Research engagement & impact snapshot

There were some stand-out performances by non-Go8 universities hidden within the Engagement and Impact Assessment data-sets released by the Australian Research Council (ARC) late last week.

The University of South Australia (UniSA), The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) each performed above their weight - driving a wedge between members of the Go8.

UniSA received 35 'high' ratings across the three Engagement, Impact, and Impact Approach categories, placing it ahead of five Go8 members, whilst UTS (33) and QUT (31) outranked three of the Go8.

In terms of 'high' ratings as a percentage of fields of research submitted, UniSA topped the list with 65%, with UTS and QUT coming in third and sixth respectively.

The University of Queensland (UQ) was the only university to have a clean sheet in terms of percentage of 'high' and 'medium' ratings, with UniSA, QUT, and Deakin University performing ahead of six of the Go8 on this measure.

Deakin's fifth place on this table doesn't surprise. As revealed in my recent article - The Cat. 2-4 research battleground, Deakin doubled its industry-engaged Category 2-4 HERDC research income over the 2014-2017 period.

The Engagement and Impact Accessment (2018) process is an initiative under the Australian Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda. For the first time it gives Government, universities, research end-users, and the broader public a detailed understanding of how Australia’s universities and their researchers are collaborating with industry, government, communities and the not-for-profit sector.

It also represents a national mechanism for understanding how universities are translating their research into economic, environmental, social, cultural and other benefits. A change of Government may see this approach tackled differently in the future - time will tell.

Key Questions

How did your university perform in the EI 2018 Assessment process? Is it a realistic reflection of your Cat. 2-4 performance and culture? Is your ship turning toward the Cat. 2-4 research battleground (and opportunity)? Are the smaller and younger universities more nimble and culturally attuned to the Cat. 2-4 markets? Why did a number of the Go8 appear to struggle with this process?

A future article will take a look at some of the movers and shakers in my Group of Eighteen (Go18) - the non-Go8 universities with HERDC research income greater than $30M in 2017.

?Mike Pepperell is Managing Consultant at CIS and has advised Melbourne, UQ, ANU, Macquarie, UTAS, and WSU in recent years.

The broader CIS team has advised around 30 universities and a number of major Research Institutes over the past 20 years, helping to raise more than $500M in research and infrastructure funding in the course of their strategy and implementation consulting engagements. Industry engagement is a particular sweet spot with over a decade of CRC-related consulting activity.

Data for this article was sourced from the Engagement and Impact Assessment 2018-19 National Report and from the HERDC Research Income Data (2004 - 2017) time-series.