AusAid has just launched a new Research Strategy that will cover the period 2012-2016. Of particular interest is the continued commitment to supporting research-to-policy systems and research communication; and the emerging emphasis on greater transparency, partly achieved by creating better access to the research it funds (and again with a focus on effective communication).

The key elemets taken from the strategy are as follows:

The AusAID Research Strategy is aligned to the purpose and strategic goals of the Australian Government’s aid policy An Effective Aid Program for Australia.

The purpose of AusAID’s research program is to improve the quality and effectiveness of Australian aid in developing countries. To deliver an effective research program which provides better value for money, AusAid will:

• ensure all research helps improve the effectiveness of Australia’s aid program
• increase the proportion of competitively funded research
• enhance our performance oversight through stronger governance,
• evaluation and risk management strengthen strategic partnerships that progress mutually beneficial research goals
• increase use of our research by improving access to it both within
• AusAID and to others by promoting greater transparency
• build capacity to perform and use research in Australia and in our partner countries.

In support of the transparency agenda in the Government’s aid policy AusAid will:

• improve the communication of research by requiring all research projects to have titles, reports and papers written in plain English
• launch an online research database containing the AusAID funded research evidence
• require researchers to publish in open access journals, or make
• pre-publication versions of their work available
• support intermediary