Objectives

 

Objectives and Management Strategy

Aims and Major Objectives of ISCCI for 2001 - 2003

ISCCI is an institute for qualitative social and cultural research using critical conceptual analysis to focus on questions of social justice and the complex interactions of freedom, regulation and responsibility. ISCCI aims to utilise its growing expertise in policy related areas, including social impact and communication research to enhance the position of this area of research and development, making University of Wollongong a leading national centre for these specialisations. A key aspect of these developments will be to enhance our capacity to attract and train high calibre research students.

We aim to achieve this through:

Research collaboration.
We will build on our projects, programs and the Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies, and develop further collaboration and encourage new initiatives and innovation;

• forging long term strategic alliances;
  
• increasing and focusing regional, national and international research links; and
  
• establishing an international reputation for innovative work in fundamental and applied research.

Funding and financial planning:

• developing business plans directed at acquiring external National Competitive Grants and other funding and developing funding opportunities.
  
  
  Postgraduate research students:
  
  
• attracting increasing numbers of high quality students by directing ISCCI’s research training into its areas of strength, having clear and equitable management practices, including infrastructure support and supervision, and providing attractive career opportunities.
  
  
  Research outcomes
  
  Supporting outcomes from its research which include
  
• the academic indicators of publications, seminars, conferences and scholarly exchanges;
• application of research in policy advice, community relations and consultancies;
• development and implementation of targeted postgraduate courses;
• collaboration with government and industry in fundamental research and policy development; and
• increased public awareness of social effects of history, culture and representation on national and sectional identities, including class, gender, indigeneity and ethnicity.
  
  
  Proposals for realising Objectives
  ISCCI has four main strategies for the use of its resources to support and enhance its objectives and attain its projected outcomes.
  

  
  1. provide seeding grants for direct research project support. This needs to be seen in the context of
  
  
• available internal University research project funds; and
  

enhancing capacity to compete successfully for National Competitive Grants and other external funding.

2. expand research student capacity and quality, through:

• support through supervisors for postgraduate research support;
• Australian Postgraduate Awards Industry; Matching scholarships; Summer scholarships; and
• postgraduate maintenance fund and Conference/Field trip fund now established;

  
  

  3. promote ISCCI and ISCCI activities by:
  
  
• strengthening industry partnerships through assistance for development of contacts and collaborative research (with view to external funding for research);
  
• development of strategic alliances;
• support for attendance at significant conferences;
• support for conference organisation on ‘underwriting basis’; and
• sponsorship of external visitors connected with demonstrated ISCCI projects;
  
  
  4. enhance the capacity of the Institute to provide support for members and programs in a wide range of activities including:
  
  
• identifying funding opportunities;
  
• preparing grant applications;
• planning and organisation of events;
• developing strategic alliances;
• initiating and developing contract and consultancy capacities; and
• assisting in the publication of research output and other outcomes.

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Management structure

Membership
Membership of ISCCI is open to academic staff of the University who are active researchers working within the core areas of the Institute. Membership will normally be for a renewable three year term. Staff may be invited to join ISCCI at any time although membership will be subject to ratification by the University Research Committee at the time of the annual progress report.

A member of ISCCI shall:

1. be a member of the academic staff of the University (Level A and above) holding a continuing or limited term appointment of greater than or equal to 0.5 time, or a Visiting Fellow who does not hold a substantive position or paid appointment elsewhere and who has a formal appointment to the University for a period of 12 months or greater; and

2. be able and willing to contribute to the ISCCI’s aims and objectives and have the capacity to complement and work with the other members; and

3. be actively involved in quality research in areas identified with ISCCI’s aims; and

4. have a good track record of research and scholarship or, be a new member of the academic staff and have the capacity to develop into a significant contributor to the research effort of ISCCI.

Internal organisation
ISCCI has a flexible internal organisation including the Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies, a number of thematically focused Programs and a range of particular projects. CAPSTRANS is closely associated with ISCCI and its Director is a member of the ISCCI Board.

Programs are a key feature of the organisation of ISCCI. The Programs bring together researchers whose interests are most closely aligned around particular themes and or approaches to the research endeavour. They maintain regular forums to discuss and organise their work and develop the first stage of their business plans. Each has a coordinator who facilitates this process. They contain or may span a number of projects and have a continuity beyond that of particular research projects. The plans for each program are brought to the Board for consideration, advice and action. Programs will ebb and flow over time and neither particular Programs nor the number of Programs is fixed.

Projects are focused research activities undertaken to achieve specific research objectives which have been articulated as such through detailed submissions and grant applications. ISCCI research funding is primarily directed to project support. However, they are not organisational units of ISCCI and their life span will normally be limited to the duration of project.

Individual members of ISCCI and postgraduate research students are associated with one or more Program and Project of the Institute.

The Director is appointed by the Pro Vice Chancellor Research.
The Director may appoint a Deputy, with the approval of the Pro Vice Chancellor Research.

Board: composition and role
The ISCCI Board membership consists of the Director, Deputy Director, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Studies), Director of CAPSTRANS, one external member from the URC, one Postgraduate research student of the Institute, Director of Canadian Australian Studies and representatives from Programs, not otherwise represented. The Board meets at two monthly intervals. The postgraduate representative and Program members will hold office for one year.

The management of the unit is built around the Board and Director. The Board has a policy role and sets the priorities for the unit on the advice of the Director. These priorities are set within the framework of ISCCI’s strategic plan.

The deliberations and decisions on the allocation of the research funds available to the Institute for distribution to its members and postgraduate students are based on the priorities and criteria set by the Board from time to time.

Where this allocation is on the basis of competitive tendering, applications will be viewed by the Board and decisions on the allocations will be made by the Allocations Sub-committee.

The Allocations Subcommittee consists of the Director, Dean of Arts, external URC member and one other member chosen by the Board.

The decisions of the Allocations Subcommittee shall be in line with the criteria set out under Project Funding and Conference Support and its decisions will be brought to the Board for ratification.

The day to day management, including financial management, rests with the Director supported by the Deputy Director and Project Officer.

External Advisory Committee
ISCCI will constitute an External Advisory Committee consisting of appropriate individuals drawn primarily from outside the University. The Committee will advise the Director on policy directions and review performance in achieving stated goals. The Committee will meet twice yearly. For the current year the Faculty of Arts Advisory Committee will be invited to undertake the role of ISCCI Advisory Committee, in addition to its other duties.

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Financial management
The research and development allocation is based on the priorities agreed by the Board. Decisions on the distribution of grants to the individuals and groups are made by the Allocations Sub-Committee, and ratified by the Board.

Financial statements will be presented to the Board twice yearly.

The Director is responsible to the URC for the management and financial affairs of the Institute.

The allocated research funds available to the Institute for distribution to its members and postgraduate students are administered by the ISCCI office. This office also administers housekeeping and most other research grant funds to Faculty of Arts academics.

Service Fee
ISCCI’s strategic plan is premised on increasing research activity and income. To achieve this it is necessary to build our resources beyond those provided to us by the URC.

ISCCI follows Research Office recommendations and levies a service fee on certain incomes which are attracted from external sources. The service fee will apply to consultancy contracts, contract research and the provision of advisory and teaching services to outside organisations. All National Competitive Grants, scholarship income and research grants from some third sector non profit organisations are excluded from the fee.

The service fee is set at 5% of the gross amount received. The fee will apply to all relevant contracts over $5,000 gross which are negotiated after 30th March 2001.

Members preparing such contracts should include the University and ISCCI service fees in the costing of their proposals.

Priority funding support areas
ISCCI research performance funding allocation budget will be used in the following ways in line with the proposals for realising its objectives outlined above.

Project funding, ISCCI contributions to the postgraduate conference/fieldwork fund and conference travel and registration support will be the principal uses of the performance indicator funding.

Support for publication, development activities and other promotional activities only have access to carryover funds and other income earned by the Institute.

Research project funding.
This funding is allocated competitively to groups on the basis of:

• the quality of the project;
• its fit with the priorities of the Institute;
• its potential to develop into a proposal which will be competitive in National Competitive Grant schemes or other significant external funding;
• its capacity to lead to significant partnerships with similar projects or research groups in other institutions.

Other factors taken into consideration include the:

• previous record of the researchers; and
• extent of inclusion of postgraduate research student training in the project.
  
  
  Grantees will usually be expected to apply for other internal University of Wollongong grants during the year of receipt of support from ISCCI.
  
  Postgraduate research student support
  Postgraduate research training is a primary activity of ISCCI in cooperation with the Faculty.
  
  Together with the Faculty of Arts we will seek to expand the number of scholarships available and target these in ISCCI’s priority areas. APAI and University Matching Scholarships will be the main vehicles. Support will also be given for undergraduate summer scholarships to encourage the flow of students into honours courses.
  
  ISCCI will work closely with the Faculty in the use of the postgraduate maintenance fund and the conference/fieldwork fund. Both units will take account of the link between postgraduate research training and supervisors’ research directions, in their deliberations on postgraduate funding.
  
  Development of research capacity and partnerships
  Through its members and support staff ISCCI offers support to identify funding opportunities for research and assist in contacts and the development of applications.
  
  ISCCI will look at establishing a consultancy capacity in its areas of expertise. We will also investigate, in conjunction with the Faculty, the potential for delivering postgraduate coursework modules on at least a cost recovery basis.
  
  Promotion of ISCCI
  ISCCI provides very limited financial support for the publication of research, where the publication of that research contributes to the objectives of ISCCI.
  
  ISCCI encourages and supports the invitation of Visiting Fellows to ISCCI from colleagues at other Universities within and outside Australia. The purpose is to attract scholars with international reputations in areas of research strength to work with and contribute to the work and standing of ISCCI. ISCCI will assist with funding in conjunction with other funding sources (eg the Faculty, CAPSTRANS, Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies, other granting bodies and perhaps the Visitor’s host institution).
  
  Conference support by ISCCI for its members shall be of two kinds.
  1. Attendance at conferences will be given limited financial support on the following criteria:
  • the participant has an active and prominent role as key note speaker, paper presenter (particularly where there is a strong likelihood of publication by the Conference), chair or convenor of a major session; and
  • both the conference and the participation of the member in that event clearly contribute to the promotion of ISCCI’s aims and objectives.

2. Convening a conference, colloquium or workshop will, where it clearly contributes to ISCCI’s aims and objectives, be given financial and logistic support. These events will be run to at least cover their costs, including administrative and follow up publication costs. Funds for these events will be managed by the ISCCI office and any surplus will be used to support future events and other research activities, including all of the above.

John Bern,
Director
30th March 2001

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