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(Australia) Australian researchers push to end politicians’ power to veto grants – Nature (Bianca Nogrady | March 2022)

Posted by Dr Gary Allen in Research Integrity on March 22, 2022
Keywords: Australia, Institutional responsibilities, Peer review, Research integrity, Research results

The Linked Original Item was Posted On March 10, 2022

A cartoon of a politician standing at a lectern in front of an Australian flag

Inquiry into political interference in research will consider stripping ministers of the power to reverse decisions on peer-assessed projects.

Researchers in Australia have endorsed a proposal to remove government ministers’ power to veto grant-funding decisions made by expert science committees. They say this veto ability is just one example of Australia’s political overreach in research, and is a threat to academic freedom.

The current situation where politicians can override academic freedom and peer review, because of ideology and whim is simply unacceptable. What should purely be a scientific  decision to one based on political ideology and whim.

Legislators in Australia are considering whether to amend a law to remove the minister for education’s right to veto projects recommended for grants by one of the country’s major research-funding agencies, the Australian Research Council (ARC). The proposed amendment is part of a Parliamentary inquiry into political interference in research funding.

Acting education minister Stuart Robert vetoed six ARC projects in December, sparking outrage in the research community and prompting the inquiry.

Brian Schmidt, a Nobel laureate and Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University in Canberra, told the inquiry on 9 March that the “independence of the research grant process is a core part of how liberal democracies work”. He said the veto was affecting universities’ ability to attract overseas talent and was damaging to the national interest.

Australian researchers push to end politicians’ power to veto grants
Inquiry into political interference in research will consider stripping ministers of the power to reverse decisions on peer-assessed projects.

Related Reading

(Australia) Australian scientists join outcry over humanities research veto – Times Higher Education (Jack Grove | January 2022)

(Australia) Gaslighting the world: Coalition pressured its own scientists to save reef from ‘at risk’ label – Crikey (Kishor Napier-Raman | September 2021)

(Denmark) Danish researchers under attack ‘withdrawing from public debate’ – Times Higher Education (Ellie Bothwell | May 2021)

(US) Nine Years After Filing a Lawsuit, Climate Scientist Michael Mann Wants a Court to Affirm the Truth of His Science – Inside Climate News (Marianne Lavelle | February 2021)

Trust as an Ethic and a Practice in Peer Review – Scholarly Kitchen (Alice Meadows, et al | September 2020)

(Korea) Korean professors indicted in admissions case tied to politics – Times Higher Education (Joyce Lau | January 2020)

(China) Ideological ‘rectification’ hits social sciences research – University World News (Yojana Sharma | December 2019)

The social values and politics behind science publishing – University World News (John Richard Schrock | May 2019)

The Politicisation of Ethics Review in New Zealand (Book: Martin Tolich and Barry Smith 2015)

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