ERA EI Review

[TOC]
The Australian Research Council (ARC) completed a comprehensive review of Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) and the Engagement and Impact Assessment (EI) in 2021.
The review enabled the ARC to:
- simplify and streamline its programs
- take advantage of recent developments in technology and big data
- ensure the programs continue to reflect world’s best practice, and
- respond to the ongoing needs of the:
- university sector,
- government and,
- the public for a robust evaluation of Australian university research quality, impact, and engagement.
Final Report and Action Plan
The ERA EI Review Advisory Committee’s ERA EI Review Final Report sets out 22 recommendations to the ARC. The final report can be downloaded as ERA EI Review Final Report – PDF format – Word format.
The ARC accepted all 22 of the Advisory Committee’s recommendations. The ARC ERA and EI Action Plan sets out the next steps the ARC will take to put in place these recommendations. It can be viewed in flipbook format or downloaded as PDF.
An evaluation of the impact component of the Australian Research Council’s 2018 Engagement and Impact Assessment
As part of the ERA and EI review, the ARC commissioned a research team to conduct an external review of the impact component of the Engagement and Impact (EI) assessment. This review was undertaken in 2018. The research team’s final report can be viewed in flipbook format or downloaded as PDF.
For more information, please contact the ARC via email: ERAEIReview@arc.gov.au or the ERA Helpdesk: 02 6287 6755.
ERA EI Review Advisory Committee
As part of the review of ERA and EI, the ARC appointed an external, expert Advisory Committee. This committee comprised experts from:
- government,
- universities,
- research end-users and
- experts in research evaluation.
The role of the ERA and EI Advisory Committee (the Committee) was to provide guidance, advice, and recommendations on key issues for the future rounds of ERA and EI.
The Committee chair was Emeritus Professor Michael Brooks, from the University of Adelaide.
The members of the Committee were:
Name |
Title |
---|---|
Emeritus Professor Michael Brooks (Chair) |
The University of Adelaide |
Mark Bazzacco |
Director of Strategy and Chief of Staff, CSIRO |
Professor Joy Damousi |
Director, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University |
Dr Gemma Derrick |
Senior Lecturer (Higher Education), University of Lancaster |
Dominic English |
First Assistant Secretary, Higher Education Division, Department of Education, Skills and Employment |
Dr Alan Finkel |
Chief Scientist Australia (2017 – 2020) (until December 2020) |
Dr Cathy Foley AO |
Chief Scientist Australia (from January 2021) |
Catriona Jackson |
Chief Executive, Universities Australia |
Professor Anne Kelso AO |
Chief Executive Officer, National Health and Medical Research Council |
Su McCluskey |
Commissioner, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research |
Emeritus Professor Ian O’Connor AC |
Chair of the Higher Education Standards Panel (until March 2021) |
Emeritus Professor John O’Connor |
Conjoint Professor, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, The University of Newcastle |
Jane Urquhart |
Head of Division, Science and Commercialisation Policy, Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (until October 2020) |
Janean Richards |
Head of Division, Science and Commercialisation Policy, Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (from October 2020) |
Dr Mathew Trinca AM |
Director, National Museum of Australia |
Professor Maggie Walter |
Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of Tasmania, Previous Pro Vice-Chancellor – Aboriginal Research and Leadership |
Innes Willox |
Chief Executive, Australian Industry (AI) Group |
Supporting Advice
The ARC appointed three working groups to provide expert advice to the Committee on specific issues. These working groups included:
- ERA Assessment Methodology Working Group. This group was made up of eight ERA 2018 Research Evaluation Committee Chairs. They were selected for their recent experience and expertise with ERA assessment.
- Engagement Narrative Working Group. This group was made up of Chairs and research end-user members of the EI 2018 assessment panels. They were selected for their previous experience in EI assessments.
- Indigenous Working Group. This group was made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers. They were selected for their previous experience with ERA or EI. Consideration was also given to cultural appropriateness.
Further details of these working groups and the membership lists can be found in the ERA EI Review Final Report linked above.
Public Consultation Submissions
The review also included a public consultation that took place from 18 August to 12 October. The consultation paper can be viewed in flipbook format or downloaded in PDF format and Word format.
The ARC received 112 submissions from individuals and organisations from the public consultation. At the request of the authors, some submissions have not been published.
- Summary table of submissions [table below – also available as Word in the Zip folder]
- All submissions [Zip folder, 23MB]
The submissions published on this page are owned by the relevant organisations and individuals. They are responsible for the factual accuracy of these documents at the time of publishing. The views contained in these submissions represent the views of the authors and are not those of the ARC or the Australian Government. For use of material in submissions please see the ARC’s Copyright Statement.
If you require a different format or are having trouble accessing the information within these submissions, please send an email to communications@arc.gov.au.
Note: the submission numbers in the below table are for indexing purposes only and include duplicate submissions. Confidential submissions are not included in this list.
Reference Table for Survey Submissions
No. |
Title |
Full Name of Organisation |
---|---|---|
01 |
AAH |
Australian Academy of the Humanities |
03 |
ABDC |
Australian Business Deans Council |
04 |
ACHRC |
Australasian Consortium of Humanities Research Centres |
05 |
ACOLA |
Australian Council of Learned Academies |
06 |
ACU |
Australian Catholic University |
07 |
ADE |
The University of Adelaide |
08 |
ADE2 |
The University of Adelaide version 2 |
09 |
AHA |
Australian Historical Association |
10 |
ANCPAS |
Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science |
11 |
ANU |
Australian National University |
12 |
AOASG |
Australasian Open Access Strategy Group |
13 |
ARDC |
Australian Research Data Commons |
14 |
ASSA |
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia |
15 |
ATSE |
The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering |
18 |
BrymerEric |
Eric Brymer |
19 |
BurnhamAntony |
Antony Burnham |
20 |
CALD |
Council of Australian Law Deans |
21 |
CAN |
University of Canberra |
22 |
CDU |
Charles Darwin University |
23 |
ChouMark |
Mark Chou |
24 |
CQU |
Central Queensland University |
25 |
CRC Association |
Cooperative Research Centres Association |
27 |
CUT |
Curtin University |
28 |
CUT OKI |
Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative |
29 |
DASSH |
The Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities |
31 |
DDCA |
The Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts (DDCA) and the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS) |
32 |
Digital Science |
Digital Science |
33 |
DIV |
The University of Divinity |
34 |
DKN |
Deakin University |
35 |
DKN CRADLE |
Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE), Deakin University |
36 |
DKN HASS |
Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University |
37 |
ESA |
Ecological Society of Australia (ESA) |
38 |
ESA Letter |
Ecological Society of Australia (ESA) Letter |
39 |
ECU |
Edith Cowan University |
40 |
Elsevier |
Elsevier |
41 |
EMCRforum |
The Australian Academy of Science Early and Mid-Career Researcher Forum (EMCR Forum) |
42 |
FLN |
Flinders University |
44 |
Go8 |
Group of Eight (Go8) |
45 |
GRF |
Griffith University |
49 |
HartGeoffrey |
Geoffrey Hart |
54 |
IAE |
The International Association of Egyptologists |
55 |
IlingworthSam |
Sam Illingworth |
56 |
InASA |
International Australian Studies Association (InASA) |
57 |
IRU |
Innovative Research Universities |
58 |
JCU |
James Cook University |
59 |
KingsleyDanny |
Danny Kingsley |
60 |
LarkinsFrank |
Frank Larkins |
61 |
LewisJim |
Jim Lewis |
66 |
MastNatalie |
N Mast Consulting |
67 |
MastNatalie2 |
N Mast Consulting |
68 |
MEL HASS |
MEL HASS Response |
69 |
MEL |
The University of Melbourne |
70 |
MEL SocialPoliticalSciences |
The University of Melbourne, School of Social and Political Sciences |
74 |
MQU |
Macquarie University |
78 |
QUT |
Queensland University of Technology |
79 |
RUN |
Regional Universities Network (RUN) |
80 |
RMIT |
RMIT University |
81 |
RolfHarry |
Harry Rolf |
82 |
RACI |
Royal Australian Chemical Institute |
83 |
MEL SCC |
The University of Melbourne, School of Culture and Communication |
84 |
STA |
Science and Technology Australia |
85 |
SCU |
Southern Cross University |
86 |
SSA_AMSI_AMS |
The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI), the Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) and the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) |
87 |
SternDavid |
David Stern |
88 |
SWIN |
Swinburne University |
90 |
ThomasAnthony |
Anthony Thomas |
93 |
NSW |
University of New South Wales |
95 |
NSW Science |
Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales |
96 |
QLD |
The University of Queensland |
100 |
UTS |
University of Technology Sydney |
101 |
UWA |
The University of Western Australia |
103 |
SCU |
Southern Cross University |
104 |
VIC |
Victoria University |
106 |
WalkerJames |
James Walker |
107 |
WOL |
University of Wollongong |
108 |
HagenbuchnerMarkus |
Markus Hagenbuchner |
109 |
WSU |
Western Sydney University |
ERA 2023 Benchmarking and Rating Scale Consultation
The Australian Research Council held a public consultation from 11 March to 22 April 2022, on improvements to the ERA methodology to be adopted for ERA 2023. To inform this consultation, the ARC published the ERA 2023 Benchmarking and Rating Scale Consultation Paper – PDF Format (1.01 MB)
The consultation paper was informed by advice provided by the Benchmarking and Rating Scale Working Group.
The proposed improvements included:
- two options for a new ERA rating scale and supporting benchmarks with increased granularity at the top end of the scale
- new citation indicators including a high-performance indicator and dynamic citation classes to improve recognition of world-leading research
- new peer review guidance to allow for identification of world-leading research and improve confidence in evaluation outcomes
- new guidance for assessment of field of research (FoR) 45 Indigenous studies and underlying 4-digit fields.
The ARC is in the process of preparing submissions for publication on the ARC website.
ERA Benchmarking and Rating Scale Working Group
After the review of ERA and EI, the ARC appointed an external, expert working group to review and provide advice on revising:
- the ERA rating scale,
- the benchmarks for citation analysis and peer review assessment and,
- the definition, appropriateness, and application of the ‘world standard’ benchmark.
The working group comprised experts in research evaluation and quantitative indicator development with a broad knowledge of the Australian higher education research landscape.
The working group chair was Professor Mark Western, from The University of Queensland.
The members of the working group were:
Name |
Title |
---|---|
Professor Mark Western (Chair) |
Director, Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland |
Professor Rose Amal |
Scientia Professor, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales |
Professor Larissa Behrendt |
Distinguished Professor, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney |
Emeritus Professor Brenda Cherednichenko |
Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University |
Professor Andrew Francis |
Deputy Dean, School of Computer, Data, and Mathematical Sciences, Western Sydney University |
Emeritus Professor John O’Connor |
Emeritus Professor, College of Engineering, Science and the Environment, The University of Newcastle |
Emeritus Professor Joanne Tompkins |
Emeritus Professor, School of Communication and Arts, The University of Queensland |
They are supported by a team of expert bibliometricians who provide technical advice on citation benchmarks.
These bibliometricians are:
Name |
Title |
---|---|
Mr Adam Finch |
Manager of Science Performance Analytics, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) |
Dr Sybille Hinze |
Head of Center for Open and Responsible Research, University Alliance, Berlin, Germany |
Professor Gunnar Sivertsen |
Head of Bibliometric Research, Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU), Norway |