New 'national interest' test for research

Australian researchers seeking federal government grants will soon be subjected to a test determining whether their project is in the national interest.

Education Minister Dan Tehan says the change to the grants application process, administered by the Australian Research Council, will give the public more confidence in research conducted using their money.

"If you're asking the Australian taxpayer to fund your research you should be able to articulate how that research will advance the national interest," he said on Wednesday.

The change will apply to the $3 billion in grants that the ARC is set to distribute over the next four years.

Such grants currently range in size from $30,000 to $8 million per year.

The ARC will also review Australia's science and research priorities, which were last developed in 2015, in collaboration with a small panel of experts.

The steps come after it was revealed in a Senate estimates hearing last week that former education minister Simon Birmingham had vetoed 11 humanities research projects that had been approved by the ARC.

Labor research spokesman Kim Carr said the grant rejections came without explanation and were an example "political correctness gone mad".

Mr Tehan said under the changes to the grants process it will also be clearer when a minister - who has the final sign-off on research grants after they are approved by the ARC - has knocked a project back.

"I can guarantee the sector that I will be transparent in reporting ARC grant funding decisions," he said.

He also stressed that government money is only one source of funding for research, with projects able to be funded directly by universities or from the private sector.

But Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said the changes to the grants system are a smokescreen for political interference.

"If the minister wanted to act for the national interest he would allow academics to continue the centuries-old tried and tested process of peer review," she said.

Australian Associated Press

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