To investigate research activities in the mathematical sciences in Australia, and the extent to which current research enables high-level mathematical services to be provided to the nation.
The review ... will complement the ARC review of the mathematical sciences undertaken a decade ago, and provide further opportunities for trend analysis and performance assessment. In view of the increasing demand from industry and business for trained mathematicians and statisticians, and the significant shrinking of mathematical-science departments in Australian universities over the last 10 years, not to mention the concurrent decline in secondary and tertiary enrolments in the mathematical sciences, this is an opportune time to review the discipline again.
Mathematics is an enabling science, underpinning practically all fields of endeavour and innovation. The mathematical sciences are both the currency and the language of research and development, in fields as diverse as information and communications technology, bioinformation science, the analysis of biocomplexity, environmental and natural-resource management, and much of the socio-economic sciences. Advances produced by research in mathematics and statistics are intertwined with the discovery process in many fields, and accelerate progress across the spectrum of science and engineering.
The growth of our economy is fuelled by the technologies to which mathematical-science research contributes. Our banks and finance companies, our resource and engineering companies, our pharmaceutical and agriculture industries, our medical research institutes and many state and federal government departments, employ research-trained mathematicians and statisticians. However, these employers are increasingly reporting difficulty finding the staff they require.
Pharmaceutical companies are cancelling plans to invest in Australia because they cannot find the PhD-level statisticians they need. Resource companies are scouring universities and research institutions abroad to locate the mathematicians they require for modelling and analysis. Our world-famous medical research institutes are struggling to find the mathematical scientists they need to underpin their advances in bioinformatics. Research on water conservation and natural-resource management is being severely limited due to a lack of trained statisticians and modellers. This in turn impinges on Australia’s ability to achieve ecological sustainability. Nowhere is the demand for research-level mathematics more significant than in the world of security, where mathematicians skilled in cryptanalysis and cryptography perform tasks that are critical to the nation’s safety.
Thus, the importance and significance of research in the mathematical sciences to our health, prosperity and security is unchallenged. Yet we have difficulty training sufficiently many research mathematicians in key areas. The mathematical sciences resemble a complex ecosystem; research training in one field of the mathematical sciences is essential to developing skills in another. In order for Australia to produce research mathematicians and statisticians that meet the needs of industry and government, it must perform strongly in research across the breadth of the mathematical sciences.
A review of the mathematical sciences discipline was undertaken by the ARC in 1995. Since that time, Australian universities have witnessed a gradual shrinking of mathematical-science departments, resulting from department mergers, non-replacement of staff, and similar actions. These trends, coupled with declining enrolments in mathematics and statistics programs in Australian universities and high schools, suggest that today there are fewer opportunities for training mathematical scientists than there were a decade ago. On the demand side, as indicated above, industry, business and government sectors are increasingly requiring, but are unable to find, mathematically trained personnel. This mismatch between supply and demand cannot last long without the economy suffering. Hence, there is an urgent need to carry out a comprehensive review of research and research training in the mathematical sciences, and to devise strategies for overcoming the identified inadequacies.
(a) Determining Australia’s strengths in this vital field, and identifying gaps;
(b) assessing the demand for mathematical scientists with various skills and abilities, and determining our capacity to meet the demand;
(c) appraising the international standing of Australian research in the mathematical sciences, and the extent of our coverage of strategically important areas;
(d) ascertaining trends and directions in each of (a)-(c), and assessing the implications of those findings; and
(e) proposing solutions that address any shortcomings.
More specifically, the review will ascertain demand, by the university sector, government and industry, for research-trained mathematical scientists. It will assess the quality and quantity of research in the mathematical sciences in Australia, both within the university sector and more generally. It will report on trends during the last decade, and attempt to forecast trends over the next. Is Australia sufficiently active, relative to the sizes of our population and our scientific community, in frontier areas of the mathematical sciences? Are strategically important fields receiving sufficient attention? Are Australian universities producing sufficiently many doctoral graduates and post-doctoral researchers in the mathematical sciences? Is research training in this discipline able to meet the nation’s needs? What is the impact of Australian mathematical-science research on the mathematical sciences worldwide? In which areas is Australia world-leading, and where do we lack impact? What action should be taken to ensure that Australia will continue to lead in our areas of strength, and what should we do to lift our performance in strategically important fields where we are weak? What can we do to strengthen our work in those fields of the mathematical sciences that directly underpin the economic growth of Australia?The adequacy of funding for research in the mathematical sciences, including funding for Australian and international research students, will be assessed. (Here, “adequacy” should be interpreted as level of funding, flexibility of funding rules, and, more generally, ease of access to funding.)
Career paths for young men and women are as vital to succession planning in research as they are anywhere else, and will be a focal point of the review. In particular, the adequacy of career paths within the university sector, in both theoretical and applied fields of the discipline, will be addressed. The impact of teaching and administrative loads on the research performance of mathematical scientists in universities will be appraised.
The impact of the “brain drain” has come in for significant attention in discussion of research in Australia, and this issue will be considered in the review. Initiatives that might be taken to ameliorate the effects of the brain drain will be considered. In particular, the review will address the ability of Australia to attract highly-trained mathematical scientists from abroad, including expatriate Australians, such as students, who have gone abroad to do doctoral degrees. This is especially important in areas where there is perceived to be too few mathematical scientists to meet the demands of industry, business and government.
Finally, but by no means least, the review will suggest strategies for overcoming all inadequacies that are identified. Recommendations will be formulated from extensive input acquired from national and international sources of expertise.
Maintained and authorized by B.D. Hughes, Executive Director of the Review. Last modified 31 January 2024.