study as it will benefit many and we will discover new things along the way.”
But despite billions of dollars of federal government funding being poured into university research it seems that the money can’t keep up with the amount of academics applying for grants.
And even though 10 Australian universities are performing above the world standard for research, including four performing well above world standard, according to the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2012 national report, more and more academics are looking to private funding to help secure vital research.
“Success rates in applying for grants funding are near 20 per cent,” says Professor Les Field, vice-president and deputy vice-chancellor (research) at the University of NSW.
“There is a waste of excellent research potential in the exceptional research that simply misses the cut and doesn’t get funded. Success rates at near 20 per cent means that the research sector is unsustainable, it is difficult to start a research career and when you are in there is a high probability that funding will dry up.”
Field is responsible for the strategic research direction and overall research performance of UNSW, and in particular, maintaining and advancing the university’s profile in research and research training, as well as technology transfer.
He believes there are three key areas that need to be addressed with the current system of allocating funding grants.
“Firstly, the fact that most of our research is never fully funded is the largest issue facing research. When we win a grant from our main agencies to undertake a research program, it takes at least another dollar for each grant dollar to actually do the research. These are the indirect or hidden costs like providing lab space, IT, the library, insurance, administration support and other costs so the more successful you are at winning research grants the more dollars you have to find to actually make the research happen.
“The research agencies only partly cover the indirect costs and for a large research intensive university like UNSW, the shortfall runs to hundreds of millions of dollars each year that we have to find to support the research program.
“Secondly, supporting major facilities and research infrastructure. For a university like UNSW, where there is a significant fraction of our research effort in the physical sciences, engineering and health/medical/biomedical areas, much of the research effort relies on access to large equipment and facilities which are an expensive but essential part of being able to undertake cutting-edge research.
“Thirdly, support for longer-term programs. In a tight budget environment, the tendency is to pull back on commitments into longer term. Most research is not really something that you can do well in stops-and-starts. The best research environment is one where we do have a view to the longer term – you can tackle bigger and more significant problems, you can build up stable teams and expertise.”
Field believes that governments need to set specific agendas for research and prioritise where needed.
“Governments need to firstly provide the strategic directions, broad priorities and a commitment to research programs that are supported,” he says.
“Secondly, once we have the direction and commitment then we should do whatever we do properly, so if we decide that research in an area or on a project or problem is important then we should commit to supporting it properly to achieve the intended outcome.
“In many instances this is a long term commitment, which will transcend the term of some governments but we need mechanisms to accommodate longer term programs,” Field says.
The federal government will provide about $1.67 billion in research block funding in 2013 through a number of programs administered by the ARC, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education and many other government departments.
In 2011 (the latest period available) Australian universities also received $1.35 billion in competitive grant funding (largely from ARC and NHMRC), $414 million in other federal government funding and $108 million in Co-operative Research Centre Funding.
“Between 2008 and 2011, this government invested more than $43.2 billion in core university funding,” says the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, Chris Evans. “Our investment continues to grow and between 2012 and 2015, we will invest a further $58.9 billion. The Gillard government recognises that research and innovation go hand-in-hand and translates into new jobs and new opportunities for Australians.
“Our investment has created a 24 per cent increase in the amount of research being undertaken, a 16 per cent increase in the number of patents being secured and a 9 per cent increase in the number of researchers employed.”
But even though the government is continuing to increase research funding, it is struggling to fully fund all researchers and keep up with the amount of applications it receives. “The government has increased funding for university research but at the same time the number of researchers seeking grants is actually growing faster,” says Professor Graeme Wright, Curtin University deputy vice-chancellor of research and development.
“It is imperative that we can keep the system competitive to attain research funding because if we don’t then researchers will drop out and no one will benefit from that. Another issue is the timing and size of research grants. We need researchers to be fully funded so they don’t have to spend their time seeking income from other sources.”
Wright, who has a PhD in spatial sciences, has an extensive role that includes the oversight of all research, research training and commercialisation and knowledge transfer activities within Curtin University.
He is regularly meeting industry players and seeking opportunities for Curtin researchers to attain the necessary funds to complete their studies and believes it is imperative that all areas of research are given due consideration. “The ERA 2012 report shows that 22 fields of research were granted funds, with the collective group of medical and health services receiving the highest amount of $3.4 billion out of a total of $8.77 billion,” Wright says.
“The next two highest were biological sciences and engineering at just under $1 billion. That is a big gap and we need to ensure that all areas of research are given equal consideration.”
In the 2012-13 financial year the ARC is providing about $880 million to universities and other eligible organisations through the National Competitive Grants Program.
“The ERA 2012 results confirm that researchers at Australian universities compete with the world’s best in a wide range of disciplines,” says Professor Aidan Byrne, the ARC chief executive officer.
“They demonstrate that world standard research performance occurs at Australian universities of all kinds, in all states and territories. The results also provide assurance to Australian taxpayers that their investment in university-based research is well founded.
“The ratings achieved by Australian universities were higher overall in ERA 2012 than in ERA 2010, and the range of fields of research assessed was wider,” says Byrne. “In 16 of the 22 broad fields of research assessed in ERA, more universities are rated at world standard or higher in 2012 than in 2010.”
Australia has five universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities top 100 for the first time ever, with 19 universities in the top 500. Australia now has the third highest number of universities in the top 100. Only the UK and the US have higher.
“However, ERA ratings provide a more detailed picture of performance relative to world standard than ranking systems,” Byrne says. “ERA results pinpoint the specific research strengths of each Australian university, as well as the breadth of capacity across the sector by discipline.”
While Australia may be moving up the ranking systems in terms of research performance, we could be doing better in terms of providing more comprehensive funding to a wider group of fields. We all lose out when a research application remains unfunded no matter what area the application comes from.