The Context Statement

1

• The Context Statement
• Professor Stuart Cunningham
• DirectorARC Centre of Excellence for Creative
  Industries and Innovation (CCI)
• President
• Council for the Humanities, Arts Social
  Sciences (CHASS)

2

• The Context Statement is an exquisitely
  balanced, beautifully written document telling a
  compelling story about a fascinating group of
  deeply interesting people committed to and
  successfully achieving research outcomes
  recognised by both their peers and their
  external collaborators!

3

• 4.1.5 Evidence Portfolios
• Each Research Group must submit one Context
  Statement as the foundation of its Evidence
  Portfolio, which includes
• information about the type, composition and focus
  of the Research Group
• supplementary factual information that
  demonstrates the capacity of the Research Group
  for example

4

• the total number of research outputs organised by
  research category type, DEST non-proxy, housed
  in RQF repository
• evidence of collaborative activity impact,
  cross-disciplinary
• editorial or peer review service to journals
  new peer-reviewed practice-based journals
• the numbers of research-only staff, Early Career
  Researchers and HDR student load and completions
  standard reporting, plus cohorts
• HDR employment destinations (where known)
  standard
• esteem indicators, such as the number of Fellows
  of Learned Academies and Australian Research
  Council (ARC) Federation Fellows recognised
  research esteem will be an issue
• a statement of the Research Groups competitive
  grant income in the following categories
• DEST category 1
• international sources (peer reviewed only)
  major bone of contention
• information linking any previous research of the
  Group to its impact in the assessment period.
  can Panel 13 show expeditious impact?

5

• Research Groups may use Context Statements to
  indicate key staff movements during the
  assessment period and strategies to address
  recruitment, including capacity-building, to
  ensure the future viability of the Group.

6

• A good CS will
• Consolidate the Evidence Portfolio for
  cross-referencing (they may be very large)
• Be the one place for overarching strategic vision
• Balance institutional and disciplinary focus
• Crystallise the welter of historical information
• Balance backward-looking (achievement of vision)
  and forward-looking (capacity going forward)
• Display synergistic benefit (group),
  intellectual depth, and appropriate breadth

7

• Issues
• length cf Impact Statement up to 10 pages
• group CS will establish the coherence of the
  collection of persons (issue of size of Panel 13
  groups given the recency of the research
  tradition/time in research environment versus
  total FTE of available staff)
• Cross-disciplinary