Conference paper
Nurturing Research Partnerships to Meet Regional Needs
Proceedings of the 2008 Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance National Conference, pp.324-331
Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance (AUCEA) National Conference: Engaging for a sustainable future, 2008 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 09-Jul-2008–11-Jul-2008)
Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance Inc. (AUCEA)
2008
Abstract
The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) has just commenced its second decade and in the past two to three years has escalated its efforts in developing its research profile and performance. Fundamental to research at USC are regional engagement and sustainability, and much of USC's research is directed towards the social, cultural, economic and environmental advancement of the region. In this context of a fledgling research enterprise and an emerging region, communication and connection between USC researchers, and regional organisations and industry, do not just happen; they need to be nurtured. This is a complex matter that has to respect those working relationships that already exist and are developing between researchers and colleagues in the wider region, and the legitimate desires of researchers to maintain their freedom to pursue their intellectual interests. At USC responsibility for the development of research lies with the Deputy Vice Chancellor and he works with the Office of Research to drive research that advances the region. To achieve this, the Deputy Vice Chancellor and the Office of Research have developed a range of strategies to facilitate regional connections and the generation of opportunities for mutually beneficial research that can leverage new research resources for the region. This paper provides a description of the strategies employed, evaluation of progress, and an account of the outcomes to date. However, the focus of the paper is an analysis of the blockers and drivers that impact on this work. These include tensions between research quality and social impact, regional characteristics, state and commonwealth research funding policies, centralisation-decentralisation practices, and the positional power of larger metropolitan institutions. The paper concludes with some observations about what regional universities and their regional research partners, seeking to build regional research capacity and generate significant research findings and outputs, need to do to achieve success against the same exacting criteria as the more established universities.
Details
- Title
- Nurturing Research Partnerships to Meet Regional Needs
- Authors
- Barbara Palmer (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- Proceedings of the 2008 Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance National Conference, pp.324-331
- Conference details
- Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance (AUCEA) National Conference: Engaging for a sustainable future, 2008 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 09-Jul-2008–11-Jul-2008)
- Publisher
- Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance Inc. (AUCEA)
- Date published
- 2008
- ISBN
- 978098036103
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2008 The Australian University Community Engagement Alliance (AUCEA Inc.). All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permisssion of the publisher. The definitive version is available from http://www.aucea.com.au.
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449709402621
- Output Type
- Conference paper
- Research Statement
- false
Metrics
28 File views/ downloads
463 Record Views