Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Initiative
On 26 February 2008, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, the Hon. Senator Kim Carr, announced his plans for a new research quality and evaluation system, to replace the previous RQF model.
The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative will be developed by the ARC. It will assess research quality within Australia’s higher education institutions using a combination of metrics and expert review by committees comprising experienced, internationally-recognised experts.
ERA will:
- use leading researchers to evaluate research progressively in each of the ARC discipline clusters and several clusters covering health and medical research that will be informed by experts from the NHMRC.
- detail by institution and by discipline those areas that are internationally competitive, together with emerging areas where there are opportunities for development and further investment.
- start with those disciplines where the metrics are most widely accepted, for example, in the physical and biological sciences.
Consultation will continue with other disciplines about metrics appropriate to their disciplines, noting that some measures will be appropriate to all disciplines and that for all disciplines expert review of the metrics is essential. A Discussion Paper will be released to the higher education and research sector in the near future for consultation.
Consultation Paper
The ERA Consultation Paper has now been released and submissions in response to this paper will be received by the ARC until COB 30 June 2008. A pro-forma for submission responses is also available from the ARC website.
Further Information
You will find more information about the ERA initiative at the ARC website at: http://www.arc.gov.au/era/default.htm
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