Education, Training and Youth Affairs Minister Dr David Kemp has approved funds for a pilot program in Research Networking and Collaboration, under the Special Research Initiatives Program.
The Australia and New Zealand Academy of Marketing (ANZAM) will manage the project, with Dean of Commerce Professor Gill Palmer chairing its steering committee.
UOW's Centre for Research Policy is also involved.
The grant provides funds of $50,000 a year for three years.
The program will implement recommendations of the discipline review’s Report on Management Research in Australia, published by the Australian Research Council (ARC), through DEETYA in 1997.
The project is a pilot in that it is the only one of the 9 discipline reviews conducted by the ARC so far to have been followed up with a program for implementation.
If successful in promoting research collaboration, networking and the strategic development of management research in Australia, it is expected to influence the way discipline reviews are handled in the future.
The steering committee will comprise ANZAM's research subcommittee, with Gill Palmer as chair, and will include Greg Bamber, Chris Christodoulou, Geoff Soutar and David Lamond.
Tim Turpin will provide an overview of the project and prepare general reports.
The project will also involve other professional institutions in the broad management field, including the Industrial Relations Association of Australia and New Zealand (IRAANZ); the International Employment Relations Association (IERA); the Accounting Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ).
A series of national research networking seminars are scheduled:
The seminars will complement an equally important arm of the overall project: developing research training via an ‘Australian Management Doctoral Research Program for Management’.
This is designed to develop and coordinate support for the growing numbers of doctoral students in the field.
It will launch workshops and support networks for PhD students, to be assisted by ANZAM and the other professional associations.
An ANZAM conference in December 1998 will focus on the need for recognised standards of achievement and quality control in the growing field of doctoral management study.
Developing support networks for PhD students will be discussed in a research student seminar to be run before the conference begins.
This will be followed by an email survey of concerns about student needs and PhD requirements.
The Australian Management Doctoral Research Program will also run residential research student workshops on topics like strategic management theory and research; marketing themes and methodologies; strategies for sustaining research in management and developing a publishing career.
A review of the impact of the Australian Management Doctoral Research Program will take place in December 2000 and the results will be submitted to the ARC in a final report on the impact of the whole program, due at the end of the three year period.
It is clear from the range of activities planned that many people are already directly involved in the management of this program, and that more will have the opportunity to participate over the next three years. UOW has the opportunity to provide a significant impetus to the development of research collaboration in this field, and at the same time demonstrate that management can act as a pilot for strategies to improve a discipline’s research profile.
UOW's Centre for Research Policy (CRP) was one of a select group of research organisations involved in a series of significant international meetings in Australia on the subject of 'Innovation and knowledge-based economies'
The meetings were organised around the Canberra visit and session of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) working group on Innovation and Technology Policy (TIP).
It was the first time that the TIP had met outside Paris.
Other meetings attracted the world's leading experts on analysing and measuring innovation systems.
In the words of a spokesperson at the opening conference, these systems were the "growth engines for the 21st century".
As well as the 'rich nation' OECD members, the meetings brought together large, non-OECD countries and APEC economies to discuss the development and policy relevance of science and technology (S&T) indicators.
'New generation' statistical and other indicators are essential in characterising innovation systems and the knowledge flows within them as an aid to policy analysis, evaluation and development.
The CRP has been working with countries and organisations in south-east Asia, notably China, Malaysia, the official ASEAN experts group and, currently, Indonesia, for more than six years.
Recognising this expertise, the CRP's Dr Sam Garrett-Jones was one of only three Australians (and the only Australian academic) invited to address the meetings on S&T indicators.
"I'm very pleased that our experience has been recognised by the Australian Industry and Science department and by the OECD," Dr Garrett-Jones said. "The Canberra meeting is virtually a 'summit' of the top S&T indicators experts from the OECD secretariat, the United States, Finland, Canada - and, of course, Australia - and the key players from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa and South-East Asia.
"The OECD's work is very well regarded in the region, but to be effective any assistance must take account of the current stage of development of S&T indicators and of the structural differences in science and innovation systems in the industrialising countries.
"I believe that is where our contribution will be most valuable," he said.