[Aqualist] Cautious response to proposed ARC changes

[Simon Haberle]

Dear All,

Below is a media release from FASTS, issued on Saturday November 22, that 
may be of interest.


Cautious response to proposed ARC changes

Australia's peak Council for scientists and technologists has responded
cautiously to proposals to change the way research funding is handled in
Australia.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson Minister flagged possible changes to the
processes of the Australian Research Council (ARC). The proposal includes
replacing the present expert advisory committees with a 'college of
experts'.

The Minister has also suggested that there should be 'broad community
representation on the new body that will be assessing future grant
proposals'.

His proposals were contained in a media release issued on Friday. See:
http://www.dest.gov.au/Ministers/Media/Nelson/2003/11/n533211103.asp
Professor Snow Barlow, President of FASTS, said scientists can see
advantages in using a multi-disciplinary panel to choose projects for
funding.

"Many advances come from multi-disciplinary approaches, and may for instance
involve chemistry and biology working together to solve a problem," he said.
"But we would be concerned if people without the necessary technical
knowledge were involved in a panel to choose which science projects should
be funded."

He said that Australia has a world-beating system of peer review, and
underlined the importance of encouraging excellence across a broad base from
mathematics to humanities.

"FASTS is warmly supportive of involving the broad community in Australia's
science programs," he said.

"The Australian public should be involved in selecting our national research
priorities, and needs to be confident in the broad directions of scientific
research. But we are puzzled about the role non-experts might play in choosing
between often highly technical science proposals." Professor Barlow said he 
would be writing to the Minister to seek clarification about the suggestion.

For interview: Professor Snow Barlow ph (03) 5833 9255; 0407 251 574
For information: Toss Gascoigne 0408 704 442
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