Guy Healy From: The Australian June 09, 2010 12:00AM
CHINA and India are attracting greater numbers of the world's top researchers, making it increasingly difficult for Australia to counter a looming researcher shortfall, the federal government has been warned.
Allen Consulting, in a report to the government, says Australia will find it increasingly difficult to attract researchers from these countries as their economies continue to expand and funds flow into their domestic innovation systems.
The report, titled Employer Demand for Researchers in Australia, comes to this stark conclusion after receiving advice from 72 survey respondents, including the University of Sydney, Queensland University of Technology and the CSIRO.
The report, to inform Science Minister Kim Carr's research workforce strategy, is upbeat about future demand for researchers by business, industry and research institutions during the next decade.
It highlights an Australian Council for Educational Research finding that demand for employees with higher degree by research qualifications will expand by 50 per cent to 2020. Seventy per cent of respondents - including Woodside, Cochlear, Dupont Australia, Baker IDI and Geodynamics - anticipate growth in their annual demand for researchers during the next five years.
Half the report's 72 respondents say demand for researchers will be greater than supply during the next 10 years, with 30 per cent saying it will be patchy.
Despite strong projected demand from business, industry and university employers for researchers to help drive the country's innovation, there are doubts about Australia's ability to fulfil the demand.
The report concludes that "these growth rates will be insufficient to meet the needs of Australian institutions over the next decade. Australia has a shallow domestic talent pool and researchers in Australia do not have the breadth and depth of those in Europe, North America and northeast Asia."
Dupont Australia "foresaw problems maintaining its internal research capacity as half the company's research workforce retired over the next 10 years".
Cochlear, Dupont and QUT were especially concerned that reducing number of science, technology, engineering and maths students at universities was a barrier to recruitment.
Two-thirds of the respondents said newly employed PhDs and postdoctoral researchers often or very often had the necessary skills to be a productive employee.
But communication outside the research community, business acumen and life skills need improvement, the report says.
"I have to say most researchers couldn't write a plain English sentence if their life depended on it," one employer said.
Improving the attractiveness of research careers, especially by extending the length of postdoctoral fellowships, is identified as a key priority by research institutions surveyed for the report.
Heavy teaching loads, short-term funding of research positions and lengthy and expensive visas are key barriers to recruiting more researchers, the report has found.
Senator Carr told the HES the government had upgraded fellowships targeting early, mid-career and senior researchers, and was encouraged by recent growth in overseas students doing higher degrees research.
However, Senator Carr said, Australia "had to work hard to continue to build and maintain a research workforce that meets its requirements".作者: 青貝殼 時間: 2010-6-19 05:46
