AMMA’s Position on Political Interference in Research Grant awards

We note that it has been reported that on December 24 2021 the Acting Minister for Education, the Hon. Stuart Robert, vetoed six ARC-approved Discovery Project grants. This intervention disregards the rigorous peer review process that the ARC painstakingly undertakes every year across all of its research grant schemes by recruiting many highly qualified researchers to comprehensively assess applications according to its guidelines and procedures.

The President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor John Shine, best described that it is reasonable for a government to align some of their research funding with national priorities and put aside specific funds for strategic objectives, but that “subsequent political control of what gets done, where and by whom is antithetical to the spirit of a democracy that is built on free and open critical enquiry.” 

 The Association of Molecular Modellers of Australasia stands in unity with the Australian Institute of Physics, the Australian Academy of Science, and the Australian Society for Biophysics to censure the Minister’s actions and calls for an end to political interference in the approval of research funding applications.