Murdoch University research in health, agriculture and environmental sciences is among the best in the world according to a new assessment by the Australian Research Council.
The Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) evaluations judge the quality of research conducted at Australian universities every few years.
Eighty-one per cent of Murdoch’s research was assessed at or above world standard with the University submitting in more fields than ever before.
The University achieved the highest rating of five (meaning the research is assessed as well above world standard) in six fields – physical chemistry, environmental science and management, zoology, agricultural biotechnology, clinical sciences and medical microbiology. This is up from four five point ratings in the last ERA assessment in 2015.
Scientific and health research strength
Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Innovation Professor David Morrison said the pleasing results reflected the areas of scientific and health research strength at the University.
“Our high scoring areas align with our renewed research focus on health, food and sustainable development, meaning these areas are already producing influential and highly translational results,” Professor Morrison said.
“It is also pleasing to see our humanities fields like cultural studies, policy and education research improve or hold their own at world standard or above in this ERA round.
“We entered more fields than ever before into the ERA assessment, providing developing areas like neurosciences and information systems with a benchmark for their research performance.”
New entrants assessed for the first time which were rated at or above world standard also included applied mathematics, condensed matter physics, artificial intelligence and image processing and electrical and electronic engineering.
Results from the first ERA were published in 2011. There have been two subsequent rounds of the ERA in 2012 and 2015.