The State of Australian University Research 2018-19 ERA National Report presented a comprehensive assessment by discipline of the quality of research activity conducted in Australia's higher education institutions based on the data and outcomes for Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2018. It provided information on the discipline-specific research activity of each eligible Australian higher education institution (see Appendix 1: Eligible Institutions), and the contribution of each discipline to the national landscape.
With four rounds of ERA now complete, the ERA dataset covers all Australian university research outputs, staffing and activity from 2003 to 2016, and research income and research application data from 2006 to 2016, allowing longitudinal analyses to be conducted.
This report looks at gender and the research workforce using ERA 2018 data as well as those from previous ERA rounds where relevant to provide further understanding of the state of Australian university research.
Use of the Gender and the Research Workforce report This report is an analysis of staffing data collected as part of ERA evaluation of research quality and research activity within Australia’s higher education institutions. Eligible institutions submitted staffing and workforce data on eligible researchers as at the staff census date for each ERA round. Submissions were required to meet specific eligibility criteria for research staff (see ERA 2018 Submission Guidelines for more details on staff eligibility). Therefore, staffing figures in this report only include the eligible research staff employed in Australian universities at the respective census dates for each ERA round. Numbers are generally rounded to one decimal place in tables throughout this report. Totals may be different to the sum of parts due to rounding.