ERA EI Review

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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

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