ERA 2018 Outcomes - Message from Professor Keith A Nugent

The Australian Government this morning released outcomes for the 2018 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment. The outcomes for ANU are excellent and show significant improvement over the last assessment in 2015.

The ERA assessment is conducted every three years and reports on research quality in Australian universities. The assessment is based on research outputs, research and commercialisation income and workforce data. The results are reported at the broad ‘2-digit’ level (e.g. Engineering) and also at the more specialised ‘4-digit’ level (e.g. Mechanical Engineering).

Outcomes are via a five-point scale as “5” (Well Above World Standard), “4” (Above World Standard), “3” (World Standard), “2” (Below World Standard) and “1” (Well Below World Standard”).

Both our 2018 results and 2015 results are shown below.  The improvement is impressive, with 66% of our research receiving the top rating, compared to an already excellent 58% in 2015. ANU is at or above world standard in every field in which it works.

Of particular note is the increase in the number of broad fields in which we are rated “5”, increasing from 11 in 2015 to 15 in 2018. Chemical Sciences, Earth Sciences, Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences and Engineering have all moved from 4 to 5. We submitted in Technology for the first time in 2018 and I am delighted to report that it was also rated at 5.

At the more specialised (4 digit) level, 47 out of 71 disciplines were rated at 5, a significantly larger number than in 2015.

We are in the process of conducting further analysis of these results, particularly to benchmark against our Group of Eight colleagues. We will be analysing and unpacking the ERA outcomes over the coming weeks and months.

Tempting though it is, I cannot take credit for any of this. That primarily belongs, of course, to the truly outstanding researchers we have at ANU. But I do need to particularly acknowledge the work of my predecessor Professor Margaret Harding and the ERA Steering Committee members, Professor Toni Makkai, Professor Malcolm Sambridge, Professor Will Christie, Professor Archie Clements, Professor John Bekkers, Dr Douglas Robertson, Sophie Holloway and Irwan Krisna. We must also acknowledge the work of the academic staff and publications collection officers who helped shape our submissions through the ANU panels.

For further information, the Vice-Chancellor has issued a media release earlier today, the ARC website provides access to the National Report and detailed outcomes, and the ARC data portal is a rich data set that allows you to drill down to a publication level.

Congratulations to all of you.

Professor Keith A Nugent
Deputy Vice Chancellor Research & Innovation