Philosophers propose doing more with less

Peak humanities research bodies feel un-loved but the philosophers are, well philosophical about it.

Back in May both the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and the Humanities lamented the negligible share of funding their members will access under the national research infrastructure plan.

And now the context of their submissions to the House of Representatives committee inquiry into research administration is that the humanities are unreasonably ignored.

“The strategic focus for research is currently skewed primarily to the science, technology, engineering and maths side of the system – with little attention to capacity, health or potential of the humanities, arts and social sciences sector,” the academy announces.

“Given the vital role HASS research has to play in meeting the challenges of a modern world, we again urge the government to consult with and include the HASS community in the development and implementation of a comprehensive science and research policy” DASH declaims.

The Australasian Association of Philosophy also has a submission to the inquiry which presents three practical proposals. One in particular will appeal to parliamentary pragmatists, to do more with less;

“Many excellent projects in the humanities simply do not cost enough to qualify for ARC funding and therefore receive no support at all. We could get much better outcomes for humanities and social science in our competitive grant schemes by funding more projects, each of which costs less than the current minimum thresholds for (ARC) Discovery and Linkage grants.”


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