The Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia has queried by The Australian Research Council's (ARC) is not funding academic business research.

 

James Guthrie, Head of Academic Relations with the Institute said it was disappointing to see many of Australia’s business researchers unsuccessful in gaining funding under the ARC’s recent  linkage grants.

 

“Interestingly, of all the linkage applications lodged by accounting academics in business schools across the 38 universities in Australia, only one project on integrated reporting from UNSW received any funding,” he said.

“In addition, only four of the 185 grants awarded, which involved tens of millions of dollars, went to a commerce-related project code. This is surprising as over 30% of university academics would be in the business faculties.”

 

Mr Guthrie said that the Institute funds accounting and business related research projects, but the profession also needed long term support from the ARC.

 

“I urge ARC to turn their attention to funding more accounting and business related research, which I would argue is just as important as funding environment, science and medical research. After all, business is the heart of our economy. We need to stay innovative and be equipped to meet future challenges and most importantly, act in the public interest.”