Environmental disasters and the RQF

I have been wading through information about the Research Quality Framework (RQF). The RQF is "an Australian Government initiative to formulate a world's best practice framework for evaluating research quality and the impact of research, it will ensure public funding is being invested in research which will deliver real benefits to the wider community".

According to the Hon Julie Bishop MP, "There is currently no comprehensive way to measure the quality or the impact of research conducted in Australian universities or the benefits to the wider community. The RQF will assess research against international benchmarks based on its quality and impact and will provide transparency about public investment in research.

"This will encourage greater investment from Australia's business community, which needs a better way to locate Australia's leading researchers in particular fields."

It is this last statement that makes me worry on two counts: it does not seem to encourage basic research and by seeking too much business funding, we may inadvertently unleash a monster.

Here is my example.

Business would have loved the mechanical engineer and self-taught chemist, Thomas C Midgley Jr. His research lead to the discovery of two highly profitable solutions to problems that were causing concern in his day.

In 1921, Midgley used the trends in the periodic table with T A Boyd of The General Motors Research Laboratory to develop tetraethyl lead (C₂H₅)4Pb. This petrol additive overcame knocking in petrol motors and was hailed as a breakthrough in motor performance and efficiency. Today, the cost for the environmental damage caused by leaded petrol is astronomical.

Midgley also developed carbon tetrafluoride (CF₄), a cleaning agent, and then in 1930, dichlorofluoromethane (CCl₂F₂), later called 'Freon'. These 'wonder' chemicals made refrigeration systems much safer as they were without the toxicity or flammability of the alternatives - ammonia, sulfur dioxide and chloromethane. The safety of freon was demonstrated to the American Chemical Society in 1930 when Midgley inhaled a lungful of the new wonder gas and breathed it out onto a candle flame which was extinguished, showing its non-toxic and non-flammable properties.

I guess that it is a pity that this same lungful of CFC is probably still ravaging the ozone layer today.

Any way, back to my original assertion - if business decisions become the principal drivers behind scientific research, we could allow a Thomas C Midgley clone to be nominated for a Nobel Prize.

I would love to receive some feedback about how universities are approaching the RQF.