Dear New Colleagues, I'd like to think that I'd meet you all individually and chat with you to give you this information, but unfortunately with the time pressures we're all under, thats not always possible! One of my roles in the department (from this year) is Research Course Leader and I'd like to let you know about a number of things in the department to do with research, aimed towards helping you to also find time to participate in research activities and start/continue with your research projects/areas/directions (as well as everything else that you need to do in a new position in a large hectic department :-) I'll divide this up into the following areas: Research Grants Research Students Research Committee Research Groups Seminars Research grants --------------- ARC grants: The major sources of research funds are ARC competitive grants - ARC large grants (now called Discovery grants) and ARC collaborative grants (was SPIRT, now called Linkage). To be successful in obtaining a Discovery Grant you need to have a very strong publication record as well as a good proposal. However there is a special program for "early career researchers" (PhD in last 5 years) so this can be worth considering if you have some good publications. Probably the best is if you put in a proposal with another new researcher. Collaborative grants have different criteria and we have been more successful in obtaining these. The key criteria for success here is to have strong support from the industry partner - as well as having a good proposal of course. Roughly speaking there are 2 groups of collaborative grants - one where you apply for funds for a PhD student, and the industry partner contributes $5000; another where you apply for funds to employ someone (postdoc, programmer, etc.). In the latter the company needs to put in matching funds, at least 20% of which must be in cash, with the rest in-kind. A good rule of thumb is that for this to be worthwhile you need $15k from the industry partner. The deadlines for these are in about feb (discovery) and March (linkeage) each year, which means you really need to start work on them before Christmas. I'm happy to assist with applications. Departmental research grants: Historically the faculty provided small grants of up to $10k for seed projects to help researchers get a project going, with the hope that this would eventually lead to external grant applications. This ceased a few years ago at which time the department made a commitment to continue with some form of seed funding for small projects to help (especially new) people get their research underway. Typical amounts given for departmental research projects are $5k. this can be useful to employ a student to help do some work to get a project happening. A call for proposals will be made through the staff newsgroups and proposals are then evaluated by the research committee. New staff without external research funds will receive priority for funding as long as they have a good proposals. Proposals are quite short. Departmental research funds do have to be used within the year and revert back to the department if they are not used. A call for proposals for departmental funds is expected to happen sometime in semester 1 this year. Normally it would happen at the end of the year, for funds for the following year. Research Students ----------------- Involving students in your research is of course an excellent way to help move things along and also a way to ensure that you do spend some time on research yourself. The department has many opportunities to involve students in research at various levels, and many opportunities to supervise. One general rule is that staff who are themselves doing a research degree may not supervise any work that might be incorporated into or contribute to their own theses. PhD and Masters by research students: The department has roughly 45 PhD and Research Masters students. Each student has a primary supervisor and a second supervisor. To be a primary supervisor a staff member must have supervised a PhD student to completion or have been an active second supervisor for 12 months. Also, (from RMIT regulations) "at least one of the supervisors shall possess an academic qualification at least equivalent in status and character to the degree pursued by the candidate". If the first supervisor does not hold such a degree, then the second supervisor must also be actively involved in the supervision. There are currently several opportunities to be a second supervisor. If you are interested you should contact Peter Bertok, who is the reseach student co-ordinator. Second supervisors do not necessarily have to be active in the area of the student's PhD. The department has a list of potential supervisors which is given to prospective students. If you are interested in research student supervision, you should make sure you are on this list by contacting Rita Healy, who is the research administrator. Be aware though that it can take several years before you get a research student. Honours students: We usually have 8-16 honours students a year and hope to increase this. Honours students must have at least a credit average. Very good honours students are offered departmental scholarships. This year these were worth $8k. To supervise an honours student a supervisor must either be eligible to be a first supervisor of a research student, or previously have supervised an honours student in the department or been an active second or co-supervisor of an honours student in the department. New staff who wish to take on an honours student or have a potential project are encouraged to find someone in the department who has experience of honours supervision who can co-supervise with them the first year. If you wish to gain experience of honours supervision by being a co-supervisor on another staff member's project, please contact James Harland who is the honours coordinator. Summer students: Each summer the department makes funds available for about 8-10 "summer studentships" of $2-2.5k. The main aim of these is to encourage undergraduate students to go on to honours and eventually PhD. They also enable intending honours students to get started in an area they may then continue in for their honours project. Any undergraduate students who will be enrolled the following year are eligible. Intending honours students have priority. After that priority is based on a variety of factors including grades, degree program and seniority. Any staff are eligible to supervise a summer student, although care is taken to ensure that intending honours students are given a project that can proceed to an honours project. Towards the end of the year there is a call for staff to propose projects, and a simultaneous call for students to apply for studentships. Students are then matched against projects. Often staff members use their own research funds to employ additional students to those funded by the department. This can either be managed through the same process as the departmental call for summer studentships (by notifying the person managing the process, probably me), or staff members can individually recruit students. MBC minor theses: The better students doing a coursework masters program have the option of doing a minor thesis, which is roughly equivalent in size to an honours thesis. Students choose their thesis topic by either approaching staff or by looking at a list of topics that is available. There will be calls to provide project descriptions each year. Contact Eugene Doroshenko if you have a possible MBC project. To supervise an MBC thesis staff must have at least a research masters degree and must not be doing a research degree themselves. (MBC students can also do a development project as well as a thesis). Project students: In the undergraduate program there are 2 subjects which students can take as electives - one is a programming project subject, the other is a research project subject. The latter is often used for students to do a study of the research literature in an area. Any staff can supervise these projects. Often you can encourage a good student in your class who is interested in your area, to do such a project. These can sometimes lead to the student wanting to do further research work with you. Research Committee ------------------ The research committee is the departmental committee which discusses and (mostly) decides on all departmental research matters. Actual research is not discussed in the committee - that happens within research groups. The composition and current membership of the committee is: Chair Immediate Past Chair Postgraduate Courses Leader Honours Co-ordinator Head of Department Research Student Co-ordinator Staff highly active in research and supervision New member (staff with PhD, interested in research. 6 month rotating appointment) Research Programs Administrator Student representative Current membership: Sheila Howell (SH) Head of Department Peter Bertok (PB) Research Student Co-ordinator James Thom (JAT) Postgraduate Courses Co-ordinator, Immediate Past Chair Hugh Williams (HW) Justin Zobel (JZ) Rita Healy (RH), Research Programs Administrator James Harland (JH) Honours Co-ordinator Some staff who would normally be part of the research committee are currently on sabbatical or have too many other duties. As of this year research committee meetings are open to any staff who wish to attend. Staff are asked to notify the Research Programs Administrator (Rita) and the Chair (Lin) at least 3 days prior to the meeting. In the case that too many people wish to participate there will be a rotation scheme. The agenda for the research committee meetings is normally posted to staff general a week before the meeting. Minutes are placed on the departmental www site shortly after the meeting (usually in the week following). Research Groups --------------- The department has a number of identified research groups whose descriptions and memberships are on the www site. All staff interested in research are strongly encouraged to identify themselves with a research group. There are often sub-groups with research groups or research interest groups or projects across research groups. The research group structure is likely to change as we move to a school structure. Seminars -------- There is a weekly seminar time slot - 11:30-12:30. The seminar coordinator announces departmental seminars in the newsgroups. All staff (but especially staff active in research) are *strongly* encouraged to regularly attend seminars, whether or not they are in your particular area of interest. We struggle to maintain reasonable seminar attendance, but an active seminar program is a mark of a healthy rsearch culture. All staff are encouraged to give resaerch seminars. Contact the seminar coordinator to book a slot! (If you are interested in being the seminar co-ordinator, contact Phil Vines.)