ERA EI Review

The Australian Research Council (ARC) has completed a comprehensive review of Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) and the Engagement and Impact Assessment (EI). 

The purpose of the review was to enable the ARC to:

• simplify and streamline the programs
• take advantage of recent developments in technology and big data
• ensure the programs continue to reflect world’s best practice
• 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 .

ARC CEO Professor Sue Thomas has 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 implement 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 review of ERA and EI, the ARC commissioned a research team to conduct an external review of the impact component of the Engagement and Impact (EI) assessment 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 undertaking the review of ERA and EI, the ARC appointed an external, expert Advisory Committee comprising experts from government, universities and research end-users, as well as experts in research evaluation to advise the ARC CEO on key issues.

The role of the ERA and EI Advisory Committee (the Committee) was to provide guidance on key issues for consideration with recommendations for the future rounds of ERA and EI.

The Committee was chaired by Emeritus Professor Michael Brooks, from the University of Adelaide.

The members of the Committee were:

Supporting Advice

To support the Advisory Committee, the ARC appointed three working groups to provide expert advice on specific issues:

• ERA Assessment Methodology Working Group comprising the eight ERA 2018 Research Evaluation Committee Chairs, selected for their recent experience and expertise with ERA assessment.
• Engagement Narrative Working Group comprising Chairs and research end-user members of the EI 2018 assessment panels, selected for their previous experience in EI assessments.
• Indigenous Working Group, comprising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers who were selected for their previous experience with ERA or EI and with consideration of cultural appropriateness.

Further details of these working groups, including 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 in response to the consultation paper. At the request of the authors, a number of submissions have not been published. 

• Summary table of submissions [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, and as such 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 necessarily those of the Australian Research Council or the Australian Government. For use of material in submissions please see the ARC’s Copyright Statement.

If you require a different format or you are having trouble accessing the information contained within these public 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

ERA Benchmarking and Rating Scale Working Group

Following the review of ERA and EI, the ARC has 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;
• the definition, appropriateness, and application of the ‘world standard’ benchmark

This working group comprises experts in research evaluation and quantitative indicator development, with broad knowledge of the Australian higher education research landscape.

The working group is chaired by Professor Mark Western, from The University of Queensland.

The members of the working group are:

They are supported by a team of expert bibliometricians who provide technical advice on citation benchmarks.

These bibliometricians are: