Promoting records management and archives research in Australia

Abstract

In his keynote address to the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia Professor Ian Frazer, Australian of the Year 2006, described succinctly the nexus between researchers and practitioners. He deplored a situation where, in his world of medical research, clinicians and teachers were becoming decoupled from medical researchers by externally imposed funding models. He acknowledged the fact that, without a team consisting of practitioners, researchers and administrators, the now-patented cervical cancer therapy would have remained a fantastic dream, never a reality.What has this to do with the readers of Informaa Quarterly? Many of you are practitioners and users of research outcomes but, more importantly, you are the hotbed of new ideas and directions for professional research. Why is it important that you understand how the Australian research funding model works? There are two main reasons. The first is that you are all taxpayers and funding research is how some of your tax dollars are spent. The second is that knowledge of how the system works enables the profession to support the research it wishes to see promoted.