AnnRpt2000. book

 
The Australian National University Annual Report 2000
 
10
The Endowment for Excellence, started in 1996, now
stands at $112 million. External funding reached $24 mil-
lion in 2000. The benefits of interest earned by the En-
dowment were widely distributed over 90 scholarships,
bursary and prize funds, and support for 12 academic
posts, including 10 professorial chairs. Funds have also
been directed to a diverse range of university activity in-
cluding the Australian Dictionary of Biography, confer-
ences, research activities, lectures, art exhibitions and
musical performances.
 
Research performance
 
For the second year, ANU Faculties topped the list of in-
stitutions gaining the most Australian Research Council
(ARC) Large Grant funding per academic staff member.
The Faculties will receive $2.28 million in new grants for
2001, about $3,700 per academic staff member.
The ANU received $5.17 million in ARC Grants an-
nounced in October, with 16 ARC research fellowships
also awarded to ANU — the second highest of any insti-
tution. In addition, ANU will receive $223,444 in grants
to collaborate with industry and $1.6 million in Research
Infrastructure (Equipment and Facilities) grants.
Research advances during 2000 were significant. A small
selection includes the following:
•
In research that has applications for the design of
robots and navigation systems, researchers at the Research
School of Biological Sciences have discovered that honey-
bees perform a ‘direction dance’ to communicate direc-
tions and distance. The bees use their vision to gauge how
far they have flown and then convert that to a specific
dance when they return to the hive — indicating to the
other bees where the food sources are.
•
Researchers at the John Curtin School of Medical
Research identified a large set of genes that regulate cell
growth in the immune system on mice. The research
revealed key details about how the body defends itself
from internal and external attacks. In the future, the find-
ings could be used to develop better pharmaceutical drugs
to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthri-
tis, lymphoma and other immune problems including
transplant rejects.
•
In a new version of ‘hands on’ research, an epidemiol-
ogist at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Popu-
lation Health has identified a simple and effective way to
control the spread of infections in childcare centres
through the use of innovative, but simple, infection con-
trol measures by staff. The research established a world
first in showing that the spread of common cold virus in
childcare centres can be inhibited by attention to hand
contact and hand care.
•
Trials of an AIDS vaccine developed at the John Cur-
tin School of Medical Research, CSIRO and the Univer-
sity of Melbourne will start before the end of 2001. A
consortium led by the University of New South Wales
and including ANU will conduct the trials following a
$27 million commercial contract with the US National
Institutes of Health.
•
Solar technology developed at ANU began providing
power to the Rockingham campus of Murdoch University
in Perth in August. The trial solar power station is the
result of a research and development program at the Cen-
tre for Sustainable Energy Systems in conjunction with
Solarhart Industries. It is the first commercial scale dem-
onstration of the new technology that has a concentrated
solar intensity of 25 times greater than normal.
•
Chemists at the Research School of Chemistry and
the National University of Singapore developed a new
methodology to better understand chemical reactions.
The computer modelling methodology allows scientists
to ‘see’ how atoms move in the formation of chemicals
and in chemical reactions. The computer software and the
methodology are now available free to scientists world-
wide.
•
Scientists at the Research School of Earth Sciences
coordinated efforts to gauge the affect of the biggest
earthquake recorded in the world — a magnitude eight
earthquake off the coast of Papua New Guinea in Novem-
ber. Initial studies showed that part of New Britain near
the centre of the earthquake had shifted nearly a metre as
a result of plate movement. The School conducts a tec-
tonic monitoring program in PNG in collaboration with
the Rabaul Volcano observatory and the Department of
Surveying and Land Studies and the Papua University of
Technology
 
The information environment
 
Implementation of the University’s policy of having an ad-
vanced information infrastructure moved ahead substan-
tially during 2000. This work focuses on four priorities:
providing systems which facilitate learning; establishing
frameworks to support research, collaborations and publi-
cations; managing scholarly information and the transfor-
mation of library services; and responding to globalisation
of higher education and building partnerships. Advances
during 2000 were directed towards establishing an inte-
grated system to support research, teaching and learning as
well as administrative activity. The new Division of Infor-
mation, which will carry out this work, will be formally es-
tablished in 2000.
As previously reported, ANU has begun an $18 million
University-wide administrative computing system up-
grade using technology supplied by Peoplesoft. The com-
missioning in 1999 of the new financial system meant the
development of the human resource modules had the ma-
jor priority during 2000. Work also began on the student
administrative system.
A new group, Scholarly Technology Services, was estab-
lished during 2000 to assist academic staff in a range of in-
formation technology applications for research and
teaching.
Work has begun on modernising the University web site.

---