Humanities scholars are the big losers in the research infrastructure plan (CMM yesterday) with Mandy Thomas (QUT) from the Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities complaining, HASS researchers “are effectively excluded from research infrastructure.” Professor Thomas says less than 1 per cent of the infrastructure budget for five years is relevant to their work, with $8.3m for a scoping study on technology, “to establish HASS and Indigenous research platforms.”

The Australian Academy of the Humanities is equally upset; “for a nation to be smart, we need to be smart about how we support our cultural institutions and our HASS researchers to be world leaders. Decisions like this hold back Australian research and impacts our international contribution and standing,” president Joy Damousi (UniMelb) says.