Excellence in Research for Australia ( ERA ) is Australia's national research evaluation framework, developed and administered by the Australian Research Council (ARC). The first full round of ERA occurred in 2010, and subsequent rounds followed in 2012, 2015 and 2018. A round was scheduled for 2023, but in September 2022 the ARC announced that this would be postponed as they were transitioning the ERA process to a more robust and data driven model.
20-661: The Australian Laureate Fellowship is an Australian professorial research fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council . Fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards. In 2023 8 industry-focused Laureate Fellowships were awarded for the first time. In 2010, the Australian Research Council created the Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowships. The Kathleen Fitzpatrick fellowship
40-498: A list of journals that are eligible for inclusion in the ERA. The ARC initially stated that these journals would be ranked using the following "four tiers of quality rating": After the publication of its draft rankings, ERA introduced a form aimed at all scholars who wished to put a journal forward for the list. There were just three conditions for such a proposal: that the journal be "a scholarly, peer reviewed journal with an ISSN", that
60-707: A response to the Dawkins white paper, 'Higher Education: A policy statement', and was established as an independent body in 2001 under the Australian Research Council Act 2001 . As of 2021 the agency is administered by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment , headed by the Minister for Education and Youth . The ARC's mission is to deliver policy and programs that advance Australian research and innovation globally and benefit
80-517: A separate budget. ARC does not directly fund researchers, but however allocates funds to individual schemes with specialised scopes, such as Discover (fundamental and empirical research) and Linkage (domestic and international collaborative projects). Most of these schemes fall under the National Competitive Grants Program ( NCGP ), whereby institutions must compete amongst each other for funding. ARC also administers
100-698: Is an independent body, jointly established by the ARC and the NHMRC, to provide a system to review institutional responses to allegations of research misconduct. ARC funds research and researchers under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). Funding opportunities administered by the ARC include the Australian Laureate Fellowship . The NCGP comprises two main elements—Discovery and Linkage—under which
120-767: Is awarded to a candidate from the humanities, arts and social science disciplines and the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship is awarded to a candidate from the science and technology disciplines. Excellence in Research for Australia In addition to the Higher Education Research Data Collection , which collects statistics about research in Australia, the ERA collects itemised data, with all research classified according to
140-469: Is named for Kathleen Fitzpatrick and honours a woman candidate in a humanities field. The Georgina Sweet fellowship is named for Georgina Sweet and honours a woman in a science or technology discipline. In addition to the funding from the standard Australian laureate fellowship, both of these named fellowships include an additional $ 20,000 per year to promote women in research. Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council ( ARC )
160-549: Is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government , distributing more than A$ 800 million in grants each year. The Council was established by the Australian Research Council Act 2001 , and provides competitive research funding to academics and researchers at Australian universities . Most health and medical research in Australia is funded by the more specialised National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which operates under
180-481: The Excellence in Research for Australia framework (ERA), which provides guidelines to evaluate the quality of research. ARC Centres of Excellence, funded for a limited period, are collaborations established among Australian and international universities and other institutions to support research in a variety of fields. Since 2011, ARC has awarded the annual Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship and
200-592: The Field of Research (FOR) classification scheme used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics . ERA relies on committees of academic experts to assess and rate research on a 1 to 5 scale (up to the 2018 round), by field of research and by university, and using a mix of assessment methods appropriate to the academic field being assessed. The ERA framework was established by the Rudd government in 2008, and replaced
220-502: The Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship , which are research fellowships for female Australian and international researchers, intended to support innovative research programs and mentor early career researchers. The Australian Research Council superseded the Australian Research Grants Committee, which had been providing funding to Australian universities since 1965. It was formed in 1988 as
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#1732772011463240-718: The Research Quality Framework that had been developed by the Howard government . In 2009, two trials were conducted for the clusters "Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences" (PCE) and "Humanities and Creative Arts" (HCA), and reports have been published using this data. The first full round of ERA occurred in 2010, with its results published early the following year. This was the first ever nationwide identification of strengths and weaknesses in all disciplines undertaken in Australia. Further rounds of ERA took place in 2012, 2015 and 2018. On 6 December 2012 Senator
260-465: The 2012 data collection, the clusters were changed. The SBE cluster was split into two new EHS and EC clusters, and the BCH and PAH clusters were merged to form a "Medical and Health Sciences" cluster. The Field of Research codes are distributed into the following eight clusters: The following institutions are deemed eligible to submit data to the government as part of the ERA initiative: The ARC maintains
280-692: The ARC for a limited period (often seven years), Centres of Excellence (CoE) are large-scale, multi-institutional collaborations established among Australian and international universities, research organisations, governments and businesses, to support research across a number of fields. Continuing centres include: Past ARC Centres of Excellence include: Since 2011, the Australian Research Council has awarded two research fellowships for female Australian and international researchers and research leaders to build Australia's research capacity, undertake innovative research programs and mentor early career researchers. The Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship
300-429: The ARC funds a range of complementary schemes to support researchers at different stages of their careers, build Australia's research capability, expand and enhance research networks and collaborations, and develop centres of research excellence. ARC administers Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), Australia's national research evaluation framework, which is tasked with identifying and promoting excellence across
320-573: The Hon Chris Evans , Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, announced the outcomes of the ERA 2012 process, with the release of the ERA 2012 National report . The ARC used Scopus as the citation and bibliometrics provider for the 2010 and 2012 ERA. For the 2010 data collection, the Field of Research codes are distributed into the following eight clusters: For
340-566: The community. It supports research across all disciplines except clinical and other medical and dental research, for which the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is primarily responsible. ARC updates its own Research Integrity Policy, which includes referral to the Australian Research Integrity Committee (ARIC) where necessary. The Australian Research Integrity Committee (ARIC)
360-579: The full spectrum of research activity in higher education institutions in Australia. The ARC runs various funding schemes under the banner of Linkage Programs, which encourage research collaborations between researchers and a range of different types of organisations, including private enterprise, community organisations and other research agencies. The Linkage programs include ARC Centres of Excellence, Linkage Projects, and Special Research Initiatives (SRI), including SRI Centres. Recent funding rounds have occurred in 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2023. Funded by
380-419: The person making the proposal state whether he/she was a member of the editorial board, and that the decision remain at ARC's discretion. This consultation procedure led to a significant increase in the number of journals in the final list: for example, Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) journals went from 10,241 to 12,976. The percentage distributions were not recalled and not adhered to in the final list which
400-459: Was released on 9 February 2010, though the proportion of A* and A journals did not correlate directly with the performance of different disciplines. These journal rankings (A*, A, B, C) were discontinued for the 2012 ERA process. The list of conference rankings was released in December 2009. Conferences have only a three level ranking scheme: A, B, or C. Conferences are only ranked within
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