Office of Research - The “ORB”

Yesterday the Office of Research held another of our information sharing sessions. The topics that we covered includes:

• KAMs
  Presented by Mr Ben Jacobs
• Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research
  Presented by Ms Jenny Smith
• Excellence in Research for Australia Initiative
  Presented by Mr Corey Wallis

Initial feedback from those at the session has been positive. Copies of the presentation slides will be distributed to everyone that had RSVP’d for the event.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of the presentation slides, and you hadn’t RSVP’d for this event, please send an email to research@flinders.edu.au and we’ll send a copy out to you.

The following items may be of interest. They are from the Higher Education section of The Australian, published yesterday.

• Doubts over criteria for quality audit
  Institutions are ill-prepared to satisfy the Australian Universities Quality Agency’s belated interest in standards and outcomes, according to higher education analyst Vin Massaro.
• Ratting on the rankings
  The central criticism of whole-of-institution rankings relates to the methodology that addresses quality in a superficial way but projects a complex image. Most rankings rely on two types of data: information from institutions that may not be validated and data obtained from opinion polls in the name of “expert opinion”. With both components providing shaky foundations, the use of complex formulas with weights and indicators helps to project a pseudo-scientific image to outcomes that may be statistically irrelevant.

Posted on behalf of John Goslino, Business Development Manager - Flinders Research Centre for Coastal and Catchment Environments.

Many keynote and student presentations from the 2008 FR3cE/Bioknowledge Postgraduate Research Conference are available for you to view and download via the FR3cE website.

A book of the conference is also available plus prize winner details.

Feedback or queries on the conference are much appreciated, please direct them to the event coordinator Dr. Gillian Napier.

The National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) is an institute of the NHMRC and works to improve health care by getting health and medical research into practice.

As part of this work, NICS Fellowships offer a unique opportunity to talented early to mid-career health professionals to be trained in the science of evidence implementation.  Rather than undertake research to find new knowledge, NICS Fellows develop programs to apply current knowledge, which although already available, is not being used in routine care.

Applications will open on 30 August. This and further information can be found on the NHMRC website or the NICS website.

The 2008 Vario Health Conference is being held in Perth from December 1- 2 2008. The main conference theme is Physical and Mental Wellness - Integrative Approaches to Health.

For details on registration, keynote speakers and subthemes please visit the Vario Conference website.

Please note that if you are planning to submit an abstract the closing date is 31 August 2008.

The closing date for the 2009 ARC College of Experts Nominations is 3 September 2008.

Details are available on the ARC website. Questions about the nomination process should be directed to the ARC via telephone (02) 6287 6642 or by email.

Any enquiries about discipline-based College of Experts vacancies should be directed to the relevant ARC Executive Director, as identified in the Information Kit.

Brain Injury Australia’s second National Conference will be held in conjunction with Alcohol and other Drug-Related Brain Injury Australian Services (ARBIAS) Second International Conference at Melbourne’s Sofitel Hotel from Monday 1 - Wednesday 3 September, 2008.

For further information and registration details, please visit the Brain Injury Australia website.

For the latest issue of the NHMRC Tracker featuring current NHMRC news and activities, visit NHMRC Tracker. Contents include:

• Cancer research urgent calls for expression of interest
• 2009 NICS Fellowships
• Nutrition at the NHMRC
• Your DNA: a case of ‘buyer beware’?
• Public comment on the Diabetes Type 2 guidelines

The 2009 funding round of the Flinders Research Grant (FRG) scheme, administered by the Faculty of Social Sciences, and the Faculty of Education, Law, Humanities and Theology is now open.

Applications are due by the close of business Tuesday, 7 October 2008.

There will be no extensions.

The first-named Chief Investigator (CI) on a Flinders Research Grant application submitted to the Faculties of EHLT and SS, will:

• be a member of staff of one of these Faculties employed at Level A or above under academic employment conditions, or will have full academic status with one of these Faculties; and
• take responsibility for the intellectual leadership of the FRG project.

Applications should be lodged with Dr Brodie Beales, Room 251A Social Sciences South or Dr Heather Paull, Room 268 Social Sciences.

The new forms and guidelines are now available at:

• http://www.socsci.flinders.edu.au/research/staff/frg.php
• http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/ehlt/rhd/sri/

There are two forms for applications (note name changes):

1. New Project form (NP) (previously termed Initial project) is for a new project application for funding from the Flinders Research Grants Scheme.
2. Modified Proposal form [MP (Fall-Back)] (previously termed Provisional applications) is for ARC Discovery—Projects and NHMRC Project Grant applicants who wish to seek Flinders Research Grant support should their ARC Discovery or NHMRC Project Grant application be unsuccessful. A fall-in to the Flinders Research Grant process is not automatic. The MP application form is for this purpose.

Please read the guidelines and instructions on the application forms carefully.

Note in particular:

• Maximum request is $15,000; minimum request $5,000
• Renaming of the two types of application:
  • To better suit the intent of the FRG (Initial application, now reflecting the intent that FRG projects should be in relation to new research, hence entitled New Project application) and,
  • In the case of the Provisional application, now termed Modified Proposals, to reflect the possibility that the outcome of the ARC and NHMRC rounds will be known prior to the closing date for FRG and hence, the application to the FRG round is, in fact, not provisional but a fall-back position
• Clarification regarding the requirement for the application to be for new research (refer to Guideline 4.4 in particular):

‘A Flinders Research Grant will not be awarded to support a project that is funded from other sources in the relevant or a previous funding year i.e. a Flinders Research Grant may not be used to ‘top-up’ another project grant awarded for the same or a previous year. Applications must refer to a new discrete research project. This may be an element of a larger on-going project but the application must focus on one element of the greater project (for example focusing on a new research question or stage in a longitudinal study) which has not received funding to date, and from which tangible outputs will arise. Applications should clearly indicate how the proposed research for which FRG funding is being sought is new, and whether it will lead to subsequent applications for external (e.g. Australian Competitive Grant or equivalent) grants or if it falls under the umbrella of being a stand-alone, high quality research projects of modest cost. Subsequent applications to external granting bodies will be taken into account in the assessment of future FRG applications, on a case-by-base basis.’

One of the many features of the Office of Research Blog - The “ORB”, is that it will send an email to our list of subscribers when new content is posted. The mailing list is used by people who want to keep up with new content and do not wish to the RSS feeds available.

A possible downside to the mailing list is that if you have not set your subscription preferences you will receive an email when any new content is posted. This means that some days you may feel that you are being inundated with emails from the blog. We have posted before about this feature and there was some discussion about changing to a daily, or weekly, digest email.

There are plans under way to conduct a survey of our subscribers to ascertain answers to a number of questions surrounding our blog. Including possible topics for future discussion and the experiences of people using the system. The question of a digest email will also be included in the survey to gather as much information as possible.

In the meantime we have updated the help and support page entitled “Exploring subscribing to the mailing list“. The procedure is now clearer and is particularly aimed at those users who have not logged in before and set their subscription preferences. By setting your subscription preferences you can significantly cut down on the number of emails that your receive from the blog, and also ensure that those that you do get are more relevant.

Added to this revised procedure is a screencast. A screencast is a short movie that is viewable online and shows you how to undertake a certain task by showing you what happens on the computer screen. The screencast is particularly targeted at those people who have not set their subscription preferences yet.

There is a link to the screencast on the “Exploring subscribing to the mailing list” help and support page, or alternatively you can use this direct link.

This is the first screencast produced for the Office of Research blog and we would appreciate any feedback that you may have by commenting on this post.