Minister Clare announces a review of the Australian Research Council “with a particular focus on the governance framework and reporting mechanisms”. Perhaps  citould review ARCs own reviews  

Labor is committed to fixed dates for funding announcements and Education Minister Jason Clare says, “Labor governments have never interfered to veto grants. The only exception I could ever imagine to that would be on the grounds of national security.” So apart from timeliness and process, what’s left to review?

How about the way the ARC assesses research performance through Excellence in Research for Australia and Engagement and Impact.

The ARC’s recent review of the schemes generated complex arguments over methodology and metrics but there are also suggestions that perhaps their time has passed.

As John Byron put it in CMM (HERE), “would it harm research if we simply gave ERA a rest, and let researchers get on with, you know, researching?” Ditto in spades for EI. Kim Carr called it half-baked from the start (CMM April 1 2019) and there have been always questions about cost effectiveness.

It is too late to do anything about the next ERA, Clarivate was out announcing yesterday it is selected to manage metrics for the 2023 iteration. But EI is still a way off.