June 5, 2017
The Group of Eight (Go8), which comprises Australia’s leading research-intensive universities, says today’s welcome announcement of the Go8 winning $134 million for ARC research, most definitely rewards its research excellence and “also shines the spotlight on research vital to our community’s wellbeing,” says Vicki Thomson Chief Executive of the Go8.
“The Go8 continues to deliver the research that underpins Australia’s future Economy, receiving nearly 80% of the funding announced for the Laureate Fellowships, Future Fellowships, Industrial Transformation Research Hubs, and Industrial Transformation Teaching Centres,” Ms Thomson said.
“In addition to the spillover benefits, the quality of this research underpins the success of our sector in generating $22.4 billion in export income in 2016 – an amount that dwarfs the government R&D investment in Higher Education ($3.5 billion in 2015-16), and far exceeds the total government investment in the sector.
“Investment in the University sector builds Australia’s human capital, provides a direct return on investment and creates the high value industries of tomorrow.” Ms Thomson said the ARC awards follow a strong pattern of excellence for the Go8 that every Australian
should be proud of. “We have six of our Universities ranked in the world’s top 100. Only the UK and the US have more,” she said. “We have had recent success with Linkage grants and we have been proud to have joined with the UK’s IP Group. IP will, through a capital raising, invest over $200 million in Go8 research and commercialisation. IP Group chose the Go8 to partner with in their first move outside of UK and US research investment. That is an enormous vote of confidence.
“The Go8 is proud to be a partner of the ARC and the Australian community in delivering world leading research through international research superstars – both current and rising – and industry engaged research and postgraduate training as part of our $6 billion annual investment in R&D.”
Contact: Ms Vicki Thomson Group of Eight Chief Executive on +61 438 047 155
