Academy of Social Sciences in Australia

Dialogue 2012 Volume 31 Number 1

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President's Report

ASSA President
Professor Barry McGaw

New role for academies in national policy development

On 20 January 2012, the Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, the Hon. Christopher Evans, and the Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, announced an important set of reforms for the role of research in national policy development.
One key feature is a reformed Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC). The revised membership of PMSEIC includes an ASSA Fellow, Professor Fiona Stanley.
The second key feature is an explicit role for the Academies, described in the press statement in the following terms:

The Council will be able to refer long-term issues, five to 30 years ahead, requiring a scientific response to the Australian Council of Learned Academies to undertake in-depth, interdisciplinary research and report to Government through the Chief Scientist.

The Prime Minister announced the allocation of $1.95m over four years to 2014-15 to 'support the work of the Learned Academies'.

The Chief Scientist met with the four Academy presidents late in 2011 as he was developing the ideas that reached fruition in the Prime Minister's announcement. I reported on the developments at the Annual General Meeting of Fellows on Wednesday 9 November 2011. The Academies' Executive Directors/Chief Executive Officers and the General Manager of the office of the Australian Academies of the Learned Academies (ACOLA) are working on details in collaboration with the presidents in preparation for further meetings with the Chief Scientist. The plan is to have the initial project shaped sufficiently for there to be provision for it in the Commonwealth budget for 2012-13.

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia will continue with its other activities but we should welcome this new role. It provides a very important opportunity for the Academies to contribute to national policy development and to work cooperatively in doing so.


Barry McGaw
2012

Please note: The last issue of Dialogue was incorrectly numbered Vol 31, 2/2011. It should have been numbered Vol 30, 2/2011. We apologise for any inconvenience this error might cause.

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