Funding Research in Universities : The Watt Report 2015

The Review of Research Policy and Funding Arrangements 2015 (the ‘Watt Review’), presents a well considered commentary and recommendations for how the Commonwealth Government should fund university research in coming years. What is clear from the report – and has been known by insiders for some time – is that the current research funding system is far too complex and confusing. It is the result of incremental changes over many years that have simply been bolted on to an existing framework. There have been many reports, committees and less formal bodies that have been critical of the ad hoc, complex and misaligned incentives in this sector. What the Watt Review has done is take a 1st -principles approach to how the system should be designed for universities in a contemporary setting