Poletti Stephen

It seems more things change the more they stay the same! This story must be on rinse and repeat in the news cycle because it keeps on coming around. Has anyone looked beyond the project summaries to determine whether this is indeed – as quoted by The Australian ‘Esoteric’ research? I would’ve thought that developing ways to use AI to communicate about climate change is far from esoteric for example. Perhaps the failing here is an inability to translate the project summaries into plain language and identify an outcome that does pass the proverbial ‘pub test’. Our researchers are exactly that - deeply immersed in their research – they are not storytellers. Communicating the outcomes of this research must be key to understanding what sits behind the research. It’s also important to understand that this research is approved by an independent body - the Australian Research Council. The minister of the day still has the right to veto grants - with full transparency - to Federal Parliament. The Group of Eight Absurd research’ gets taxpayer millions under the ARC

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Interested in Australian research? RESEARCH magazine offers unparalleled insights into the nation’s leading academic breakthroughs, industry partnerships, and global impact. Whether you're in academia, government, or business, this is your go-to resource for understanding the future of Australian research. In 2018, we launched a ground-breaking partnership with The Australian to produce RESEARCH magazine, with a vision to provide a high-resolution, data-driven look at Australia’s leading scholars and research institutions. Since then, we’ve shone a spotlight on over 1,000 of Australia’s top researchers across a wide array of disciplines, representing more than 40 institutions. Through six annual editions, we’ve highlighted trailblazers in fields ranging from neuroscience and engineering to ancient DNA and musicology. In addition to profiling Australia’s leading scholars, we’ve developed over a dozen data-driven features, including: A detailed analysis of the most cited Australian academic books. Mapping Australia’s most influential journals. Identifying the universities leading in industry collaboration, helping shape the future of Australian research and innovation. As we prepare for our seventh edition, 2025 RESEARCH we are excited to continue this journey, with what we believe will be our most impactful issue yet—showcasing even more outstanding research and industry partnerships. 📰 Previous Editions & Themes: 2024: Big Ideas – Drawing on insights from the Measuring Up article, this edition offers a comprehensive look at Australia’s research competitiveness across key fields, from biomedical innovation to quantum computing. We also reveal Australia's top 12 university research powerhouses. 2023: Ten Tough Challenges – This edition identifies the top 10 challenges shaping the future of research and innovation. Each challenge is paired with profiles of Australian researchers tackling these critical global issues and reshaping entire sectors. 2021: Top Entrepreneurial Universities and Australian Institutions Leading in 20 Fields of Research – Featuring Kate Nguyen, Roger Byard, and Alexander Newman, showcasing innovation, fire safety engineering, and refugee resettlement. 2020: Vital to Our Future – Highlighting Fiona Stapleton and Dietmar Müller, with a special focus on university-business collaborations and the critical role Australian researchers play in global science advancements. 2019: On Top of Their Game – Featuring John Handmer (climate resilience), Cheryl Dissanayake (autism research), and Huu Hao Ngo (wastewater management innovations). 2018: The Stars of 2018 – Spotlighting Peta Neale, Andrew Fairbairn, and breakthroughs in super-materials, ancient DNA, and parasite research. 📅 Publication Date: 6 November 2024 📌 Booking Deadline: Tuesday 1 October 2024 📧 Advertising Enquiries: marion.leddy@news.com.au #research #innovation #australia #collaboration #academia #industrypartnerships #STEM

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🌏 You want to study in Australia? 🎓 Follow these simple steps: **Step 1:** Decide on the program you would like to enrol in (e.g. Master of Public Health, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Finance, Doctor of Philosophy-Business Administration). 📚 **Step 2:** Visit the websites of universities in Australia and check those that offer your program or any other related program: https://lnkd.in/gWgXwy_9) 🏫 **Step 3:** Check application deadlines on the website of the universities. ⏰ **Step 4:** Search for academics in the department/school/college that offer your program who are available to supervise student projects (For Masters by Research and Doctoral students ONLY). 🔍 **Step 5:** Email the potential supervisors, indicating your intention to study in their university and desire to have them as supervisors of your project. Add a brief research proposal and CV/resume as attachment to the email (For Masters by Research and Doctoral students ONLY). 📧 📄 *Note:* The potential supervisors might also have their own projects they would like you to work on. Hence, you may be asked to develop a research proposal on that. 📑 **Step 6:** Wait for reply from the potential supervisors and if they desire to supervise your project, work with them to get your research proposal in shape. Once it is in a good shape, you will be asked to submit your application (For Masters by Research and Doctoral students ONLY). 📝 **Step 7:** Apply for your programme and as part of the application, select the scholarships you are interested in. 🎓💰 **Step 8:** Wait for decision on your application and scholarship and follow the next steps. 📬 Good luck with your studies in Australia! 🍀 Please, reshare with others who may benefit from this. Abdul-Aziz Seidu, PhD REMS Consultancy Services Study in Australia

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When will Round 26 of the Cooperative Research Centres program start? For Round 25, the official open period was only 57 days (8 January to 5 March). The program guidance for future rounds is "Future rounds of the CRC Grants Program are determined by the Minister. CRC Grant rounds have been held annually over recent years". In reality, bids for Round 26 are underway, or at least under discussion. It tends to be hard to get stuck in until the shortlist for Round 25 is known (soon, I expect), but delay is the enemy of a quality bid. Bids take time to develop. Participants in bids take a long time to decide to participate (not too many people are in a position to think and act on a 10-year horizon). Then they have to seek approvals. That may involve approvals from HQ out of the country and the inevitable response "What the duck is a CRC?" Starting early saves money. Those that start later often need to bring on more assistance and therefore cost in their bid. I argue that the application forms are not very difficult to complete. A minimal amount of external guidance is needed to address the issues the CRC Advisory Committee wants to know about. Building the trusted relationships that lead to participants deciding to join a CRC can't be outsourced. But rushed bids will resort to using consultants to source participants - a recipe for more cost now and member churn down the track. Start early and run your bid much like you intend to run your CRC. Your expertise, efficiency and networks are the best path to a high-impact CRC. Peacock Consulting doesn't write bids. We can help you decide whether to bid via a one-day structured workshop. We can coach you to develop your bid. We believe you are the best placed to write your bid. Get in touch if you'd like to discuss our approach.

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The Third Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Excited to announce that our team has been awarded $8.1 million by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care to conduct the Third Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Young Minds: Our Future. The study is led by Professor David Lawrence at Curtin in partnership with UQ and expertised mental health researchers across various institutes. Young Minds: Our Future will provide new national prevalence data of mental health disorders for Australian children and adolescents aged 4-17 years. This survey also provides the opportunity to investigate changes in child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing over the past decade and address critical questions arising from the previous survey, Young Minds Matter. The findings will be used to inform policy and practice to better provide opportunities that help children and adolescents thrive and feel supported. Associate Professor Holly Erskine Divna Haslam PhD, MAICD Michael Sawyer James Scott Cheryl Kickett-Tucker AM Prudence Fisher Tim Slade Professor Peter Azzopardi Rosa Alati Roy Morgan #ymof #youngmindsourfuture #childhealth #mentalhealth #prevention

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A wake-up call for our Education and Science ministers? If they care. As well as all their highly paid Vice-Chancellors. But I'm not a great believer in the THES rankings, which seem to be a large dose of self-serving by the British Establishment. Oxford as #1? When their greatest recent products are Liz Truss and Boris Johnson (who couldn't even understand exponential growth!) The problem is that Australian universities are dropping in the other rankings as well. https://lnkd.in/gq2h95Sp #science #education #research

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National statistics day?! Fantastic!!! In a world that is built on data and mathematics, I can’t think of anything more fantastic to celebrate!! So how would this statistician like you to celebrate national statistics day? Have a conversation with a young person about how important mathematics is to the future of our planet. And if you’re not sure why it is, let’s start a discussion below! Or check out some of these amazing scientists living in a statistical world: Jacinta Holloway-Brown | Lewis Mitchell | Lauren Kennedy | Lauren Elborough | Matthew Ryan | Oliver Lountain | Rachael Quill | Andrew Black | Carolyn Semmler | Linda McIver

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We know the returns on education are high. Education not only enriches lives but also equips individuals with the skills needed to adapt to changing economic realities and technological advancements. With Joaquin Vespignani we wrote a short policy paper at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics (TSBE) proposing to invest in young Tasmanians' education during Covid-19, financed through government bonds (taking advantage of historical low interest rates). Those bond rates would now be negative, and therefore the opportunity cost of not investing in education was higher than ever, and was a missed opportunity. https://lnkd.in/gd_PiXSk

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Kia ora tātou For this research to work, I need 300 survey participants. Having a larger base of participants will make the research more reliable, more generalisable, and with a lower margin of error. This would make the voices of Māori public servants "valid" in the international research sense. To date, I've had 31 [update: 115!] completions. While I could write something about a much lower sample, the results would not be convincing enough to influence policy. So, if you are a Māori public servant, PLEASE consider completing this survey and sharing it with your networks. Without a much higher number of completions, this research loses its power to raise the voices of our Māori public servants.

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An insightful brainstorm! It makes great reading. As an applied linguist the research our discipline reports on in addtional language learning, applicable feedback and fair assessment feeds straight back into our classrooms by necessity. We would ignore findings at our peril. Without our inextricable research/teaching nexus we might still be at the learn and repeat parrot like stage… but even AI does better than this offering endless interaction opportunities we can harness. Perhaps it remains a little known fact that language learning/teaching and feedback/assessing has a solid bedrock of science behind and ahead of it in order for intercultural communication to remain a human to human endeavour. We are cutting edge and proud!

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An exciting initiative from Go8 member The University of Queensland to lift equity in education - a key recommendation from the Universities Accord. UQ Vice-chancellor Professor Deborah Terry said the funds would support the university’s Queensland Commitment, announced in 2022, to break down the barriers that hindered potential students wanting a higher education. The programe is designed to lift to 30 per cent the proportion of domestic students who come to the University from regional and remote areas or from a low socio-economic background. Last year only 21.3 per cent of domestic students met those criteria. “I would like to get to a needs-blind environment where people are accepted into university and then we look at what additional support they need,” said Professor Terry. As the group of universities in Australia with the highest completion rates of low SES students (at 81 percent which is 17 percent above the national average) The Group of Eight are absolutely committed to ensuring all our students, regardless of background or circumstance, are supported to succeed in their studies and beyond. https://lnkd.in/g2XEpX5F Vicki Thomson Jason Clare MP Sarah Henderson Tim Dodd The Australian #equity #highereducation #universitiesaccord

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We are still hoping that the major political parties - at state (Queensland goes to an election soon) and federal levels - will commit to nature and spend what is needed to stop extinctions. The science is in and it is unequivocal. Without a huge increase from current levels (which is a 1% change to their massive budgets) Australia will continue to liquidate nature.

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Spot on commentary in #theaustralian this week from @The Hon Brendan O’Connor MP about the need for new, flexible models of education that will reform the way many VET qualifications are developed.  RMIT has long been advocating for a change to the current system and its inherent ‘snakes and ladders’ challenge for learners, as the Minister outlines. Australians need a reformed education model where people can acquire skills that are easily recognised and transferable via a flexible system that’s able to move with the rapidly changing needs of the economy.  As Australia’s largest dual sector university, RMIT has a history of success in this area with higher and degree apprenticeships that are producing real and tangible results for employers. Absolutely key to the success of these programs is the co-design element with industry. We know the world of work and skill formation is rapidly changing, and recognise that the needs of the economy are different across many sectors. Through working in partnership with industry on specific co-design that solves for their workforce challenges – alongside a high bar of quality – we can create the flexibility and support for Australians to get the skills they need across their working lives.  #rmit #skillsdevelopment #vocationaleducation

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If you work in a university or are interested in what does or does not occur then have a read of this. You might disagree, but be at least informed as to what you will now also disagree with. Questions of #AcademicFreedom are not new in our #Universities - they just take different forms and areas of concern at different times and, in turn, tell us a lot about the society, culture and – in this case – the economic drivers of our society and their cross-over into the universities. There isn't anything in this that shocks or disappointed me (as both a liberal & a realist... and as someone researching Academic Freedom in NZ) as academic freedom in the Act is always more then #FreeSpeech; but my takeaway comments are: (1)The Education and Training Act 2020 gives the exercise of Academic Freedom to the institutions and so is it is the governing body (Council) and management of the institution (Senior Management Team) who are to exercise (and therefore ensure) Academic Freedom in their university? If that is not occurring, then who is to intervene?  And how?   (2) Most Academic Freedom issues occur at the sub-council and even sub- SMT level; they occur at school or programme level via both line management and colleagues; and in the classroom by academic staff or other students. How is Academic Freedom enforcement and protection intervention to occur at those levels- and by whom? (3)The reality is that most Academic Freedom  limitation is self-limitation by staff and/or students because of consequences - real or feared… How are universities (and Government?) to deal with that?

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https://lnkd.in/gnwHdHbD Some interesting thoughts about the future of our universities with a number of people mentioning underfunding and competition as two key issues. I often wonder how much money is spent on the advertising of universities as they compete for students, and how that money could be better spent on teaching and research. I also think it would make sense for some programmes to have generic first year (and maybe some second and third year) courses across the country which would reduce the cost of developing and running slightly different courses with slightly different assessments and resources, however, I suspect that idea might upset some academics who like to think their university is "special" (aka better) than other universities.

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Our School's Senior Lecturer Dr Frank Mols gives his insights into the upcoming Queensland state election and which party might come out on top! Frank's research interests include Governance, Public Policy, Voter Attitudes, EU Attitude Formation, and Political Psychology. His research focuses on political psychology, and explores ways in Social Psychological theories (and Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory in particular) can be used to refine political science perspectives on leadership, EU attitudes, and voter attitudes more generally. His research has been published in leading international journals, such as the European Journal of Political Research, Political Psychology, West European Politics, Journal of Common Market Studies, Public Administration, Evidence and Policy, and the Australian Journal of Public Administration. "Learn with the knowledge leaders!"

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Capping student places - domestic and international - may not be the best way to achieve Australian government objectives. Getting to 80% tertiary-qualified in the workforce vs capped places? These reforms will also have a significant impact on Australia’s educational quality - as universities are also being discouraged from failing low-SES students who have the highest dropout rate and yet who now will have uncapped places. Confused? Labor’s student cap plan lashed as ‘convoluted’ https://lnkd.in/g6FJs8SY

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I’m excited to share three new pieces of HAVIC Lab research now out as pre-prints; the first two championed by PhD student, Friederike Charlotte Hechler! Thanks also to wonderful collaborators across Australia and the world, including Outi Tuomainen, Emily S. Cross, Emmanuele Tidoni, Patrick Nalepka, Aitor Miguel Blanco and others not on LinkedIn. See a brief summary of each below, with full-texts available at the following links: 1. "What does 'often' even mean?" Revising and Validating the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory in Partnership with Autistic People. 🌈 🧠 🤝 https://lnkd.in/edUaM_gd 2. The Role of Intentional Stance Beliefs and Agent Appearance on Gaze Use during Joint Attention. 🤖 👀 👈 https://lnkd.in/eth_SERP 3. The Temporal Context of Eye Contact Influences Perceptions of Communicative Intent. ⏰ 👀 💬 https://lnkd.in/e6yPGc67 🌐 You can learn more about our lab here: https://lnkd.in/ewcX_HXe

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In this blog, Associate Professor Ben Milbourn from Curtin University reflects on the experience and value of the Principal Fellowship Support Program, and of gaining his Principal Fellowship. Some of his top tips: ✅ Write 500 words a day ✅ Share ideas with colleagues ✅ Find a writing buddy ✅ Be kind to yourselves Read the blog here: https://lnkd.in/diGnRitj #AHEFellowship #PrincipalFellowship #SeniorFellowship #teaching #Learning #highereducation #ProfessionalRecognition

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