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

  • Developing a guide on better practice for ensuring an institutional culture that supports the conduct of high-quality health and medical research
  • Developing guidance about the education and training of researchers about good research practices (see RQSC Education and Training Working Group)
  • Advising on open science

Recent

  • Advised on revision of 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.
  • Advised on Persistent Identifiers (PIDs).

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, Board of Therapeutic Guidelines
  • Chief Investigator on NHMRC Program Grant and Centres for Research Excellence
  • Chair, Committee for the RACGP's Handbook of NonDrug Interventions (HANDI)
  • Chair, NHMRC’s Homeopathy Working Committee for the 2015 homeopathy review (20122015) 
  • Member, Department of Health Natural Therapy Review Advisory Committee, established as part of the 2015 Review of the Australian Government rebate on private health insurance for natural therapies 

Professor
Virginia
Barbour

Director
Open Access Australasia
Editor-in-Chief, Medical Journal of Australia

Declaration

  • Involved with many open access, publishing, reporting and ethics initiatives including: Editorial Board member, Research Integrity and Peer Review; Member, Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Data in Science; Member, Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines Coordinating Committee; Member, Bond University Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice Advisory Board; Chair, Cochrane Library Oversight Committee; Australian representative, Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics Governing Council; Member, eLife Ethics Committee; Previous editorial advisor to medRXiV; Chair, Committee On Publication Ethics (2012–2017) 
  • Involved with drafting of submissions and responses to government proposals about open access, open science and research assessment
  • Contributor to the design of the Research Integrity Online program, Queensland University of Technology
  • Regularly presents and publishes on open access, transparency and related topics. All publications are listed at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2358-2440
  • Reimbursement for travel to conferences for invited presentations; from 2018 - Asia Pacific Research Integrity meeting, 2018 (Taiwan), Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP3) meeting, 2018 (Cern), presentation at La Trobe university, 2018; Australasian Medical Writers Association meeting (Sydney), 2022
  • Previous applicant for NHMRC funding
  • Husband is recipient of NHMRC grants

Professor
Adrian
Barnett

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

Declaration

  • President, Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-Research and Open Science
  • Board Member, Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-research and Open Science.
  • President, Statistical Society of Australia (2018-2020)
  • Recipient of, and likely future applicant to, NHMRC and MRFF for research funding, including salary support for self and/or team.
  • Australian Government Grant, Australian Teletrial Program
  • Grant, Gold Coast Health Collaborative
  • Research into funding and peer review including funding from The British Academy to investigate their use of a modified lottery
  • Ongoing research with BMJ Open, Epidemiology and F1000.
  • Published opinion pieces on research funding, research ethics and research integrity
  • Involved in creating a new open access platform/ journal for the Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-research and Open Science

Dr
Emma
Beckett

Casual academic
School of Environmental and Life Sciences
University of Newcastle
Nutrition Research Australia

Declaration

  • Board member – International Society for Nutrients and Nutrigenomics
  • Writer - Pantera Press, BBC Science Focus
  • Dynamic Foodie, FOODiQ Global (formerly known as Nutrition Research Australia)
  • Newsletter editor, The Nutrition Society of Australia (2018-2023)
  • Program convenor (FSHN) and Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle (2019-2024)
  • Published work - Is requiring Research Integrity Advisors a useful policy for improving research integrity? A census of advisors in Australia. AG Barnett, DN Borg, P Glasziou, E Beckett

Dr
C. Glenn
Begley

International BioTechnology Consultant

Declaration

  • Working as an independent international biotech consultant
  • Owns shares in several biopharma companies (Amegen, Idera, Xilio [formerly Akriveia])
  • Holds 11 granted patents
  • History of involvement in clinical trials for over 20 years, but not involved in clinical trial activity at this time
  • Numerous scientific publications, including those focused on research quality/ reproducibility
  • Presentations on research quality/ reproducibility at various Institutions
  • Numerous unpaid 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
  • Annual honorary lectures at Columbia University (NY, New York), Stanford University (CA) on research integrity and ethical drug development
  • Advising SA Health and Centre for Cancer Biology on commercialisation opportunities
  • Consulting for Australian VC funds and companies on commercialisation opportunities (including Australia’s Horizon 3 fund, MuPharma)
  • Consulting for Parthenon Therapeutics (Boston MA), Certara (Princeton NJ), BridGene BioSciences (San Jose, CA)
  • Reviewer for the MRFF-Frontiers Grants program
  • Member, Advisory Council for the WA  Future Health and Research Innovation Fund
  • Member, Board of the Adelaide BioMed City (ABMC) Initiative
  • Board Memberships: Oxford BioTherapeutics (2012-2017), Cyterix (2012-2014), 
  • Member, Scientific Advisory Board: Cytomx (2012-2014); Cellastra (2012-2014); BioCryst (2012-2017); Selvita (2012-2015); BioTechnology Value Fund (2012-2013); Aquilo Capital Management (2012-2013); Pieris (2012-2014); Acerta (2013-2015); Bullet Biotechnology (2013-2018); Bionomics (2014-2018); Pierre Fabre (2015-present); Threshold Pharmaceuticals (2015-2016); Rigel (2015-2016); Corcept Therapeutics (2016-2018); ImmunGene (2016-2017); Jazz Pharmaceuticals (2016-2021); Just BioTherapeutics (2016 - 2018); IgMBio (2021- present ); Parthenon Therapeutics (2018- present)

Professor
Stacy
Carter

Director, Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values (ACHEEV), University of Wollongong

Declaration

  • Has held multiple grants awarded through NHMRC, and will continue to apply for NHMRC funding in future
  • Recipient of honoraria for consultation as an expert in qualitative or deliberative methods (e.g. thesis examination)
  • Member, Editorial Board of The Patient and Health Literacy and Communication Open

Professor
Julie
McMullen

Head, Cardiac Hypertrophy Laboratory, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute

Declaration

  • Current recipient of NHMRC funding, and current/future application for NHMRC funding for self and research team (salary and research support) 
  • Authored open access publications on strategies/methods for improving research quality
  • Unpaid presentations on research quality