“Global supply chains: the critical link to keep the world connected,” Uni Wollongong announces an April 29 Zoom event on the importance of the former to the latter.

Back ( if the fates allow) Tuesday.

In Features this morning

As the debate over international comparisons and the merits of metrics over peer review hots up, John Byron (QUT)  asks if the ARC needs to reform Excellence for Research in Australia or just give it a rest, so researchers can “get on with, you know, researching.”

plus Franziska Trede and Sonal Singh UTS) make the case for “concrete action to create university cultures that enable all students and dismantle structural inequality in higher education. This week’s selection by Commissioning Editor Sally Kift for her celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning.

and James Guthrie (Macquarie U) and Brendan Parker (RMIT) add an accounting perspective to the debate on using peer review in the next edition of Excellence for Research in Australia. Universities with staff publishing in the same journals can receive very different ratings –  they demonstrate

The unionised ones at least

At Uni Sydney, National Tertiary Education Union members have voted by the thumpingest of thumping majorities to take protected industrial action over enterprise bargaining. Turnout was 80 per cent and the vote for a range of slow-downs and stop works was 96 per cent.

It’s in-support of the union’s enterprise bargaining log of claims, which includes continuing existing jobs security protections, protecting the existing 40 per cent of time for research for continuing academics, flexi-time and work from home rights for professional staff and casual jobs replaced with continuing ones.

Members vote today on ways to gee-up management in bargaining.

 

The university announces staff for its new Discipline of Population Health

It will, “contribute to better health and wellbeing, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.”  Five of the six staff in the discipline have Indigenous backgrounds and/or research expertise in Indigenous health (scroll down for the appointments).

Flinders U has a long-standing engagement with Indigenous health and medicine, including in the Northern Territory where it has long-delivered the NT Medical Programme (“student placement and workforce capacity support”) and Regional Training Hub (“medical specialist and rural generalist training”).

Last month Flinders announced its new federally funded, allied health NT placements programme, which “is a testament to Flinders’ long-standing commitment to serving the Territory,” (CMM March 4).

The commitments come as Charles Darwin U develops its bid for a new medical school in the NT.

Research articles should include all the interesting bits

A learned reader points CMM to the open access journal Experimental Results, a “ forum for experimental findings that disclose the small incremental steps vitally important to experimental research; experiments and findings which have so far remained hidden.”

Rather than an heroic narrative from problem to solution, articles in the journal chart paths taken and not, through research labyrinths, including, “validation and reproducibility of existing findings, null results, supplementary findings, improvements or amendments to published results, as well as results that could be of importance, but for whatever reason, the researcher has not followed a particular line of questioning to produce a full narrative for a traditional paper.”

For cut to the chase researchers this is not.

When you don’t want to take the authors word for it

For profit journal giant Springer-Nature announces an open-data pilot for authors publishing in some of its journals. They can deposit data in article submissions in (Springer owned) Figshare, a “dedicated repository portal and in-article viewer.”

““Open Data has an essential role in increasing the credibility of research – validating data so that researchers can trust it, and combating scientific misinformation so that wider society can trust it” the publisher stares

 

Director Monica Whitty is away

Professor Whitty’s university email out of office message states she is on indefinite leave adding, “during this time, I am not checking my emails and I will not be contactable” .

So what, CSI observers ask, does this mean for the Institute, research partners and postgraduates – and when will Professor Whitty return.

Good questions, so CMM acted on Professor Whitty’s email suggestion and contacted the Institute. However Deputy Director Sanjay Jha, referred questions to UNSW Canberra, where Professor Whitty is based, which responded, “UNSW does not comment on individual staffing matters.” Good-o, although that does not address what her absence means for Institute staff, students and associates.

Of the day

Melissa Davis is programme leader for cancer systems biology at South Australia’s immunoGENomics Cancer Institute. She joins from the MRI formerly known as Walter and Eliza Hall.

Flinders U announces six appointments to its new population health discipline. Kate Fairweather, Zhaoli Dai-Keller, Ray Mahoney, Andrea McKivett, Jacqueline Stephens, Annabelle Wilson.

Natalie Hawkins will move to Monash U in June, as deputy chief financial officer. She is now RMIT’s deputy CFO.

Peter Liesch (Uni Queensland) is president elect of the Academy of International Business, which describes itself as the “premier global community of international business scholars.”

Allison McKendrick joins UWA as inaugural chair of optometry research. She moves from Uni Melbourne.

Uni South Australia announces major appointments. * head of academic services:  Tom Steer  * GM clinical & health sciences aous: Jeremy Sloan * research dean, justice-society aous: Jill Dorrian * programme dean allied health aous: Jon Buckley * grad studies dean: Sandy Orgeig * on-line courses director Barbara Parker * on-line courses academic director: John Medlin * VC cos: Alan Brideson

Of the week

 Asthma Australia’s Career Development Awards go to Olivia Carroll (Uni Newcastle), Henry Gomez (Hunter MRI and Uni Newcastle) and Carolyn Wang (Uni WA).

The 2021 Boyer Prize for the best article in the Australian Journal of International Affairs goes to Alexander Davis (UWA) and Ruth Gamble, Gerald Roche, Lauren Gawne (all La Trobe U). It’s for “International relations and the Himalaya: connecting ecologies, cultures and geopolitics.”

Torrens U CEO president, Linda Brown is EY (as in Ernst and Young) Entrepreneur of the Year.

Peter Hendy is the new CEO of Independent Higher Education Australia. Mr Hendy is a former economic policy bureaucrat and ministerial adviser. He held the federal electorate of Eden Monaro for the Liberal Party 2013-16.  

Sarah Kelly (Uni Queensland) is appointed to the joint Commonwealth-Queensland governments organising committee board for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.

Frances Kay-Lambkin becomes director of Hunter MRI. She moves from Uni Newcastle.

Linda Tapsell (Uni Wollongong) is a 2022 Fellow of the American Society of  Nutrition.

 

Gavin Reid (Uni Melbourne) is a 2022 Fellow of the Australian Society for Mass Spectrometry.