College Research Committee

Purpose

The College of Business, Government and Law Research Committee (CRC) will promote a culture of research excellence in the College and provide the College research policy. The CRC will support research concentrations by scaling-up research alignment with the College Institute(s) and Centres to address the College strategy and mission statement: ‘We embrace innovative knowledge and practice to tackle the challenges of our time, with a strategic focus on technology, health and social impact’.

The CRC provides coordination and support to enable the achievement of the College research strategy and goals.

The College Research Committee supports the University’s goals in relation to research and seeks, through its activities, to support staff to meet the research performance expectations specified by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research)’s (DVC(R)) University Research Committee.

Research excellence is characterised by:

• a College environment with a robust research culture where staff and postgraduate research students engage in quality research, intellectual debate, and extension of knowledge;
• research concentration and focus through the alignment of the CBGL Research Centres and Institute(s), and the CBGL disciplines;
• support for the development of scale and focus on College research performance and to increase external research income and raise the quality of research and of research publications;
• engagement with stakeholders on research and the production of research with end-user impact; and
• support for Early Career Researcher (ECR), Higher Degree by Research (HDR) student and Honours student research and training.

Terms of Reference

The CRC will advise the College Vice-President and Executive Dean on:

1. Setting a College research strategy in alignment with the College priorities, Mission, Research Institute(s) and Centres, and the University’s research objectives;
2. The development and implementation of research strategies aimed at increasing the College’s research activity, quality, industry engagement and impact;
3. Supporting achievement of the College’s and University’s strategic research plan;
4. Developing and enhancing the skills of College academics to gain external funding and publish A*/top 10% papers;
5. Analysing College research outputs data and providing advice on strategies to meet College and University research targets;
6. Providing resources to enable academics and HDR and Honours students to achieve their research objectives;
7. Ensuring mentoring of ECR and emerging researchers to develop their research skills and performance;
8. Providing high quality research training for HDR and Honours students and staff;
9. Supporting high quality HDR and Honours student supervision in concert with the College HDR Working Group;
10. Developing optimal research structures supporting research activities within the College through relevant Discipline Leads, Research Leads, including the Institute(s) and Centres;
11. Facilitating cross-college interdisciplinary research opportunities, including research partnerships with internal, national and international stakeholders for the College academics and HDRs;
12. Strategies for research translation and potential commercialisation;
13. Strategies to assist College academics, Honours students and HDRs to showcase College research, including on social media;
14. Any other research related matters.

A Glossary of terms used in the Terms of Reference is available for reference.

Committee Activities

With the support of the College Research Support Team and within the envelope of any allocated budget, the College Research Committee will:

1. Consider measures of College research performance (including Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)-eligible publications, external grant income, ECRs, HDRs, Honours students) and develop research initiatives and strategies to enhance the research outputs of the College, as suggested to the Vice President and Executive Dean for consideration;
2. Consider initiatives to increase numbers of College HDR and Honours students and completions in conjunction with the HDR Working Group represented by the College HDR Coordinator and College Honours Coordinator;
3. Oversee a workshop program to develop specialist research skills that require high level expertise (e.g., writing of Australian Research Council (ARC) grants and rejoinders, writing of Cat 2, 3 and 4 funding applications, writing of top journal articles);
4. Arrange a system to provide readers to give staff quality feedback on submissions that require high level expertise, for example, on ARC grant submissions, and to provide administrative support to assist with the production of these submissions;
5. Ensure mentoring of early career researchers and emerging researchers to develop their research skills and performance (e.g., may develop a college mentoring program for ECRs and developing researchers).
6. Foster research concentrations across the Institute(s), Centres, and College Mission Statement.
7. Foster further development of the College teaching-research nexus.

Meetings, Minutes and Quorum

The CRC will meet each calendar month. Out-of-session meetings may be called by the Chair as the need arises. Minutes will be recorded and provided to the College Vice President and Executive Dean and the College Senior Leadership Team. Group decisions are taken by majority voting. The Committee Chair has the deciding vote in the event of a tie.

Quorum will be comprised of 50% of members to the next higher whole number of the CRC membership.

A nominee is required to attend meetings when a member cannot attend. The committee may have a Deputy Chair.

Working Parties

The CRC has the power to co-opt as appropriate. Other persons may attend by invitation in relation to particular agenda items but may not vote. The CRC may establish sub-committees or working parties for College strategically aligned projects. The CRC may delegate responsibilities to Committee members on any matters within its terms of reference.

Contact

Ms Stacey Richardson
Senior Research Support Officer
8201 5368
stacey.richardson@flinders.edu.au