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 postgraduateresearch students engage in quality research, intellectual debate, and extension ofknowledge;
- research concentration and focus through the alignment of the CBGL ResearchCentres and Institute(s), and the CBGL disciplines;
- support for the development of scale and focus on College research performanceand to increase external research income and raise the quality of research and ofresearch 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:
- Setting a College research strategy in alignment with the College priorities, Mission,Research Institute(s) and Centres, and the University’s research objectives.
- The development and implementation of research strategies aimed at increasing theCollege’s research activity, quality, industry engagement and impact.
- Supporting achievement of the College’s and University’s strategic research plan.
- Developing and enhancing the skills of college academics to gain external funding;
- Developing and enhancing the skills of College academics to publish A*/top 10% andA/Q1 papers, books, book chapters, ERA-eligible reports and edited books.
- Analysing College research outputs data and providing advice on strategies to meetCollege and University research targets.
- Providing resources to enable academics and HDR and Honours students to achieve their objectives.
- Ensuring mentoring of ECR and emerging researchers to develop their research skills and performance.
- Supporting strategies for the recruitment of Honours and HDR students for capacity building.
- Providing high quality research training for HDR and Honours students and staff.
- Supporting high quality HDR and Honours student supervision in concert with the College HDR Working Group.
- Developing optimal research structures supporting research activities within the College through relevant Discipline Leads and Research Leads, including the Institute(s) and Centres.
- Facilitating research opportunities with other colleges.
- Strategies for the development and strengthening of national and international research collaboration.
- Facilitating opportunities for research partnerships with internal, national and international stakeholders for the College academics and HDRs.
- Strategies for research translation and potential commercialisation
- Strategies to assist College academics, Honours students and HDRs to showcase College research, including on social media.
- Any other research related matters.
Committee Activities
With the support of the College Research Support Team and within the envelope of any allocated budget, the College Research Committee will:
- Consider measures of College research performance (including Excellence inResearch for Australia (ERA)-eligible publications, external grant income, ECRs,HDRs, Honours students) and develop research initiatives and strategies to enhancethe research outputs of the College, as suggested to the Vice President and ExecutiveDean for consideration;
- Consider initiatives to increase numbers of College HDR and Honours students andcompletions in conjunction with the HDR Working Group represented by the CollegeHDR Coordinator and College Honours Coordinator;
- Oversee a workshop program to develop specialist research skills that require highlevel expertise (e.g., writing of Australian Research Council (ARC) grants andrejoinders, writing of Cat 2, 3 and 4 funding applications, writing of top journal articles);
- Arrange a system to provide readers to give staff quality feedback on submissions thatrequire high level expertise, for example, on ARC grant submissions, and to provideadministrative support to assist with the production of these submissions;
- Ensure mentoring of early career researchers and emerging researchers to developtheir research skills and performance (e.g., may develop a college mentoring programfor ECRs and developing researchers).
- Foster research concentrations across the Institute(s), Centres, and College.
- Foster further development of the College teaching-research nexus.
Meetings, Minutes and Quorum
The CRC will meet 5 times per year. Out-of-session meetings may be called by the Chair as the need arises. Minutes will be recorded and provided to the College Leadership Advisory Committee. 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.
