The EMCR Forum’s main points are that: 

• EMCRs are key drivers of scientific discovery in Australia. Actively including EMCRs in grant evaluation and the College of Experts will broaden expertise and improve assessment quality.
• EMCRs are facing increasing demands as grants are not meeting the full cost of research, grant success rates have decreased, and there are minimal opportunities for recognition including receipt of salary from grants. The NCGP needs to be changed to prevent the loss of skilled researchers to other sectors and overseas.
• Researchers require consistent NCGP guidelines and timelines to reduce academic job insecurity, particularly for EMCRs on fixed or short-term contracts.
• To conduct Indigenous Australian research in a respectful manner, long-term relationships with Indigenous peoples are necessary. However, this is impeded by a lack of strategy to protect Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property and inadequate resources to fund trustworthy partnerships.

In rewriting the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy (AAWS), the EMCR Forum recommends: 

• consulting directly with EMCRs from a range of fields and institutions around their understanding of the AAWS in Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) applications. We suggest the inclusion of wording in the AAWS that encourages staff and researchers to point out flaws or issues in an AEC application with the senior members of their project teams who hold the applications. There is a general need to educate researchers and other stakeholders about the AAWS.
• consideration of the complexities of undertaking field work in the marine environment where fauna, such as cephalopods, frequently shift across jurisdictional boundaries.
• the inclusion of First Nations considerations in the AAWS. For First Nations communities and individuals, cultural protocols impact their interactions with culturally important species which have flow-on effects to their place in their community. Tension occurs where First Nations researcher have to follow AEC protocols that do not acknowledge the additional care or handling needed for various species.

The Forum:

• requested consideration of impacts on and empowerment for EMCRs
• queried why research misconduct, integrity and bullying are outside the scope of the Guide.

The EMCR Forum represents the Australian early- and mid-career researcher (EMCR) community by making formal submissions to government inquiries and reviews. Click the link below to view the Forum’s recent submissions.

The EMCR Forum: 

• Strongly supports the NHMRC’s underlying objective to decrease the burden on applicants who experience career disruptions.
• Is unconvinced how the proposed change outlined in Appendix C will, in practice, decrease the burden of reporting career disruptions for EMCR applicants. Insufficient detail has been provided to understand how the proposed changes would reduce burden on applicants who have experienced career disruptions.
• Raises concerns that removal of the EL eligibility barrier will lead to increasing reliance and burden on assessors to make quick judgements on career disruptions and level appropriateness of applicants. Without semi-standardised processes utilised by research offices, the proposed change risks research excellence and progress towards improving equity of the scheme

This submission provides responses to the consultation questions on page 41 of the discussion paper.

The EMCR Forum recommends: 

• That the ARC undertake further consultation with EMCRs in developing a framework and implementation plan that articulates how EMCRs will navigate and transition through the new schemes throughout their careers.
• The ARC define career stages clearly and incorporate these definitions into the modelling and evaluation of the new scheme to assess impact on researchers at different career stages. This includes acknowledging the different goals and challenges faced by three cohorts of EMCRs.

Conference Background

Cities are increasingly recognised for the critical role they play in global biodiversity conservation1.

Recent evidence indicates that 30% of Australia’s threatened plant and animal species live in urban areas, highlighting the urgent need for cities to be explicitly incorporated into national conservation policies and initiatives2. Cities are also major drivers underpinning global environmental challenges, such as the sustainable use of the earth’s resources3,4 and accelerated changes to the sensory environment (through artificial light at night, anthropogenic noise, chemical pollution and altered microclimates). Implementing appropriate and sustainable approaches to the development and management of urban environments is critical to our planet’s future. This conference represents a landmark opportunity to shape future urban development ensuring we continue to deliver world-class standards in sustainability, liveability and biodiversity that, perhaps most importantly, are resilient to future environmental changes.

Conference aims

• To increase connectivity and collaboration between researchers, industry and policy makers concerned with the sustainability of urban environments with respect to management for biodiversity conservation;
• To identify key areas where policy and/or research is currently lacking; and,
• To develop an integrated strategy of research and policy for achieving truly sustainable and biodiverse cities in Australia and beyond.

Audience and Conference format

The audience will represent an even mix of researchers, industry partners and policy makers from the fields of urban sustainability and conservation. Please visit the Fenner Conference website for more information on the conference and details on how to register.

Environment Award background

With the generous support of the late Professor Frank Fenner FAA FRS and the late Mrs Bobbie Fenner, the Academy has established a series of environmental conferences on the environment and conservation issues in Australia and its environs. The purpose of these conferences is to bring together those with relevant scientific, administrative and policy expertise to consider current environmental and conservation problems in Australia, thereby contributing to the formation of policies that can alleviate some of these problems. 

Pathways to Equity in STEM, proudly supported by Exclusive Presenting Partner UniBank, was the first implementation activity of the Women in STEM Decadal Plan held on 3 April 2019. The Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering brought together leaders from across the STEM sector, providing opportunities to learn from each other and collaborate to define their strategy for implementing the decadal plan.

Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, Australian Government Women in STEM Ambassador, presented the keynote address. She called for organisations to take action and write a formal organisational response to the Women in STEM Decadal Plan.

UniBank General Manager, Mike Lanzing said UniBank was very pleased to support such an important event.

‘UniBank is a proud supporter of the academies’ 10 year plan to encourage gender diversity in STEM. We believe cross-institutional partnerships are vital if we are going to increase the numbers of women choosing STEM careers. We stand with the academies and the action plan to reach gender equity across Australian business and academic community.’

The first session, learning from each other, provided an opportunity for organisations to share current strategies and programs they are working on the achieve gender equity in STEM, from education, academia and industry. Ms Suzy Urbaniak provided personal insight into the impact her real-world problem-solving STEAM teaching program, Centre of Resources Excellence (CoRE) has on retention of girls in STEM education. Efforts to support undergraduate and postgraduate women were shared by Associate Professor Maria Parappily from Flinders University and the STEM Women Branching Out program. Professor Virginia Kilborn from Swinburne University of Technology explained the impact the WATTLE Women in Leadership Program has had across the supporting universities in just six months. The efforts of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans to raise enrolment of women in engineering from 18% to 30% by 2030 was highlighted by Professor Robin King, while Ms Fiona Vines, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at BHP described the goal of BHP to achieve gender balance across the organisation by 2025, reporting that currently 39% of all employees work flexibly.

Opportunity two in the decadal plan highlights the need to prioritise evaluation and data collection so that we can understand what works in the gender equity space as we move forward. In session two, measuring impact, key players across the STEM sector presented their organisation’s role in data collection and offered perspectives on how we could move forward.

Ms Elyse Lane, Senior Research and Education Advisor, Workplace Gender Equality Agency, described that WGEA collects data from approximately 40% of the Australian workforce. Though not STEM specific they do have 5 years of data and publish an annual gender equality scorecard. All data is publicly accessible through the online WGEA Data Explorer.  

Dr Wafa El Adhami, Executive Director, Science in Australia Gender Equity highlighted the challenges between organisation types and data collection methods. Mentioning that when collecting data, we need to take a harmonised approach and develop a framework that utilises existing information rather than creating something new. She also identified the challenge of measuring change in culture.

Ms Somali Cerise, Program Director, Male Champions of Change (MCC) identified two lessons through her work with MCC organisations. The first is the need to listen and collaborate with individuals: experiences and personal stories drive actions as much as the data. Ms Cerise stressed the need to combine the head and the heart. Secondly an organisation shouldn’t underestimate the power of qualitative data to understand culture.

Finally, Ms Lisa Annese, Chief Executive Officer, Diversity Council Australia, highlighted the need to take an intersectional approach, ensuring that your employee surveys are collecting the nuances within demographic groups. It is important to increase our understanding of how people present to the world and how others interpret and see them.

In the final session all delegates participated in either industry, education or research sector discussions on defining next steps. Each sector selected a representative to share their findings with the group. Representing the research sector Dr Emma Burrows from Florey Institute highlighted that a serious effort needs to be made to ensure all leaders are involved in implementation. Ms Meg Brighton from ACT Education Directorate focused on the need for equity to be at the core of education and that state and federal partnerships are necessary for collecting formative data. Industry was represented by Ms Rachel Nichols from Arup who mentioned that the industry needs to recognise the positive benefits of diverse workforce and work to fix their own organisation before sharing with others.

The main outcomes from Pathways to Equity in STEM summarised in 6 key points:

1. There is a need for a central repository for capturing information and evaluation
2. Together we need to determine a way to transform voluntary action into accountability
3. There is an abundance of resources available for creating change in industry, this plan provides an opportunity for these organisations to broaden their reach
4. To create change you need to frame gender equity discussions around what drives decision making in your own organisation
5. There is a big gap that needs to be urgently filled to address issues around intersectionality
6. Organisations should consider the Decadal Plan opportunities at the leadership level and develop a formal response to the Decadal Plan.

The Academy thanks Unibank, our Exclusive Presenting Partner at this event.

The Australian Academy of Science welcomes the Australian Government’s University Research Commercialisation action plan which contains a range of targeted and positive policy measures to further stimulate the commercialisation of research.

The Academy has identified several opportunities which would further enhance this suite of measures and that we recommend be considered in the implementation phase.

Positives

• The introduction of two new priority-driven schemes – establishing Australia’s Economic Accelerator and expanding CSIRO’s Main Sequence Ventures, along with the Trailblazer Universities Program.
• Funding of 1,800 industry PhD places and over 800 industry fellowships – such an approach offers more expansive collaboration with industry partners than existing programs. This follows calls by the Academy and EMCR Forum last year for the Australian Government and universities to develop schemes to build capacity in entrepreneurial and translation expertise, including facilitating greater mobility between research and industry.
• Reforms for incentivising collaboration between research and industry – including adjusting $2 billion in existing university funding to incentivise collaboration and commercialisation and a new higher education IP framework.

Opportunities

• Cross portfolio coordination – Australia has over 200 schemes and programs to support research and industry engagement across 13 portfolios. There is now an opportunity to maximise their impact by developing a cohesive and national approach to research funding. To date it is unclear how the new scheme will work alongside existing programs.
• Incentives for industry – the action plan includes actions and incentives for universities and researchers to focus on translation activities, but does not include incentives for industry to engage with researchers. The main existing instrument that incentivises industry is the R&D tax incentive. There is an opportunity for the Government’s patent box mechanism to be expanded to cover the modern manufacturing priorities.
• Knowledge brokering organisation to connect ideas, skills and facilities – an opportunity exists to improve the connection between industry and researchers through specialised knowledge brokers, similar to the customised services offered by independent organisations like Interface in Scotland.

Responding to the announcement, President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor John Shine, said Australia stands to benefit from the government’s renewed focus on science, innovation, and creative entrepreneurialism.

“Government has a unique role to play in bearing risk that the private sector will not take on, and measures to bridge the valley of death are welcome,” said Professor Shine.

“By supporting new ideas and discoveries that underpin innovations and products, we can improve the lives and livelihoods of all Australians. Research discoveries form a pool of intellectual capital that can be developed within Australia and globally.

“Australia will continue to rely on its strong track record of scientific discovery as the critical base for translation into commercial outcomes. Measures to stimulate commercialisation cannot come at the expense of support for basic research.

“Australian universities must be supported to operate across the continuum of basic to applied research and both academics and industry must be incentivised to translate ideas into commercial outcomes.

“Providing adequate and consistent support across the research pipeline requires developing a funding system with a balance between mobilising science to address national priorities, such as manufacturing, and providing researchers with the freedom to work on problems that may – and usually do – provide the basis of future industries, services and technologies.

“Given the complex nature of research funding and the myriad stakeholders involved, the Academy continues to call for a comprehensive review of the Australian system of research funding.

“This will help determine the most sustainable and effective way to support the research and development our future so heavily relies on.”