Roughly every two years since 2007, Thomas Barlow has published a major analysis of the Australian R&D system with a particular focus on universities. The 2015 edition compares institutional research spending with research output across different fields. In 2014, the Barlow Report also began comparing the research performance of Australian and East Asian universities - see ASIA 100. Previous reports have focused upon the R&D investments of Australian universities and industry.
Barlow Report 2015 - The State of Research in Australian Universities collates hard data on R&D spending, scale of outputs, and share of citations across 22 ABS fields of research for every Australian university. It also provides an objective analysis of national trends and about the strengths of individual institutions (including CSIRO) across more than 100 ABS research subfields.
The report identifies fields where different Australian universities are prioritising investment and building capacity. It provides a framework to help universities and government agencies estimate the likely relative cost required to improve their national standing in any field. It also benchmarks the scale and intensity of Australian university research against other nations, regions, and provinces with comparable population. This is a unique tool for optimising the competitive impact of institutions' research investments. 
Barlow Report 2011 - Australian Research: Strategies for Turbulent Times used a proprietary model to analyse the distribution of R&D capabilities across Australia, by state and territory, within 12 key capability domains and over 100 fields of research.
The report evaluated the dramatic growth in R&D activity in the private sector, describing which fields, industries and regions had been most affected by rising business investment in R&D in Australia, and identifying those fields particularly where there is a clear mismatch between public and private R&D investment. It also highlighted a range of emerging uncertainties for Australian research organisations relating to shifts in the global economy and to changes in the Australian political environment. It offered a series of new and rigorous tools to help Australian research organisations respond strategically to the evidence of mounting uncertainty in the external environment. 
Barlow Report 2009 - The State of Research in Australian Universities provided objective information about the strengths and weaknesses of individual Australian universities and about the risks and rewards for institutions seeking to specialise their research portfolios.
It evaluated the extent to which individual Australian universities cross-subsidised research from teaching revenues, provided evidence about the impacts of state government investments in university research, compared institutions' overall R&D investments per field with performance in attracting national competitive grants, and appraised the impact of medical research upon institutions' potential for growth. In addition, the report analysed the performance of Australian universities in international rankings and contrasted Australian and US cities' per capita investments in university research. It also analysed labour markets for PhD graduates and the research productivity of university systems across the OECD. |
An independent authority on university R&D |