A REVIEW - PRODUCTIVE RESEARCH ENVIRONMENTS IN THE RURAL INDUSTRIES - CAN WE DO BETTER?

摘要

The literature on management of research and development and the history of large and successful Research and Development (R & D) companies contain many pointers on the management of R & D in the rural industries that need to be taken seriously if Australia's rural industries are to remain competitive. There is strong evidence that using return-on-investment techniques or variations of them are a waste of time and money because the real returns from research are far too complex and unpredictable forthese simplistic methods to account for. Instead, this paper argues, Australia should be shifting its attention to the research workforce in whose creativity rest its hopes for genuine research gains. Researchers themselves have been largely ignored so far in the administration process for R & D and there are many cogent reasons and compelling precedents for making them the focus when deciding the best way to use research funds. It is argued that the key issues in making decisions about research fundingshould be the quality of the science, the motivation and creativity of researchers and the relevance of the research to the industry that is funding it. A major change in philosophy and policies in many of Australia's research corporations will be needed if this is to happen.