Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
Background
On 3 April 2008 universities were advised of the release of the 2008 Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Australian Research Council (ARC).
The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, has announced that the 2008 ANZSRC will be a primary tool for defining disciplines and the make-up of discipline clusters in the Government's Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative
The ABS has suggested that the implementation of the ANZSRC begin from 1 April 2008, with the aim of having organisations using the new classification from 1 January 2009.
Classifications
The ANZSRC is the collective name for a set of three related classifications:
There has been no change to the TOA which consists of pure basic research, strategic basic research, applied research and experimental development.
The FOR and SEO (replacing RFCD and current SEO codes) classifications have been expanded by 40% to enable greater accuracy in data collection and analysis, especially in emerging fields of research such as nanotechnology and climate change.
Implementation
During the remainder of 2008 Research and Innovation Services will undertake a mapping exercise whereby all RFCD and SEO codes attached to projects, publications, Individual Research Portfolios, postgraduate research students and any other research activity will be mapped to the new ANZSRC codes.
It is anticipated that the majority of the mapping will be automatic however, where currently assigned RFCD codes have changed to multiple FOR codes RIS may need to contact individual researchers for their new classification.
Further information regarding the conversion exercise will be announced as the project progresses.
List of new codes
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) 2008 (PDF file, 4.5mb) - provides details on exclusions etc.