ARNAM has officially released its 2007 Annual Report, see the complete report including appendices (90pgs - 8.9MB PDF).

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ARNAM 2006 Annual Report

ARNAM has officially released its 2006 Annual Report, see the report here (229KB PDF).

See the complete report including appendices (198pgs - 8.8MB PDF).

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ARNAM 2005 Annual Report

ARNAM has officially released its 2005 Annual Report, see the report here.

See the complete report including appendices (13.8MB PDF).

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Annual Report Index

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1. Introduction

The ARNAM network has been effectively up and running for a little over a year now. A planning session for around 80 members was held at Monash University in early 2005 and the recommendations of this meeting now form the basis for ARNAM governance, committees, programs and activities. The planning meeting also revised the network aims and priorities and generally resulted in a high level of enthusiasm among members. Since then the network has gained considerable momentum, whereby many of the initiatives relating to activities and events have been translated to some considerable achievements of benefit to the entire materials research community.

This report outlines the objectives and achievements of the network over the past year and a quarter. The network aims and objectives are outlined in section 2 and in section 3 we report on key initiatives and progress towards achieving the four broad aims of ARNAM. Section 4 outlines the information and impact of ARNAM’s new website, including the interactive research profiles and facilities databases. Membership information is given in section 5 and ARNAM governance and committee structures are outlined in section 6. The national benefit of the network is summarized in section 7 and some future directions highlighted in section 8. The financial statement is in Section 9. In addition, we provide extensive additional data, including examples of website information, databases, membership lists and funded programs in appendices at the back of the report.

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2. Goals and Objectives

The Australian Research Network for Advanced Materials (ARNAM) links together scientists and engineers from diverse disciplines under the one banner to substantially enhance the impact and outcomes of materials research.

The Network's research profile is based around the production, processing, characterization, theory and properties of advanced materials, covering bulk, nearsurface and thin films. The manufacturing industry and end-user focus of the research covers the following areas:

1. Materials drivers for high tech IT, communications and sensor applications
2. Innovative structural and functional materials for diverse applications
3. Materials solutions for advanced manufacturing
4. Materials for a sustainable Australia

ARNAM aims to foster materials research interactions not only to enrich the research in the four chosen areas but to open up entirely new cross-disciplinary opportunities under the heading of emerging materials technologies.

ARNAM through its multidisciplinary workshops and focus on materials issues at the boundaries of traditional disciplines, encourages the building of non-traditional research teams and collaborations.

For research students and ECRs, ARNAM will, through its web-site, communication channels and awareness programs, focus on substantially improving the awareness of and access to materials research expertise, facilities and interdisciplinary opportunities across the country and internationally.

ARNAM aims to link with Future Materials and other industry bodies in engaging the materials research community with industry both to assist them with materials problem solving and to maximize technology transfer and commercialization opportunities emanating from the country's innovative materials research.

A key aim of ARNAM is to build upon such existing international research links by using the breadth and depth of ARNAM's research programs and capabilities to enhance and expand the scope of international research collaborations and also to establish formal agreements with appropriate materials networks and bodies in other countries and regions.

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3. Network Progress and Initiatives

In this section, we report against the network’s four main aims, outline initiatives related to each aim and indicate progress to date.

3.1 Aim 1: To enhance research collaboration, interchange of research results and ideas.

Initiatives:
• Disseminate materials R & D news and information amongst as many researchers as possible via attracting a wide membership that are accessible through posting on ARNAM's website and ARNAM’s cross disciplinary committees.

• Hold a large interdisciplinary materials workshop annually as a focus event around the annual general meeting.

• Provide seed funding for specialist topical and interdisciplinary workshops and conferences.

• Develop tangible links and programs with other research networks.

• Take a lead role in bringing the community together for cooperative grant applications.

• Develop links with international research networks and organisations.

• Develop a web-based newsletter and communication channels to report and promote materials research across the country.

Progress:
• Wide advertising and ease of on-line registration of ARNAM membership has led to a rapidly growing membership, with over 300 national members to date (see Appendix 3).

• Our website has become an essential resource for our membership for materials news and information, with the expertise and facilities databases particularly important for stimulating collaborative research and access to facilities across the country (see section 4 and Appendices 2, 4, 6, 7, 8).

• A planning workshop was held at Monash university in early 2005 that lead to the establishment of cross-disciplinary working committees and their terms of reference, as well as the articulation of major initiatives for the network over the next year.

• The 2006 annual event is a major national interdisciplinary materials workshop to be held in Brisbane in June 2006 (ARNAM2006). This workshop is focused on presentations by early career researchers and research students across the whole materials spectrum and 114 abstracts have been received to date. In addition, experienced researchers from overseas and nationally will present several keynote overviews of materials research. ARNAM is heavily subsidizing the travel and accommodation of all ECR and student presenters at the workshop (see workshop flier in Appendix 9).

• ARNAM has funded 5 specialist, interdisciplinary workshops that have brought together researchers from across the country, with a very high representation from ECRs and research students. For example, a nanoindentation workshop in 2005 (see attached report in Appendix 5) brought together diverse research communities. The focus was on presentations by ECRs and research students, with tutorial-type presentations by established researchers. Applications for support of events are made on-line from the web site and an events committee 7 reviews applications and recommends support to the ARNAM executive committee.

• ARNAM has been proactive in bringing the materials community together to provide submissions to NCRIS and more recently to assist the newly-appointed facilitators to put together proposals in the areas of characterization and fabrication.

• ARNAM has attempted to link to and coordinate activities with other research networks, particularly other ARC networks. Examples are: sharing IT support and information on websites, as well as the coordination of ARNAM2006 with an international nanoscience and technology conference organized by the ARC Nanotechnology Network. In the latter case, both networks are able to share funding support for ECRs and research students who are attending both events.

• ARNAM has taken steps to formalize links with several international networks. For example, the World-wide Materials Network was established a year ago and ARNAM was asked to become a founding member and also to make a keynote presentation at its first meeting. Other links being forged are with EU research networks and the Global Nanotechnology Network. ARNAM also has key members of these international networks on its Advisory Board.

• Through its communications committee, ARNAM has recruited a science writer to take examples of materials research and develop articles for the network members and the general public. The plan is for such articles to be a regular feature on the ARNAM web site.

• We note that the member publications list for 2005 indicate over 1000 publications in total, with an estimated 40% involving multi-institutional authorship. We will monitor this number in subsequent years to gauge the Network's influence on increased collaboration.

3.2 Aim 2: To enhance access to expertise, facilities and cooperation, particularly in areas of materials research at the boundaries of traditional disciplines.

Initiatives:
• Web-based information services of available materials expertise and facilities.

• Provision of bursaries for travel and accommodation.

• Sponsoring of distinguished speakers.

• Encourage interdisciplinary events.

Progress:
• ARNAM has developed expertise and facilities databases connected to an interactive web site that allows members to search and identify specific expertise and facilities that are available across the country. Examples of web site information are given in Appendices 6 and 7.

• ARNAM has funded 11 researchers to undertake collaborative visits to other institutions to access expertise and facilities not available locally, with a further 8 applications under consideration. The ECR/student committee reviews and recommends support for ECR/student collaborative visits and the ARNAM executive committee does the same for programs involving more experienced researchers (Details in Appendix 1).

• The distinguished speaker program in now underway with two international speakers funded to date, in addition to several others funded to attend specialist workshops. Several new applications in the pipeline.

• All of the 5 specialist workshops to date have been interdisciplinary, as is the ARNAM2006 workshop. Without ARNAM support, this diverse participation at interdisciplinary events would not have occurred (See Appendix 1).

3.3 Aim 3: To enhance research training and career opportunities for students/early career researchers (ECRs), and to help them to connect with the materials community, nationally and internationally.

Initiatives:
• Web-based information services of available materials resources.

• Provision of bursaries for travel and accommodation.

• Holding an annual ECR workshop as a forum for disseminating research.

• Setting up of working committees for ECR and student matters.

• Mentoring programs for research students and ECRs by more senior researchers.

• Sponsoring of distinguished speakers to present at ECR/student meetings.

• Setting up ECR/student-specific web information.

• Encouraging collaboration amongst ECRs and fostering joint grant applications.

Progress:
• Much of the information on the web site is geared towards ECRs and research students (see section 4 below). For example, the databases previously mentioned are a resource that is particularly valuable for seeking out expertise and facilities amongst ARNAM members. In addition, application forms for collaborative research support of ECRs/students and other travel/visiting scientist support are easy to access from the web site.

• ARNAM has established an ECR/students committee to undertake a number of tasks (see terms of reference in section 6). This committee, under the mentorship of an experienced researcher (Professor Michelle Simmons, Federation Fellow), has been extremely active in developing a number of initiatives for ECRs/students including various funding schemes for collaboration, visiting scientist support, recommending strong involvement of ECRs/students in workshop organization and targeted support for ECRs/students at such workshops. All initiatives have been accepted by the ARNAM Management Board. As indicated in Appendix 1 there have been more than 10 ECRs/student collaborative visits supported to date and all 5 specialist workshops have received support that has gone almost exclusively to ECR/student travel and accommodation.

• There will be a session at the forthcoming ARNAM2006 workshop for ECRs/students to meet together to plan events, collaboration and joint applications for funding.

3.4 Aim 4: To connect with industry both directly and through links with industry associations and networks.

Initiatives:
• Develop a close working relationship with Future Materials (an industry-based network funded by AusIndustry) as a primary means of connecting to Australian industry.

• Link with the prime professional society in the materials space as a means of promoting the research capabilities of the network more widely.

• Establish a database of research capabilities that can be promoted to industry.

• Connect with the broader community through appropriate communication of materials research together with its applications and end uses.

Progress:
• Cooperated with Future Materials (FM) in database development. FM has advertised Australia’s research capabilities to their industry members. The CEO of FM is on the ARNAM Board.

• Materials Australia (MA), the peak materials professional association has agreed to links with ARNAM. MA has actively promoted ARNAM to members and advertised the materials research capabilities in their magazine, including articles by ARNAM’s science writer. MA has sponsored the ARNAM2006 workshop and their CEO is on the ARNAM communication committee.

• The ARNAM capability databases have been promoted to industry not only through FM and MA but through other industry associations such as AEEMA and AIG.

• ARNAM has sponsored a Nova (Academy of Science) web site on Advanced Materials which should go live within the next month as one of the avenues for connecting to the community.

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4. Website - http://www.materials.com.au

The new website was launched in August . This invitaitive has not only made a great visual improvement but has also made the website more useful and interactive, with many databases and informative pages. It is possible to search the information from any of our databases, and all application forms are now conveniently online. Since the launch of the new website our membership has more than doubled, increasing from 143 members to more than 300. The website features searchable databases for information on the following:

• Profiles of each Member including contact details, research, activities and a photo for around 300 records (see Appendix 7).
• Organisation/Departments represented by the members (around 80 records as shown in Appendix 2)
• Facilities lists for each Organisation/Department (around 600 records as shown in Appendix 4)
• Events concerning materials science being held nationally and internationally (around 40 records as shown in Appendix 8)

All of the information in the databases is linked and related, for example each member profile has a link directly to the page for the organisation/department listing which includes all other members from the same department and facilities available there.

In the near future we intend to improve this interactivity further by creating an administration section for each member, so they can edit their online member profile at any time, including updating publication lists.

Exposure

The ARNAM website also rates very highly on many Google searches, with more than 60% of our visitors coming to our site from Google. In some instances it is the only resource available on the internet for facilities and researcher details.

Hits

The ARNAM website has received on average per day 135 pages viewed by 35 different visitors (excluding any visitors from RSPhysSE so as not to overstate the number by including administration), though this figure is steadily increasing over time.

Usage

Popular pages

The most popular pages on the site (excluding the home page) are the often colourful and informative member profiles, though many of the informative pages on the site are regularly perused by visitors to the site also. In the following table is information about the most popular pages on the site, though these figures exclude any access by ANU so the figures are not artificially inflated by administrative access to pages.

In many instances the ARNAM pages are accessed directly from Google or some other search engine or reference. Approximately 30% of visitors to our events page, and 5% of visitors to our profiles page access the page directly from elsewhere on the internet, suggesting that the links were featured or had rated highly in a search.

Searches within the site

The interactive search facilities within the site were also used by many visitors.

Though it is nearly impossible to know precisely what the intention of a search is, from an analysis of the searches that were performed within the site, in very general terms it appears that:

• around one half of all searches are for a particular researchers name.
• around one third of all searches are for research applications (eg, “Polymer+nanofibres+Electrospinning”, “epoxidized+natural+rubber”)
• the remaining around 20% of searches were for events, facilities and particular organisations.

International demographics

There is a surprising amount of interest in the ARNAM website from outside of Australia. 40% of visitors are viewing the site from a country other than Australia and there were visitors from 81 different countries.

12% of visitors are viewing the site in a language other than English and the site was translated into 23 different languages. The following table contains information about the proportion of visitors from different countries.

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5. Membership Categories and Groups

A detailed membership list is given in Appendix 3, indicating that ARNAM now has over 300 members from across the country. This section provides information on the distribution of that membership. Note that our definition of an ECR is that the submission of PhD was within the past 5 years.

Distribution of membership

Experienced Researcher (ER)	56.5%
Early Career Researcher (ECR)	15.6%
Student	27.9%

Representation by Organisation

1

Organisation	Type	Departments	Members	ERs	ECRs	Stdnt	Affil
ANU	university	18	71	43	15	12	1
Curtin	university	2	3	3
Deakin	university	1	16	3	4	9
Flinders	university	1	15	1	1	13
Griffith	university	1	1			1
LaTrobe	university	1	1	1
Monash	university	2	16	8	2	6
QUT	university	1	2	2
RMIT	university	1	1	1
UAdelaide	university	3	4	2	1	1
UCanberra	university	1	1		1
UMelbourne	university	3	14	5	2	7
UNewcastle	university	1	5	4	1
UNSW	university	6	40	22	8	10
UQ	university	5	16	12	2	2
USouthAust	university	3	9	6
USydney	university	9	34	19	3	12
UTS	university	2	4	2	1	1
UWA	university	4	12	6	2	4
UWollongong	university	3	11	9	2
ANSTO	statutory	3	11	10	1
CSIRO	statutory	1	2	2	1
DSTO	statutory	1	1	1	1
Advanced Nano	commercial	1	1	1	1
Comalco Ltd	commercial	1	1	1
Materials Australia Ltd	commercial	1	1				1
Nixus Ltd	commercial	1	1	1			1
		77	294	164	46	81	3

as at 28/03/06

DEST lists 35 Universities & Other Self-accrediting Institutions which do scientific research, and of these 20 (57%) participate in the ARNAM network. All members of the “Group of 8” universities participate, and these members generally represent 70% of the network. In fact, within the breadth of materials research defined by ARNAM, we believe that ARNAM has members from all relevant public institutions engaged in such research.

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6. Governance and Committees

Introduction

ARNAM's governance is built around a representative management committee that meets twice yearly under the chairmanship of Dr Greg Tegart. This Committee sets the guidelines for ARNAM operations, committee structure and overall budget approval. All the committees report to the Management Committee. The Executive Committee, consisting of the Node Managers constitutes the effective day-to-day working committee that approves grants and funding within the guidelines approved by the Management Committee.

ARNAM has 3 working groups that review funding proposals, events and communications and other initiatives and make recommendations to the Executive Committee for approval. A national and international Advisory Committee has been established to provide a sounding board for ARNAM's performance, plans and initiatives. This Committee meets (by conference call once yearly) and is particularly important for linking with industry and other networks both nationally and internationally. ARNAM has four broad research areas (and communities) that are managed by Node Managers that form the Executive of ARNAM. The nodes ensure that the interest of their sub- communities are catered for, particularly in terms of events and workshops.

Network Convenor
Professor Jim Williams, Australian National University
Node Managers:
Professor Jim Williams, ANU
responsible for
Materials drivers for high tech IT, communications and sensor applications
Professor David Young, UNSW
responsible for
Innovative structural and functional materials for diverse applications
Professor Liangchi Zhang, USyd
responsible for
Materials solutions for advanced manufacturing
Dr George Collins, ANSTO
responsible for
Materials for a sustainable Australia
Network Manager
Belinda Barbour, Australian National University

6.1 Management Committee Membership

Chair: Dr Greg Tegart
Professor Jim Williams
Professor Liangchi Zhang
Professor David Young
Dr George Collins
Elected Members:
Membership Representative: Professor Gordon Parkinson, Curtin University
ECR/Student Representative: Dr Chris Hutchinson, Monash University
Student Representative: Dr Jamie Quinton, Flinders University

6.2 Advisory Committeee Membership

Chair: Dr Greg Tegart
Convenor: Professor Jim Williams
Current Members:
Professor BVR Chowdari,
President MRS - Singapore
Professor David Cockayne
Oxford University
Dr Nicholas Hartley
European Commission
Dr Merrilea Mayo
Director, GUIRR
National Academy of Sciences, USA
Mr Angus Robinson
Chief Executive
Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association
Dr Alan Taub
Research Director
General Motors Research and Development, USA
Mr William Wachsman
Executive Officer
Future Materials Australia

6.3 Executive Committee Membership

Professor Jim Williams, ANU
Professor Liangchi Zhang, USyd
Professor David Young, UNSW
Dr George Collins, ANSTO

6.4 Working Committees

As part of the networking strategies and programs, the ARC Australian Research Network for Advanced Materials has set up the following interdisciplinary working committees.

Nominations for the various committees were received from the membership and the Executive Committee chose the membership from received nominations. The Terms of Reference were developed and accepted by the ARNAM Management Committee.

6.4.1 ECR/Student Committee Membership

Professor Michelle Simmons - Mentor
Director of the Atomic Fabrication Facility and Federation Fellow
The University of New South Wales
Dr Julie Cairney (ECR)
The University of Sydney
Dr Chris Hutchinson (ECR)
Monash University,
Mr Aravind Dasari (Student)
The University of Sydney
Mr David Oliver (Student)
Australian National University

Terms of Reference
This subcommittee’s role will be to identify issues and initiatives that are important to students and early career researchers (ECR) thereby enhancing their research experience and career prospects.

It’s charter is to establish initiatives targeted towards students and ECRs such as organizing scientific meetings, workshops and events, mentoring programs, recommending travel bursaries, setting up ECR-specific web information, encouraging collaboration and fostering joint grant applications. The committee will be expected to recommend budget break-up across initiatives in future years

6.4.2 Events Committee Membership

Chair: Dr Jian Feng Nie
Monash University
Associate Professor Mark Hoffman
University of New South Wales
Dr Jin Zou
University of Queensland
Dr Jody Bradby
The Australian National University

Terms of Reference
This subcommittee will be responsible for setting up processes for soliciting ideas and event applications, reviewing applications, recommending appropriate Network events including conferences, workshops, industry days, sponsored colloquia etc.

6.4.3 Communications/Outreach Committee Membership

Chair: Professor Jim Williams
The Australian National University
Dr Nagarajan Valanoor - ECR Representative
University of NSW
Dr Tania Vodenitcharova - Membership representative
University of Sydney
Ms Maruta Rodan
CEO of Materials Australia
Mr David Salt
The Australian National University
Ms Elena Nobleza
The Australian National University

Terms of Reference
The role of the Communications/Outreach Sub-Committee is to develop methods of communication to connect with its members. The Committee will also discuss and develop appropriate outreach activities for the network and communicate them (with budget) to the Executive and Management Committees for further discussion and selection of key initiatives to be supported.

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7. Contribution to National Benefit

The national/community benefits and outreach programs are the following:

• ARNAM has focused on advanced materials as a major national research priority area under 'Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries' and hence, with its interdisciplinary emphasis and strong national and international collaboration, boost Australia's materials research impact as an enabling science and technology for supporting and stimulating Australian manufacturing industry. The ARNAM program on 'materials for a sustainable Australia' will also contribute to a further national priority: 'An environmentally Sustainable Australia'.
• ARNAM will train innovative research students and ECRs so that they are exposed to a broad range of complementary approaches to materials research from diverse disciplines, as well as enabling access to a range of experimental facilities across the country. This will enrich their research experience, open up improved employment prospects and better equip them for the manufacturing workforce.
• ARNAM will provide a one-stop shop for industry to access materials information and research, as well as providing updates on new materials technologies, by linking with organizations like the industry-based Australian Materials Technology Network.
• ARNAM will play a strong role in promoting the benefits of its research to the community by encouraging its member organizations and individual members to engage in public debate and take part in public lectures. Some memers of ARNAM have already been heavily involved in these activities such as the public lecture series out of Melbourne Physics and the ANU. In the latter case, joint public lectures on different topics in materials and their impact on society have been undertaken over the past two years with Questacon. Such activities will be expanded through ARNAM support with a further aim of connecting with school students to enthuse them with the excitement of materials as a way of encouraging them to further their studies in appropriate science and engineering disciplines.
• ARNAM also envisages a role in communicating and promoting the outcomes of materials research to the government and the community by working up appropriate case studies that articulate the industry/community benefits of Australian materials research.
• More generally, ARNAM will communicate the full spectrum of its activities in materials in a number of ways: through its website information content; by public lectures and direct engagement with the community and school students; by linking with industry bodies to better communicate with a wider group of industries; by providing support for writing up 'good new' materials stories for the popular press; by encouraging its members to publish in high impact journals, and promote Australian materials researchers as suitable invited speakers at international meetings; and by linking with international networks to use their communication channels to promote Australian research.

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8. Future Directions and Concluding Remarks

Over the past year and a quarter, ARNAM has made considerable progress towards achieving its key aims. Major successes include our interactive website, our support of interdisciplinary events, both for the whole materials membership and for specialist subfields, and our programs and funding to support collaboration and networking amongst ECRs and research students. Over the next year, as well as increasing our momentum in these areas of initial achievement, the network wants to move forward in the following areas:

• Act as a platform for bringing the community together to plan for major national research initiatives involving, for example, NCRIS coordination, grant submissions for Centres of Excellence and CRCs.
• Increase our interaction with industry and industry bodies to open up our considerable research resources for the benefit of industry and larger scale R&D programs with industry.
• Increase our membership, particular in the areas of research students and industry members.
• Look towards holding a major international interdisciplinary materials conference with the assistance of other networks and bodies.

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