Collaborative program off to ill-defined start

A program designed to get regional and research intensive universities working together is struck by a lack of definition. The federal government needs to first needs to define what a regional university is and what is meant by less research-intensive before the nuts and bolts of a new collaborative research program can be ironed out. The $52 million Collaborative Research Networks program is intended to foster mutually beneficial research links between smaller less research intensive regional universities and city-based research powerhouses. Under the program, the regional university would act as the project leader but funding would also be available to the partner institution to enable the linkage. It formulates part of Science minister Kim Carr’s hubs and spokes model of research activity in Australian university. “It will help less research-intensive universities develop their research capabilities by working in partnership with more research-intensive universities. Smaller and regional universities are an important part of regional economies and their research activites are strongly connected to local needs and priorities,” Carr said. A discussion paper released in February raised a series of key points to be addressed, including eligibility, how the money should be allocated, what activities should be included and lighthouse projects. However, there are concerns that widespread confusion around what exactly constitutes a regional university would provide a stumbling block before the program could even get off the ground. It’s also a question posed in the recent discussion paper on loading for regional universities, with some critics noting that several metropolitan universities qualify for regional loading under current arrangements. On the other hand, there are genuinely research-intensive universities which are also regional – James Cook University, for example. “While the discussion paper touches on what is a regional university and what does less research intensive mean, those questions need to be answered before we can even approach which of the three proposed models for distributing the funding can take place,” said Professor Graham Baker, deputy vice-chancellor (scholarship) at the University of Southern Queensland. Baker argued it would “go against the spirit of the program” if regional, research-intensive universities were given access to the fund. But that’s not how Professor Chris Cocklin, deputy vice-chancellor at JCU sees it, but he does agree that getting the basic definitions sorted out is an essential starting point. “One of the perplexing issues is, does the program target rural and regional and less research intensive universities or rural or regional or less research intensive – they are very different stories. “JCU is not less research intensive, but it is certainly regional and we also believe there are significant transaction costs for us to be involved in conducting research,” Cocklin said. “We were looking to the CRN to help facilitate those sorts of things but it is far from clear to us from the paper whether that is going to be possible or not.” The discussion paper suggests the program be limited to those universities with competitive grant income below $2.5 million. There are currently 11 australian universities that would qualify under that measure – some of them in metropolitan areas. With USQ as a likely beneficiary of the program – whatever the eventual definition of regional university, Baker said he saw a lot of opportunity in the program. “The government has actually followed through with money in accordance with their policy agenda. The commitment to provide mechanisms for being able to increase research capacity in newer and regional universities in particular is really sound. “It’s obviously going to be good for us, but its good for the sector to have strong regional unis because we are often placed near some of the major industries and growth opportunities for the whole country.” He noted that USQ is located a couple of hours drive from the biggest gas fields ever discovered. However, describing the total funding pool of $52 million over four years as “seriously underwhelming”, Cocklin said the discussion paper was slightly confused in what it wanted to achieve. There has been a huge drift from a grand visioning of the Senator [Carr] around hubs and spokes. It makes you wonder what the target is, what they are trying to achieve and get some advantage out of this,” Cocklin said. Mike Gallagher, executive director of the Group of Eight, said their member universities were looking forward to participating in the networks created by the CRN, saying the program recognised the “potential for the development of research capacity at less research-intensive and regional universities through collaborative networks with research intensive universities such as the Go8”. Submissions are open until 22 March. Go to www.innovation.gov.au