Humanities lobbies have warned that the applied research skew deals them out of ARC funding. The new round of Linkage Grants certainly does.
27 awards went to engineering, compared to 15 for HASS disciplines, (ex management and related). History, creative arts-writing and Indigenous studies managed one each, while biological and biomedical sciences managed five.
The Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities claim “the narrow focus on commercialisation” obscures the contributions “to policy reform, public engagement and community enrichment,” research grants in their disciplines can make, (FC May 21). And the Australia Academy of the Humanities complains that arranging partnerships for Linkage Grants, can be “burdensome” and lengthy.”
“For humanities projects which are typically conducted in partnership with a not-for-profit or public sector provider, the amount of industry contributions in cash and in-kind can unduly affect the chances of success when they take on importance in the assessment process. “
Other than education, projects with “human society” research codes lead the non STEM disciplines in the latest round of linkage awards. The partners for three are public sector welfare organisations. The fourth is a Griffith University team working with the Queensland Electoral Commission to reduce informal voting in state and local elections there. The pitch is that “It is not only high and rising, but in a pattern that defies explanation.”
