Perspective: Australia’s research capital is ... Melbourne!

by Niall Byrne, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au

Melbourne is Australia’s research capital. According to the Nature Index, published overnight in Nature, Melbourne was Australia’s leading city in terms of high-quality science output in 2015, followed by Sydney.
The index also shows that Brisbane saw the fastest growth in output between 2012 and 2015, and is home to the highest-placed institution in Australia, the University of Queensland.

The top 10 science organisations in Australia, according to the Nature Index are…

UQ, Monash, ANU, UniMelb, UNSW, USyd, CSIRO, UWA, Adelaide Uni, and Curtin.

The order hasn’t changed since Nature published their global index in April, but in today’s 2016 Nature Index Australia and New Zealand they’ve delved down into the performance by city, and by field of science.

• Brisbane is rising fast up the list due to its strength in the life sciences, and the University of Queensland tops the list of Australian institutions.
• Sydney punches above its weight in the physical sciences, especially with the opening of new nanoscience and quantum physics labs this year at UNSW and the University of Sydney.
• Melbourne still leads the country, and is one of the top 10 most collaborative cities in the world, according to the index.

There are some funky visualisations of the strengths and connections of Sydney and Melbourne’s research institutes that reveal connections down to Bacchus Marsh (leaders in genetics, but why?).

Here’s a snapshot of a bit of the Melbourne graphic. See the details at: nature.index.qa.210.129.136.196.nip.io/supplements/nature-index-2016-australia-and-new-zealand/sydney-melbourne