Academy of Social Sciences in Australia

Response to the 2011 SRARI Discussion Paper

Response from the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia to the 2011 Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure Discussion Paper

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11 May 2011

Introduction

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Discussion Paper for a 2011 Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure (SRARI).

A foundational element of ASSA’s Constitution is the commitment “to comment where appropriate on national needs and priorities in the area of the social sciences”. The Academy is engaged substantively in the debate and development of policies to develop leading edge research infrastructure in Australia. ASSA welcomes the Australian Government’s initiative to firstly develop a roadmap guiding strategic investment in Australian research infrastructure, as well as to continually reassess and update that roadmap.

ASSA takes this opportunity to respond to issues raised in chapter two of the 2011 SRARI Discussion Paper, noting that these issues have broader implications for the needs of Australian social sciences for strategic investment in productive research infrastructure. In particular, ASSA draws attention to responses to questions 2.B.1 and 2.E.1.

The first of these responses highlights the need for investment in collating and making accessible those data sources, including administrative and other forms, which are the essential underpinning of sound social sciences research.

ASSA acknowledges that assessment of research outcomes is a valuable and essential feature of the conduct of publicly funded research in Australia and supports this assessment, understanding that such exercises are necessary retrospective. The response at 2.E.1 highlights the need to ensure that regimes to measure the quality of Australian research output – including in particular that represented by the Excellence in Research Australia assessments – do not, through their retrospectivity, through their focus on established disciplinary alignments, or through their privileging of international over domestic esteem (or vice versa), result in assessments which undermine investment in research infrastructure that has been previously agreed upon as of strategic value for Australia.