[csaa-forum] Does Brendan Nelson read Adrian Bolt?

[Vincent O'Donnell]

Here is soemething else from today's Australian that may be of concern.


Grant chiefs at odds over Nelson veto
Dorothy Illing
December 15, 2004

FEDERAL Education Minister Brendan Nelson has taken the extraordinary step of rejecting several research grants
recommended to him by the Australian Research Council.

The contentious move will be viewed by the academic community as a threat to the ARC's independent grants scheme where
expert panels judge whether projects should get funding.

It is not clear why Dr Nelson used his powers to reject the ARC's advice on several research projects in the last round
or what those projects were. Dr Nelson was unavailable for comment yesterday. But it is understood grants in question
were in the social sciences and humanities areas.

ARC chairman Tim Besley said he didn't know what the "huge hue and cry" was about.

"That's the minister's prerogative," he said. "If he doesn't believe that taxpayers' money should be spent on that kind
of research, that's his decision at the end of the day.

	

	
	

"It doesn't happen a lot. But that procedure [ministerial intervention] is there and one shouldn't get one's knickers
in a knot.

"People don't seem to focus on the 99.9 per cent [of grants] that aren't upended."

Each year the ARC conducts a complex peer review of thousands of applications for research funding, using teams of
experts in specific disciplines. It then compiles a list of recommended winners, the board signs off on them and they
are sent to the Education Minister for final approval. While the minister has the power to reject the ARC's
recommendations, it is rarely used.

The last known case of a minister overturning the ARC's recommendations for grants was in the 1990s when Amanda
Vanstone rejected funding for an indigenous research project.

Council of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences president Malcolm Gillies said although the minister had the powers to
intervene, any ministerial intervention in a process of quality review was unfortunate.

Such a move would necessarily create conflict between political and academic agendas, he said.

Doug McEachern, pro vice-chancellor, research and innovation, at the University of Western Australia and a former
executive director of the ARC's social, behavioural and economic sciences committee, expressed regret at Dr Nelson's
decision.

"I regret that the minister has used his powers to apply a political test to the ARC discovery grants and decided not
to fund grants which would have been supported on merit," he said. "It would help applicants if the minister published a
list of unacceptable subjects so that good people did not waste time applying when, no matter the quality, the minister
would not fund their applications."

Dr Nelson had signalled he would crack down on what he dubbed "cappuccino courses" in universities.

New ARC chief executive Peter Hoj has previously indicated the peak research funding agency would closely monitor the
research it backs.

Professor Hoj was not commenting yesterday.



Vincent O'Donnell MA
School of Applied Communication, RMIT
GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Vic., 3001
Tel. 03 9925 3028  Fax. 03 9639 1685

Note: This message contains information intended only for the use of the addressee named above.  It may also be
confidential and/or privileged.  If you are not the intended recipient of this message
you are hereby notified that you must not disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it.  If you have received
this message in error please contact the addressee named above.