AUSTRALIA

Dispute over deeper business links to research
The Innovative Research Universities grouping has clashed with a key science and engineering body over how to encourage more links between university researchers and industry, writes Tim Dodd for Australian Financial Review.The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, or ATSE, recently called for a new measure of industry participation in university research based on the dollars spent by business in research projects. It contends that its approach is simple and can use existing information.
However the Innovative Research Universities, or IRU, grouping – representing the Griffith, La Trobe, Flinders, Murdoch, Charles Darwin and James Cook universities – rejected the approach, saying it relies too much on "financial input measures" instead of looking at actual research outcomes. Furthermore "there is much highly valuable research engagement, particularly with sectors other than business that is transacted without substantial reliance on financial inputs", the IRU said in response to the ATSE proposal.
Full report on the Australian Financial Review site