Assessing the national productivity impacts of chronic ill health. The project aims to address one of the biggest gaps in health and productivity research by designing a novel composite national metric that will rank lost productivity due to chronic illness The project brings together tax/transfer modelling, health modelling and epidemiological modelling specialists to develop a highly innovative microsimulation model: Health&WorkMOD to then quantify the costs of health-related productivity loss ....Assessing the national productivity impacts of chronic ill health. The project aims to address one of the biggest gaps in health and productivity research by designing a novel composite national metric that will rank lost productivity due to chronic illness The project brings together tax/transfer modelling, health modelling and epidemiological modelling specialists to develop a highly innovative microsimulation model: Health&WorkMOD to then quantify the costs of health-related productivity loss. The proposed model, an international first, will be a powerful tool to comprehensively model the cost impacts of illness and simulate policy options related to health and productivity. This will provide answers to critical policy questions for government with potential significant economic benefits.Read moreRead less
Who You Know or Where You Go? The Role of Formal and Informal Networks in Finding Employment and Maintaining Wellbeing. Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that informal social networks improve well-being and labour market outcomes for the unemployed in Europe. However, no comparable Australian study has been conducted and there is little research on the role of the 'formal' networks represented by employment services programs in Australia or overseas. This project aims to explore unemplo ....Who You Know or Where You Go? The Role of Formal and Informal Networks in Finding Employment and Maintaining Wellbeing. Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that informal social networks improve well-being and labour market outcomes for the unemployed in Europe. However, no comparable Australian study has been conducted and there is little research on the role of the 'formal' networks represented by employment services programs in Australia or overseas. This project aims to explore unemployed people's formal and informal networks and the impact of those networks on employment status and wellbeing. This project aims to inform unemployment policy design and service delivery by providing a greater understanding of the role that social networks play in finding jobs and surviving unemployment.Read moreRead less
Strengthening Health Workforce Migration to Australia and Canada. The project aims to define skilled migration trends in relation to the key fields (medicine, nursing and dentistry). Australia is one of very few countries with an explicit policy to import migrant health professionals. The project plans to assess if the goal of domestic self-sufficiency is likely to be met by 2025 and examine the risk of a ‘two tier’ health workforce developing (with conditionally registered migrants servicing pa ....Strengthening Health Workforce Migration to Australia and Canada. The project aims to define skilled migration trends in relation to the key fields (medicine, nursing and dentistry). Australia is one of very few countries with an explicit policy to import migrant health professionals. The project plans to assess if the goal of domestic self-sufficiency is likely to be met by 2025 and examine the risk of a ‘two tier’ health workforce developing (with conditionally registered migrants servicing patients in undersupplied sectors and sites). It then aims to propose changes to make the migration and health policy systems more effective and ethical in future compared to Canada (Australia’s key global competitor for skilled migrants), through evidence-based policy reform.Read moreRead less
Disability, Welfare and Work. The proposed project will offer significant insights into the experiences of people with a disability in the context of welfare-to-work policies. The project will be able to gauge the extent to which the significant amount of public funds invested in the new welfare-to-work measures is effective. In 2002/03 the Australian Government invested over 300 million dollars in Open Employment assistance. The applied research into conceptual questions such as the correct mod ....Disability, Welfare and Work. The proposed project will offer significant insights into the experiences of people with a disability in the context of welfare-to-work policies. The project will be able to gauge the extent to which the significant amount of public funds invested in the new welfare-to-work measures is effective. In 2002/03 the Australian Government invested over 300 million dollars in Open Employment assistance. The applied research into conceptual questions such as the correct model of disability, the relation of obligation to our understanding of citizenship and associated ethical issues will assist in maintaining Australia at the cutting edge of applied philosophical and sociological research.Read moreRead less
Capturing value on the margins of the global knowledge economy. This project will explain the basis of competitiveness in knowledge economy industries. It is widely understood that high levels of participation in knowledge intensive activities contribute to economic growth and higher wages. There is a need to develop policies to promote Australia's performance in knowledge intensive industries. As such this project addresses a policy problem by analysing the basis of competitiveness in the medic ....Capturing value on the margins of the global knowledge economy. This project will explain the basis of competitiveness in knowledge economy industries. It is widely understood that high levels of participation in knowledge intensive activities contribute to economic growth and higher wages. There is a need to develop policies to promote Australia's performance in knowledge intensive industries. As such this project addresses a policy problem by analysing the basis of competitiveness in the medical instruments and video production industries as exemplar knowledge intensive industries. The findings will provide a basis for formulating new policy support for the knowledge economy which draws on the most recent theoretical insights derived from global production network research.Read moreRead less
Involving children in social research: balancing the risks and benefits. There is a growing consensus that children's involvement in social research is important, but considerable uncertainty remains around children's inclusion in research on 'sensitive' issues, reflecting concerns about how to balance children's protection with their participation. Key to this are deeply embedded assumptions and beliefs about children and childhood, especially concerning notions of capacity, agency, vulnerabili ....Involving children in social research: balancing the risks and benefits. There is a growing consensus that children's involvement in social research is important, but considerable uncertainty remains around children's inclusion in research on 'sensitive' issues, reflecting concerns about how to balance children's protection with their participation. Key to this are deeply embedded assumptions and beliefs about children and childhood, especially concerning notions of capacity, agency, vulnerability, dependency and the like. This project aims to better understand and address the tensions between the protection of children and their participation in research, and to explore how ethics committees, parents, other gatekeepers and children themselves manage and navigate these tensions.Read moreRead less
Engaged Government: A study of government-community engagement for regional outcomes. The devolution of government business to regional government/community partnerships, coupled with the call for greater policy coherence, is challenging all levels of government and communities to collaborate in new ways to deliver regional outcomes. There is little empirical research to guide public managers in determining best value arrangements and strategic investments for building a region's 'collaborative ....Engaged Government: A study of government-community engagement for regional outcomes. The devolution of government business to regional government/community partnerships, coupled with the call for greater policy coherence, is challenging all levels of government and communities to collaborate in new ways to deliver regional outcomes. There is little empirical research to guide public managers in determining best value arrangements and strategic investments for building a region's 'collaborative advantage'. This project will examine the conditions (strategic, structural and procedural) under which multi-sectoral collaboration can deliver policy coherence and positive regional outcomes and identify the costs, benefits, trade-offs and capacities associated with effective multi-sectoral collaboration.
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Empowering Indigenous businesses through improved financial literacy. This project aims to compare the level of financial and commercial literacy of Indigenous and non-Indigenous small business owners. It will analyse financial performance, contrast the support and resources available to Indigenous small business owners in independent and franchised businesses in urban, regional and remote areas of Australia. It is anticipated that the research will promote financial health and sustainability of ....Empowering Indigenous businesses through improved financial literacy. This project aims to compare the level of financial and commercial literacy of Indigenous and non-Indigenous small business owners. It will analyse financial performance, contrast the support and resources available to Indigenous small business owners in independent and franchised businesses in urban, regional and remote areas of Australia. It is anticipated that the research will promote financial health and sustainability of Indigenous businesses and lead to greater levels of financial literacy in Indigenous businesses in the future.Read moreRead less
Futile treatment at the end of life: legal, policy, sociological and economic perspectives. This project explores why and how often doctors provide treatment they believe will not benefit a patient. The project will help us to avoid harm to patients and their families caused by burdensome and unnecessary treatment, and ensure that limited community health resources are spent wisely.
Addressing childcare flexibility. This project aims to identify how best to achieve flexible childcare for the large number of Australian shift-work, professional or casual employees who work outside or beyond standard work hours. Consecutive governments have attempted to intervene in what is now regarded as a childcare flexibility crisis, but their attempts have failed due to fundamental misunderstandings of family needs for affordable, quality care and service providers' business requirements. ....Addressing childcare flexibility. This project aims to identify how best to achieve flexible childcare for the large number of Australian shift-work, professional or casual employees who work outside or beyond standard work hours. Consecutive governments have attempted to intervene in what is now regarded as a childcare flexibility crisis, but their attempts have failed due to fundamental misunderstandings of family needs for affordable, quality care and service providers' business requirements. This project seeks to reconcile family and provider experiences with government cost and quality concerns. It aims to deliver new knowledge on the alignments between stakeholders’ interests so as to offer a way forward in the creation of an affordable, flexible, quality care system.Read moreRead less