EMCR Forum Submission—Policy Review of the National Competitive Grants Program

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.