Director's Message
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue21 1–31 October 2021
October looks like being an extended good news/bad news story. On the one hand, there is the good news that COVID-19 restrictions may be gradually eased and that international travel may again become possible from November; on the other hand, COVID-19 case numbers look likely to continue to rise for some time to come, although the ACT is now doing remarkably well on vaccinations and seems on track to achieve high levels of double-dose coverage. How all of this will affect the ANU in general and RSAA in particular remains to be seen - patience remains the watchword and having as many staff and students vaccinated as possible the goal.
The ANU budget for 2022 will take clearer shape during October. Current indications are that at the College and School level there will be few major changes from 2021. Although the University seems to have avoided some of the more dire financial scenarios considered last year, money remains tight and we won’t be seeing a return to an even partially revenue-based model in 2022. Nonetheless, RSAA expects to be in solid financial shape next year and so should be able to continue to invest in our staff and students, and in the key components of the School's mission in research, education, innovation and outreach.
This month will see multiple hiring processes advance at RSAA. The Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics (CGA) is currently in the final stages of recruiting some senior academic staff, while 31 October is the deadline for applications for the two Level C/D/E faculty positions at RSAA (please encourage suitable candidates to apply for the RSAA positions; application information and position descriptions can be found here). An RSAA selection panel will also this month review the applications received for the recently-closed Stromlo Fellowship.
Finally, after prolonged and challenging negotiations, I believe the AAT Consortium is now close to having sufficient commitments from Australian universities to move towards signing an extension of the AAT Agreement that will support operation of the AAT for another three years, through to 30 June 2025. Of course, until the Agreement is signed by all parties there can be no guarantees, but I anticipate this goal should be achieved before the end of the year. Once signed, the ANU will be in a position to extend the contracts of RSAA staff at the AAT for this period and remove the uncertainty that those staff have had to bear during the Consortium negotiations - I sincerely thank them for their patience! For RSAA astronomers, this milestone will introduce a new model of AAT time allocation to grapple with. The $1M/year contributed by ANU will buy us a minimum of 50 nights each semester, and we can choose the fraction of these nights that are to be reserved (allocated internally within ANU) and the fraction that are to be shared (allocated by ATAC, as now). I look forward to some lively discussions on the optimal strategies and procedures for managing these allocations!
Matthew Colless
