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Research & Development Management

Innovative Research Universities Australia

A collaborative research alliance called the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) Australia brings together six institutions from five States which share a commitment to innovation and an inter-disciplinary focus.

The members are:

	Murdoch University Perth, WA		Macquarie University Sydney, NSW
	Griffith University Griffith, QLD		La Trobe University Melbourne, VIC
	Newcastle University Newcastle, NSW		Flinders University Adelaide, SA

Flinders' Vice-Chancellor, Professor Anne Edwards, is the inaugural convenor.

All six universities were founded in an environment of intense competition against one or more existing well established universities in the same State that had accumulated substantial resources, reputations and business and community networks.

All have since developed ways of making themselves distinctive by embracing innovative approaches to teaching, research and community practices, adopting alternative organisational structures, commercialisation and actively recruiting students from more diverse backgrounds than are typically found in the longer-established universities.

Building on this basis, IRU Australia will use its combined resources to increase and extend the activities of the member universities in research, teaching and learning, international programs, commercial enterprises, regional initiatives and engagement with business, professions and communities.

All six universities stress the importance of a strongly student-focussed learning environment, with schemes to promote access, equity, and diversity, and place emphasis on multiple modes of delivery, integrating the new educational technologies into high quality face-to-face teaching. Research performance and innovation will feature prominently in joint projects being planned by the group.

Restricted viewing to Murdoch Only:
Performance statistics on IRU Australia