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.
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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.

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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.

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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:

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

Professor Emeritus 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
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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.

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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. 

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.

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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

 

 

 

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Content Last Modified: 02/08/21

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