Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)
Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) is a federal government initiative, developed by the ARC, to assess research quality within Australia's higher education institutions. It was announced by the Hon. Senator Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, on 26 February 2008, and replaces the previous Research Quality Framework (RQF).
All research disciplines will be evaluated, using a combination of indicators and expert review by committees comprising experienced, internationally-recognised experts. Research disciplines are grouped into 8 broad clusters, each containing several 2-digit field of research (FoR) groups. Each 2-digit FoR group is comprised of more specific 4-digit FoR groups, which in turn, are comprised of 6-digit FoR groupings. This is the most detailed level of research areas.
The full ERA submission of all clusters will take place in 2010, following on from a trial submission of 2 clusters in 2009, and a pilot submission in 2008.
ERA reference group
ERA is governed through the Research and Innovation Portfolio and the ERA Reference Group.
- Prof. Jill Trewhella – DVC Research
- Prof. Trevor Hambley – Coordinator
- Prof. Margaret Harris – Research Development
- Warwick Dawson – Research Office Director
- Merril Bouckley – Manager, Research Analytics & Data Strategy
- Jenny Waern – ERA Executive Officer
- Ross Coleman – Library
- Sten Christensen – Repositories
- Keir Vaughan-Taylor – Repositories
- Tim Payne – VC's Office
Eligible Staff
All research-active staff, including permanent academic staff, research-only staff, post-doctoral staff, as well as technical, general or casual staff, employed by the University on the census date, 31st March 2009, are eligible for inclusion in ERA. Research-active in this context means having produced a research item of interest. In most cases this will be that the person has been a co-author on a publication, or named on a grant or a patent. While all these staff are eligible, we are only required to submit information on staff with the function of teaching and research or research only. Therefore, for all other staff, including general, casual, and honorary staff, we only need to submit their information if they have produced a research item of interest.
Honorary staff (including adjunct, conjoint, emeritus, visiting, and all other honorary staff) are also eligible for ERA, but only their outputs that demonstrate a publication association with the University of Sydney (i.e. the University of Sydney is given as the author’s affiliation in the by-line of the publication) are eligible.
Submission Data
Information needs to be submitted to the ARC against a variety of categories, including data on research staff, research outputs, research income, applied measures, and esteem. The exact data to be submitted for each category varies with research discipline. For example, plant breeders’ rights are considered indicators only for those disciplines which breed plants as part of their research, including environmental sciences, biology, and agricultural sciences. For more information, see the section submission data.