Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)

UOW Delivers World Class Research

The results of the Excellence in Research for Australia 2012 Initiative (ERA) announced (in December 2012) by Senator The Hon Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research have confirmed UOW’s position as a world class, research intensive University, delivering research well above world standards.

A strategic approach to building research capacity has resulted in an outstanding result for UOW, with 90% of its Fields of Research assessed as delivering research at, above or well above world standard.  ERA 2012 has confirmed UOW’s research excellence in areas such as Chemical Sciences, Geology, Materials and Interdisciplinary Engineering, Clinical Sciences, Tourism and Human Geography.

Administered by the Australian Research Council, ERA is an assessment system that evaluates the quality of the research conducted at Australian universities by discipline. ERA uses committees of internationally-recognised researchers to evaluate disciplinary excellence in Australian universities relative to a world standard.  Nationally, over 1000 researchers were involved in the 2012 evaluations, as committee members or peer reviewers. Each research active discipline at each university was awarded a rating on a five-point scale, where three is world standard and five is the highest rating, indicating research well above world standards.

“ERA 2012 confirms that UOW researchers are among the world’s best in their disciplines. UOW has a highly productive and talented workforce. These ERA outcomes recognise the research effort across all UOW faculties and areas of research strength, including for example the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute , the Institute for Superconducting Materials and Materials and Manufacturing Engineering. This collective effort has contributed to an outstanding success.” Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Judy Raper said.

The University of Wollongong received the highest national rating in the broad discipline area of Chemical Sciences. Areas such as Law, Public Health, Psychology, Mathematical Sciences, Earth Sciences, History and  Archaeology and Creative Arts at UOW were also recognised as leaders for their high quality research outputs and contributions to their discipline. “The University has invested wisely over a long period, recruiting and supporting quality staff in the Chemical Sciences.  The very strong ERA outcomes are a testament to the great work and high standing our research has nationally and internationally across the range of chemical science sub-disciplines” said Professor Will Price, Dean of the Faculty of Science.

The ERA2012 outcomes reflect significant improvement across many fields of research at UOW and provide a foundation upon which to launch a number of new research initiatives in 2013. “We will be aiming to realise a number of strategic research goals, by bringing together scholarly expertise across and within disciplines to focus on projects of national and international significance, responding to complex global challenges” said Professor Raper.

“Our UOW ERA 2012 success, the recently announced $31M grant for the UOW Early Start Program and a fresh strategic plan bring UOW’s aspiration of a position in the top 1% of world universities a step closer” said Professor Paul Wellings, Vice Chancellor.

03 Chemical Sciences

0301 Analytical Chemistry

0303 Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry

0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)

0403 Geology

0912 Materials Engineering

0915 Interdisciplinary Engineering

1103 Clinical Sciences

01 Mathematical Sciences

0102 Applied Mathematics

0104 Statistics

0299 Other Physical Sciences

0304 Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry

04 Earth Sciences

0401 Atmospheric Sciences

0402 Geochemistry

0601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology

0602 Ecology

0608 Zoology

09 Engineering

0905 Civil Engineering

0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering

0910 Manufacturing Engineering

1117 Public Health and Health Services

1506 Tourism

1604 Human Geography

1701 Psychology

18 Law and Legal Studies

1801 Law

19 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing

1904 Performing Arts and Creative Arts

21 History and Archaeology

2101 Archaeology

0101 Pure Mathematics

02 Physical Sciences

0204 Condensed Matter Physics

0305 Organic Chemistry

0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geography

06 Biological Sciences

08 Information and Computing Sciences

0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing

0806 Information Systems

0913 Mechanical Engineering

0914 Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

1106 Human Movement and Sports Science

13 Education

1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy

1402 Applied Economics

1503 Business and Management

16 Studies in Human Society

1699 Other Studies in Human Society

17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences

1905 Visual Arts and Crafts

20 Language, Communication and Culture

2002 Cultural Studies

2005 Literary Studies

2103 Historical Studies

22 Philosophy, Communication and Culture

2203 Philosophy

Further Information

Further information regarding ERA is available from:

• ARC ERA2012 Outcomes
• UOW Intranet (Staff Only)
• ERA2010 Outcomes (Featuring Tourism)
• Research Services Office – contact reception on (02) 4221 3386.