NHMRC's Research Quality Steering Committee was established to provide advice about enhancing the quality of NHMRC-funded research.

Terms of reference (2022–2024)

The Research Quality Steering Committee will advise NHMRC on: 

  1. strategies for enhancing quality in NHMRC-funded research through rigour, transparency and reproducibility 
  2. mechanisms for measuring and reporting on the effectiveness of any strategies implemented    
  3. the development and/or review of NHMRC policies and guidelines to enhance quality in NHMRC-funded research
  4. other issues related to enhancing quality in NHMRC-funded research as requested by NHMRC's Chief Executive Officer.

Major activities

Current

  • Advising on NHMRC’s Open Access Policy
  • Developing guidance for NHMRC-funded institutions about the education and training of researchers with a focus on competencies for the conduct of high-quality research
  • Developing a guide on best practice for ensuring an institutional culture that supports the conduct of high-quality health and medical research (see RQSC Education and Training Working Group)
  • Developing guidance for NHMRC-funded researchers about the communication and reporting of research methodology, data and findings, to improve the transparency of NHMRC-funded research in accordance with international standards.

Recent

  • Advised on NHMRC’s Open Access Policy
  • Advised on assessing the quality of publications in track records
  • Advised on the assessment of rigour and reproducibility of research proposals.

Committee members

Chair,
Professor
Paul
Glasziou
AO

Director
Centre for Research in Evidence Based Practice
Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine
Bond University

Declaration

Member of Board of Therapeutic Guidelines.
Chief Investigator on NHMRC Program Grant and Centres for Research Excellence.
Chair of the RACGP's Handbook of NonDrug Interventions.

Professor
Virginia
Barbour

Director
Open Access Australasia

Declaration

  • CoLead for the Office of Scholarly Communication at QUT
  • Involved with many Open Access, publishing, reporting and ethics initiatives including Health Information For All and Evidence AID
  • Editorial Board member, Research Integrity and Peer Review
  • Member of Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Data in Science
  • Member of Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines Coordinating Committee
  • Member of Bond University Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice Advisory Board
  • Chair, Cochrane Library Oversight Committee
  • Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics Governing Council Australian Representative
  • Member of UniTec (NZ) ePress Editorial Committee
  • Member of Vivli External Advisory Committee
  • Member of OA2020 Advisory Committee
  • Editorial advisor to medRXiV
  • Chair of Committee On Publication Ethics from 2012–2017
  • Contributor to the design of QUT's Research Integrity Online program 
  • Regularly writes on open access, transparency and related topics. All publications are listed at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2358-2440

Professor
Adrian
Barnett

Statistician
Faculty of Health, School of Public Health and Social Work
Queensland University of Technology

Declaration

  • Past and ongoing research of peer review and ethical review processes.
  • Recipient of, and likely future applicant to, NHMRC for research funding, including salary support for self and/or team.
  • Board Membership
    1. Science and Technology Australia
    2. Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-research and Open Science.

Dr
Emma
Beckett

Lecturer
School of Environmental and Life Sciences
University of Newcastle

Declaration

  • Appearance at annual AMP foundation in house launch
  • Webinar for Dietitians Connection on Wholegrains – sponsored by Arnotts
  • Grant for research 2016 AMP Foundation Tomorrow-maker grant recipient: Taste and Gut Bacteria pilot study
  • Consultancy work on fibre Messaging (ongoing 2020 & 2021)
  • Provide training as a contractor to Comm-IT

Dr
C. Glenn
Begley

International BioTechnology Consultant

Declaration

  • Working as an independent international biotech consultant
  • Owns shares in several biopharma companies
  • History of involvement in clinical trials for over 20 years, but not involved in clinical trial activity at this time
  • Numerous scientific publications, including ones focused on research quality/ reproducibility
  • Presentations on research quality/ reproducibility at various Institutions
  • Numerous public presentations on the issue of scientific integrity including to President Obama's Science Council, meetings of the Wellcome Trust, the US Academies of Science, and numerous universities
  • Consulting for several US-based international companies focused on cancer drug discovery
  • Honorary Director, Australian Korean Business Council to promote research and biotech collaboration
  • Advising SA Health and Centre for Cancer Biology on commercialisation opportunities
  • Consulting for Australian VC funds and companies on commercialisation
  • opportunities
  • Reviewer for the MRFF-Frontiers Grants program
  • Scientific Advisory Board for drug discovery IgMBio
  • Scientific Advisory Board for Parthenon Inc (Boston)
  • Member of Advisor Council for WA Government
  • Member of Advisory Committee for the Accelerator program at Queensland Institute of Medical Research