This paper reports on the practice of buying-out teaching to create time for research. A study was carried out, at a regional university in Australia, with academics in receipt of research grant funds (and therefore with the means to buy out teaching), Heads of School, and the Deputy Vice Chancellors responsible respectively for research and for…

This paper explores some of the implications for research management in universities of the explicit identification of areas of research focus. In particular, it examines how research facilitation can work with research focus to enable universities to organise and project their research capabilities more effectively. This combination of research…

It is not uncommon to find that the research support office in a university or organisation has been, is going through or is about to be restructured. This observation may reflect the ever-changing requirement and roles of those based within these functions, yet it might also be a symptom that traditional models are sub-optimal and below standards…

Research leadership in Australian universities takes place against a backdrop of policy reforms concerned with measurement and comparison of institutional research performance. In particular, the Excellence in Research in Australian initiative undertaken by the Australian Research Council sets out to evaluate research quality in Australian…

This paper provides a review of institutional authorship policies as required by the "Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research" (the "Code") (National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council (ARC) & Universities Australia (UA) 2007), and assesses them for Code compliance.…

Globally, research has become a key driver for the achievement of status and the procurement of funding for higher education institutions. Although there is mounting pressure on institutions to become research active, many institutions are rooted in a strong tradition of teaching. These institutions find it challenging to develop research capacity…

The objective of a national government-funded research program for tertiary education and training is to support the achievement of major social and economic goals. These include increased opportunities for participation in the labour market, improvements in productivity and enhanced social inclusion. In essence, the overarching lens is to…

This paper considers the profile of research administration, based on a survey of 36 Australian universities. The findings identify a group that is typically female, older and university qualified. Males tend to be more likely than females to have a research higher degree, earn a significantly higher salary and move up the salary scale at a faster…

The metaphor of "monoculture on the intellectual landscape" is used to analyse the effects of large-scale research management regimes. The metaphor of "monoculture on the intellectual landscape", derived from Shiva's "monocultures of the mind", is developed and illustrated with respect to gender and ethnicity. The…

Concerns are held across the Group of Eight (Go8) that the standard terms sought by the Commonwealth when entering into research agreements with universities misunderstand the role and nature of universities; are unnecessarily onerous and impractical; often cause delay and uncertainty due to their complexity; and serve to stifle knowledge transfer…

Increasingly universities are becoming commercial enterprises and their core activities of teaching and research subject to business imperatives. This paper reviews the research costing methodologies of 17 Australian universities. Tension between Competition Law and Competitive Neutrality exists which could be resolved through improved costing and…

Within Australia there is a growing interest in e-research and the use of cyberinfrastructure. There is also increasing recognition that the use of cyberinfrastructure is often inhibited, not by technical issues, but by so-called "soft" issues, such as those related to work practices, intellectual property issues, the nature of research…

The release of the "Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research 2007" by the Australian Government in 2007 was welcomed by Go8 (Group of Eight) institutions, particularly in relation to the improvements and broader scope of the matters covered by Part A of that Code. However, as foreshadowed by the Go8 during the consultation…

Provides a broader perspective on research grants. Outlines several key types of problems with grant schemes (bias, waste, discouragement, orientation to interests) and presents several methods for decision making (administrative decision, peer review, performance-based funding, equality, community-based allocation). Assesses recent changes in…

Measurable research outputs have become part of the overall research management structure within Australian universities over the past ten years. As such, policy makers and administrators alike have come to regard effective management structures and mechanisms as fundamental components of a research environment capable of generating desired…