Notes from Faculty Research Committee May meeting

Please find below the most noteworthy items discussed at the MNHS Research Committee held on May 25th 2015. Please pay particular attention to the point relating to use of Impact Factors and H Factors in NHMRC submissions.

News from NHMRC

**Impact Factors / H factor**

- NHMRC is clamping down on use of Impact Factors and H Factors in submissions. Grants in which these terms are used are now at risk of being deemed non-compliant. For rebuttals for 2015 Project Grants (due in the near future), ensure you do not include either Impact Factors or H Factors. Currently Journal rankings are still OK. Monash Library will advise on alternative metrics for researchers to use in future applications.

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)

- NHMRC and ARC are encouraging all researchers to have a unique identifier through ORCID – this can be generated at www.orcid.org. The NHMRC supports this because i) it facilitates disambiguation of researchers and research outputs, and ii) it enables linking and re-use of high quality data for publications and grants. Within RGMS, a field has been added in the ‘Personal Details’ component of the ‘Profile & CV’. Researchers are encouraged to generate an ORCID at the above website and include this information in RGMS. For further information see <www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants-funding/policy/nhmrc-and-arc-statement-open-researcher-and-contributor-id-orcid>.

Change in Grant Variation policy

- NHMRC are tightening up on the circumstances they will allow as Grant Variations. Specifically, variations likely to alter the Research Activity (change in Chief Investigator, change in Research Plan, change in Associate Investigator) will only be considered under ‘exceptional circumstances’ or change in employment status that prevents a CI from continuing in their role as designated in the application, and on the condition that the research plan as described will continue to be pursued. This is in part to prevent people removing themselves from CI lists immediately after award of a grant. This is particularly relevant for people considering applying for Program Grant funding, which if successful, requires grant holders to relinquish all but one Project Grant (NB: funding is stopped for relinquished grants – it does not continue to flow to remaining members of the CI team). Potential Program Grant applicants should give due consideration to these issues when planning applications.

Other news

Assistance with Grant Rebuttals

i) For the 2015 NHMRC Project Grant Round, Faculty is engaging an external provider to assist New Investigators, Investigators new to NHMRC, and ECRs with Near Miss grants from 2014 in crafting the best possible rebuttals for their grants in 2015. These people have already been identified by Faculty and will be contacted regarding this shortly.

ii) MRO will be running a Rebuttal Information session on June 1st, C1 Lecture Theatre, 1200-1pm.

NHMRC Funds for travel

- Faculty members wanting to use NHMRC funds for travel are reminded that this must be approved by the Faculty via the office of the Deputy Dean (Research )

Australian Competitive Grants Register

Researchers are encouraged to examine the list of Category 1 funding at https://education.gov.au/australian-competitive-grants-register. Funding included in this list attracts infrastructure support from the Australian Government. Also, this list includes some lesser known schemes that researchers should consider in addition to conventional but increasingly competitive NHMRC/ARC schemes.