Dr Phil Dooley

Name (Individual/Organisation)

Dr Phil Dooley

Responses

Q10. Having regard to the Review’s Terms of Reference, the ARC Act itself, the function, structure and operation of the ARC, and the current and potential role of the ARC in fostering excellent Australian research of global significance, do you have any other comments or suggestions?

Dear ARC Review committee,

I encourage you to recommend, as part of your review, a more strategic and empowering approach to research communication.

I write as a professional communicator who has worked with ARC CoEs, CRCs and Training Centres, Universities and Professional bodies (e.g. AIP, RACI) for close to two decades. I have worked as a freelancer, within media organisations, for universities, overseas and Australia, and been a member of the national executive of the Australian Science Communicators for many years.

I feel the ARC approach to communication is simplistic and limits the impact that much research could have.

In research, communication/marketing/PR is often ignored. In private enterprise, a Director of Marketing would be second to the CEO, whereas in science, professionals with these skills are employed as an afterthought – perhaps at a graduate level, often part time, across many areas (e.g. events, website, school outreach, industry engagement). In industry you would have diverse teams carrying out these tasks.

I find my efforts constantly a low priority for the researchers I serve, behind research publications, writing grants, teaching undergraduates and research students and other administration. Although many are supportive and enthusiastic about my work, few can devote the sustained time to develop skills and carry out a strategy that might lead to wide impact, and they are not encouraged to by the simplistic communication metrics in most academic contexts.

Giving a talk at a local primary school, a public talk alongside a conference, or tweeting actively to an audience that is mostly one’s academic peers, are far from changing broad societal perceptions of research, or inspiring a new industry to spring up based on new work.

Is it too much to expect an academic to research their audience, develop a nuanced, multichannel communication campaign, execute it in a skillful and timely fashion, and evaluate its impact, so as to improve the campaign on subsequent iterations?

As a freelancer/consultant, these tasks are often outsourced to me, as a short-term contract, which can never build momentum or wide reach.

Yet, in a previous role, when I did run a successful ongoing outreach program (Kickstart at University of Sydney, Physics) the ARC Centres were not interested in contributing to and benefitting from that program’s success, because they needed their outreach to be badged as their own, to fulfil contractual requirements. So they created a program that duplicated and competed with Kickstart.
It's a wicked problem. For example, good evaluation alone can take 80% of a communication budget, and needs professionals with well-developed social science skills. Impact can take years to fully be felt.

So, how can the ARC inspire and empower academic individuals and institutions to take this challenge on successfully?

Some suggestions
- Encourage and reward strategic, and long-term communication approaches (even if less “flashy” e.g. fostering small network of industry partners, vs a big one-off event.)
- Encourage collaborative efforts rather than individual competitiveness
- Encourage more budget to be spent, especially on senior professional staff with communication skills, and teams with diverse skills.
- Build support for these professionals – networks, opportunities for upskilling, career progression. (My yearly income is pitiful compared with my peers who have stayed in academia)

All the best for building a stronger and better ARC!

Submission received

14 December 2022

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