There are no stated principles governing ministerial decisions to reject research proposals says Anna Hickey-Moody and there should be

The RMIT media researcher and ARC Future Fellow is calling on peak research bodies to back her petition calling for a “publicly approved code of conduct” which ministers would have to adhere to when knocking back Australian Research Council peer-approved research bids.

She points to two Linkage Grant proposals, that succeeded according to ARC process, but were not funded in last month’s announcement.  Last week the ARC confirmed that “Visualising humanitarian crises” and “Sparking imagination education: transforming inequality in schools” were still “pending,” waiting on a decision by Education Minister Alan Tudge.

“Extensive ARC assessments already deemed these projects as being in the national interest. The taxpayers of Australia deserve to have an education minister who at least abides by a publicly approved code of conduct when exercising ‘ministerial discretion’ in these situations,” Professor Hickey-Moodey states.

She wants, “peak industry bodies and politicians to work together to develop a ministerial code of conduct for research approval that can hold our education minister to account.”

The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (via Twitter) recommends her petition.