Sydney & Melbourne

SYDNEY & MELBOURNE A TALE OF TWO CITIES Australia’s two largest cities have much to celebrate. A historic rivalry is alive and well in research circles, as both capitals strive to attract the best researchers and produce science that makes a difference, writes Annabel McGilvray.

S58 | NATURE INDEX 2016 | AUSTRALIA©2 0&16 NEWMac m ZEALANDillan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved.

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND | NATURE INDEX CQC2T

here has long been a gentle rivalry medical research institutes. Venture as far as between Australia’s largest cities. People 500 metres and you come across eight more, will argue over which has better weather, including a pair of universities and two lead- T bars and restaurants. Scientific superior- ing public hospitals. ity is also a hotly contested debate. It’s a critical mass of research activity that Melbourne has been home to more Nobel helped Australia’s second most populous city Prize winners, but Sydney can lay claim to the generate a significant lead over its northern team that crafted the mirrors that first detected rival in high-quality science output in 2015. In gravitational waves. Melbourne boasts the that year, 83 Melbourne institutions contrib- Australian Synchrotron, but Sydney now has uted to 1,748 publications in the journals that a nanoscience hub. The list goes on. are part of the index. The greatest contribution So what are the differences in their publish- was in chemistry and the life sciences, driven ing records? The Nature Index allows us to largely by the University of Melbourne and measure variations in high-quality natural sci- Monash University. ence output and collaborations, and provides evidence of where Sydney and Melbourne diverge. Melbourne’s research strength is in chemistry and the life sciences. In Sydney, the physical sciences dominate, with the life sciences second. Melbourne had more institutions publishing high-quality natural science “ONCE YOU HAVE research in 2015: 83, compared to Sydney’s 50. Melbourne also has a greater number of local A CRITICAL collaborations. In fact, the city was ranked as one of the 10 centres around the world with MASS, THEN the most intra-city research partnerships in 2015. However, when Sydney’s research groups YOU HAVE A establish a collaborative link within the city, those partnerships, on average, contribute more to journals in the index than Melbourne’s VIRTUOUS local partnerships. Science doesn’t play favourites; so what are CYCLE.” the reasons behind these differences?

MELBOURNE: A VIRTUOUS CYCLE One of the city’s major life science achieve- POPULATION: 4,529,500 ments last year included the long-sought structural analysis of the protein, plasmepsin 2015 WEIGHTED FRACTIONAL COUNT: 304.78 V, which confirmed its role as the gate- keeper that lets the malaria parasite grow RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS IN 2015: 209 inside human red blood cells. The research, published in Nature Structural & Molecu- RESEARCH FUNDING 2011-2014^: AU$1,802m lar Biology, was an all-Melbourne affair, led by researchers at the city’s Walter and Eliza The UNSW Atom and Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), Magnetic Laboratory is If you were plotting the biomedical research many of whom have joint appointments at part of the ARC Centre of hub of Australia, you would begin on Royal the University of Melbourne, in collaboration Excellence for Quantum Parade, in the central Melbourne area of with scientists at La Trobe University. Fund- Computation and Parkville. Within a radius of less than 250 ing from the Wellcome Trust is helping the Communication. metres there are three of the country’s leading team develop anti-malarial drugs that target

NATURE INDEX | AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

CHEMISTRY STARS plasmepsin V. One of the project leaders, often collaborate. Trapani also says many The top three Melbourne institutions in WEHI’s Justin Boddey, says Melbourne is a Melbourne collaborations are driven by indi- chemistry, measured by WFC, in 2015. hub of world-leading malaria research that has viduals rather than institutions, as in Sydney, built up through decades. which may explain the large number of sepa- Over the years Melbourne has been home rate collaborations in the city. for some of Australia’s science heavyweights However, when considering collaborations, including Nobel Prize winners, MacFarlane increasingly more importance is placed on the Burnet and Peter Doherty. Those two, and need to access the research infrastructure and many others have been centred at WEHI and skills required for particular projects. Monash University the University of Melbourne, says local immu- One recent joint project arose, for example, nologist, Joseph Trapani. “Once you have criti- thanks to WEHI’s great strength in bioin- 43.2 cal mass, then you have a virtuous cycle. It’s formatics — the analysis and interpretation attracting the brightest students and it is also of biological data on a large scale. When bringing back researchers who may be over- Peter Mac researchers wanted to establish seas doing postdocs.” a specific cancer bioinformatics capability, WEHI sits at the centre of what’s widely they approached the WEHI director, Doug known as the ‘Parkville precinct’ and is cred- Hilton, and suggested the organizations ited by many as being the reason the life sci- work together. Peter Mac recruited WEHI’s The University ences are so strong in Melbourne’s research Anthony Papenfuss who now works across of Melbourne landscape. the two institutions, connecting the clinical 29.3 Established in 1915 and, like most of the researchers of Peter Mac to WEHI’s mathe- Parkville institutes, affiliated with the Uni- matical and software expertise, and the com- versity of Melbourne, the WEHI is recognized puting power of its bioinformatics unit. internationally for its work in malaria, cancer, Among the research coming out of this RMIT immunology and increasingly, bioinformat- collaboration has been the analysis of the University ics. Under the leadership of directors such as structure and function of the massive extra 9.6 Burnet, Gustav Nossal, and now Doug Hilton, chromosomes that characterize some rare and host to some of the country’s top medi- cancers, including liposarcomas. cal research infrastructure, it has become a “It’s win–win because they [WEHI] get drawcard for Australia’s best young aspiring access to the clinical data which they crunch medical scientists. informatically, and we get the informatics Trapani is executive director of cancer expertise,” Trapani says. “It has enabled us research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer to generate genomic data and clinical data LEADERS IN LIFE SCIENCES Centre (Peter Mac), which recently relocated and learn how to find the important pearls of The top three Melbourne institutions in the to be within the new Victorian Comprehen- information that you need.” life sciences, measured by WFC, in 2015. sive Cancer Centre (VCCC) and is part of the informal Parkville hub. SYDNEY: A GROWING ECOSYSTEM POPULATION: 4,921.000 The University of Melbourne 2015 WFC: 222.78 32.4 “IT’S WIN–WIN. RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS IN 2015: 64

THEY GET ACCESS RESEARCH FUNDING 2011–2014 ^: $1,288m

TO THE DATA An ecosystem is beginning to build around Monash University the physical sciences in Sydney. Charismatic AND WE GET THE discipline leaders run new labs equipped with 28.8 the latest facilities and, beyond campus bor- INFORMATICS ders, the beginnings of what may become a lucrative industry sector is emerging. Astro- physics, photonics and quantum computing Walter & Eliza EXPERTISE.” are now considered among the city’s science Hall Institute of Medical strengths. 0. Research In 2015, Sydney-based research groups contributed to 738 publications related to the physical sciences in the index. Even when He says the geography of Melbourne’s adjusted for the size of the contribution and research community complements the city’s the discipline, it is clear that the greatest science strengths as well as its collabora- amount of high-quality research in the har- WFC is the contribution to journals included in tions. The VCCC building is down the road bour city is being produced by the physical the index by institutions and, by extension, from WEHI — which is also affiliated with sciences. Life sciences research comes in sec- cities and countries. the new centre — and the two institutions ond, followed by chemistry and PAGE S65

S60 | NATURE INDEX 2016 | AUSTRALIA©2 0&16 NEWMac m iZEALANDllan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved.

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND | NATURE INDEX

Brad Sleebs, Justin Boddey and Tony Hodder from the Division of Infection and Immunity, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, host to some of STEFAN POSTIES STEFAN the country’s top medical research people and infrastructure.

NATURE INDEX | AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

MELBOURNE: THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY The epicentre of science collaborations in Melbourne is the ‘Parkville precinct’ where the city’s heavy-hitters are drawing on the strengths of their neighbours to tackle global challenges.

WHAT’S ON THE MAP MONASH INSTITUTE OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES FC:FC: 7.177.17 Parent: Monash University Lines denote local collaborations on papers included in the CANCER THERAPEUTICS index. Fractional count (FC) is an institution’s contribution FC:FC: 0.010.01 to journals in the index. The strength of a collaboration is the average FC of pairs of institutions based on papers they collaborate on. Collaborations of institutions that are part of a larger university are shown as dashed lines. Read more about index metrics on page S77. THE ROYAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MELBOURNE FC:FC: 1.491.49 THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE FC: 94.32 LEGEND WALTER AND FC: 94.32 ELIZA HALL INSTITUTEINSTITUTE OFOF BIO21 MOLECULAR SCIENCE MEDICAL FRACTIONALFractional countCOUNT (FC) STRENGTH(FC)STRENGTHStrength OF COLLABORATION STRENGTHOF of COLLABORATION collaboration OF COLLABORATION AND BIOTECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE RESEARCH FC:FC: 8.408.40 FC: 11.01 InstitutionsInstitutionsParent: The which InstitutionsUniversity which of Melbourne are are part which part of a ofFC:are parent 11.01 a partparent of a parent FLOREY INSTITUTE OF institutioninstitution haveinstitution have no noACS ACShave and and noare ACSare shown shown and areNEUROSCIENCE shown AND MENTAL HEALTH THE ROYAL WOMEN'S HOSPITAL FC:FC: 4.524.52 FC:FC: 0.040.04 as aas dashed a dashed asline. a line. dashed line.MELBOURNE HEALTH Low High Low High FC:FC: 2.882.88 PETER MACCALLUM CANCER CENTRE HighLowHigh High LowLow HighLowHigh High FC:FC: 3.933.93 BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY FC:FC: 3.633.63

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY FC:FC: 9.569.56

MONASH INSTITUTE OF AUSTIN HEALTH PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES FC:FC: 0.420.42 FC:FC: 7.177.17 Parent:Parent: MonashMonash University

JERSEY AUSTRALIA OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN FC:FC: 0.010.01 CANCER RESEARCH INSTITUTE FC:FC: 0.130.13

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE FC:FC: 94.3294.32 GENETICS AUSTRALIA FC:FC: 0.010.01

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY FC:FC: 0.060.06

BIRDLIFE AUSTRALIA FC:FC: 0.170.17 DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, LAND, WATER AND PLANNING FC:FC: 0.950.95 RMIT BIONICS INSTITUTE FC:FC: 13.813.8 FC:FC: <0.01<0.01 SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH THE ROYAL VICTORIAN OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL ICT AUSTRALIA AND HUMAN SERVICES EYE AND EAR HOSPITAL AUSTRALIAN WOUND MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION FC:FC: 48.548.5 FC:FC: 0.260.26 FC:FC: 0.030.03 FC:FC: 0.410.41 FC:FC: 0.030.03

HOLSTEIN AUSTRALIA FC:FC: 0.010.01 BREAST CANCER BUSH HERITAGE AUSTRALIA EPWORTH HEALTHCARE BREAST CANCER 209 FC:FC: 0.250.25 NETWORK AUSTRALIA Number of collaborations in FC:FC: 0.150.15 AUSTRALIAN DAIRY HERD IMPROVEMENT SCHEME FC:FC: <0.01<0.01 greater Melbourne FC:FC: 0.010.01 AUSTRALIAN DEVONDALE MURRAY GOULBURN SYNCHROTRON FC:FC: 0.010.01 FC:FC: 3.163.16 CSIRO MANUFACTURING FLAGSHIP FC:FC: 12.9812.98 TISSUPATH PTY LTD FC: 0.05 VICTORIAN INSTITUTE OF FORENSIC MEDICINE FC: 0.05 FC:FC: 0.060.06 MONASH UNIVERSITY DEAKIN UNIVERSITY FC:FC: 109.31109.31 FC:FC: 13.2213.22 HUDSON INSTITUTE OF ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS VICTORIA EGO FC:FC: <0.01<0.01 MEDICAL RESEARCH PHARMACEUTICALS FC:FC: 2.712.71 1.3 PTY LTD Average strength of those FC:FC: 0.030.03 collaborations CSIRO OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE FLAGSHIP FC:FC: 13.1713.17 CANCER COUNCIL VICTORIA *CSIRO scores only related to index contributions BURNET INSTITUTE attributed to Melbourne sites. FC:FC: 0.150.15 FC:FC: 1.551.55 ROYAL DISTRICT NURSING SERVICE LIMITED BAKER IDI HEART AND DIABETES INSTITUTE FC:FC: 0.030.03 ALFRED HEALTH FC:FC: 4.074.07 FC:FC: 0.50.5

S62 | NATURE INDEX 2016 | AUSTRALIA©2 0&16 NEWMac m ZEALANDillan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved.

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND | NATURE INDEX

SYDNEY: QUANTUM LEAP IN GOOD COMPANY Sydney’s centres of excellence in quantum computing and other fields ensure ongoing partnerships between multiple institutions. VISUALIZATION BY SMALL MULTIPLES BY VISUALIZATION CSIRO NORTH RYDE DOUGLASS HANLY MOIR PATHOLOGY FC:FC: 0.450.45 FC:FC: << 0.010.01 AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY FC:FC: 11.3411.34 AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND SONARTECH ATLAS PTY LTD MELANOMA TRIALS GROUP FC:FC: 0.010.01 FC:FC: 0.090.09

COCHLEAR LTD FC:FC: <0.01<0.01

CSIRO ASTRONOMY MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY AND SPACE SCIENCE FC:FC: 29.1929.19 FC:FC: 28.7728.77 WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY FC:FC: 7.587.58

THE GEORGE INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH FC:FC: 0.020.02 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS AND DOMAIN TRUST FC:FC: 0.390.39

ST VINCENT'S HEALTH AUSTRALIA WOOLCOCK INSTITUTE OF FC:FC: 2.192.19 64 WOOLCOCK INSTITUTE OF Number of MEDICAL RESEARCH FC:FC: 0.010.01 VICTOR CHANG CARDIAC RESEARCH INSTITUTE collaborations in UNIVERSITY OF FC:FC: 0.090.09 greater Sydney TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY FC:FC: 9.819.81 GARVAN INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH SOUTH WESTERN SYDNEY FC:FC: 6.956.95 LOCAL HEALTH DISTRICT FC:FC: 0.010.01 NSW SYDNEY LOCAL HEALTH DISTRICT FC:FC: 0.50.5 THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND GYNAECOLOGICAL ONCOLOGY GROUP FC:FC: 94.2894.28 FC:FC: <0.01<0.01

THE HEART RESEARCH INSTITUTE FC:FC: 0.810.81 1.9 Average strength of those collaborations

CHILDREN'S CANCER INSTITUTE AUSTRALIA FC:FC: 0.040.04 CENTRE FOR VASCULAR RESEARCH AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR SCIENCE FC:FC: 0.070.07 AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATION FC:FC: 5.125.12 UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH AUSTRALIA FC:FC: 87.787.7 FC:FC: 0.870.87

OUTPUT BY SUBJECT

MELBOURNE SYDNEY NATURE.COM Explore the maps online, visit: Subject AC WFC Subject AC WFC nature.com Chemistry 368 27.90 Chemistry 62 6.25

Life science 789 25.4 Life science 388 78.07

Physical sciences 753 76.23 Physical sciences 965 84.75

Earth & environmental sciences 5 4.67 Earth & environmental sciences 7 3.8

Article count (AC) is the number of articles published in journals in the index. Weighted fractional count (WFC) is the weighted contribution of institutions and, by extension, cities to the index. It takes into account the high number of astronomy articles in index journals. However, to avoid discriminating against collaborations in that discipline, FC is used to calculate partnership strength.

CQC2T AUEIDX | NATURE INDEX commercially feasiblequantumcomputing. logic gateisapotentialkey tothenext stepin development ofasilicon-basedtwo-qubit whose Michelle Simmons,thedirectorCQC2T at S64 |NATURE INDEX 2016 |AUSTRALIA &NEWZEALAND AUSTRALIA &NEWZEALAND ©

2 0 1 6

M a c m i l l a n

P u b l i s h e r s

L i m i t e d , p a r t o f

S p r i n g e r

N a t u r e .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND | NATURE INDEX

Earth and environmental sciences. has happened within Sydney, as its partners TOP OF THE TOWN The opening of new Sydney labs in 2016 include Macquarie University — with its par- With major contributions from their science is likely to bring growth in the quantity and ticular historic strength in laser development faculties, the University of New South Wales quality of the city’s physical sciences research and application — and the University of Tech- (UNSW) and the University of Sydney (USYD) were Sydney’s top producers of high-quality in coming years. The new facilities include a nology Sydney (UTS). Although CUDOS’s research in 2015. laboratory complex, recently opened by the ARC funding ends next year, Eggleton and his Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, at the AINST colleagues will continue working with University of New South Wales (UNSW). CQC2T whose funding was recently renewed The complex is part of the Australian Research for another seven years. Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum The centres of excellence also bring longer- Computation and Communication Technol- term funding and some research security, ogy (CQC2T). The other newcomer is the which, under the leadership of scientists such Sydney Nanoscience Hub, a $150 million as Eggleton and his counterpart at CQC2T, facility at the University of Sydney’s Australian Michelle Simmons, has helped to attract top UNSW Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technol- scientists from around the world. 79. ogy (AINST). The benefit of this recruiting shows in These most recent outcomes. recent launches will In 2015, CQC2T’s strengthen the con- development of nection between a silicon-based the city’s two top two-qubit logic Faculty of universities. Based gate — an essen- Science, on their contri- tial component UNSW bution to articles for the develop- published in jour- “WE’VE GOT ment of a quan- 4.8 nals included in tum computer the index, UNSW TO CREATE AN — was published School of and the University in Nature and was Physics, of Sydney had the ENTREPRENEURIAL recognized as one UNSW strongest connec- of the world’s top tion of any two CULTURE, BROADER 10 breakthroughs 7.3 institutions in of the year by Sydney last year, Physics World, the driven by physical THAN MATHS magazine of the sciences research. UK’s Institute of Tim Bedding, head AND PHYSICS.” Physics. The logic of the University of gate engineered Sydney’s School of two silicon quan- Physics, says while tum bits, or qubits, infrastructure is to interact for the important, his first time based USYD school’s publica- on the spin of the 75.6 tion performance (see graphic) is due to the single electron in each bit. It is the poten- strength and diversity of its research portfolio tial building block for commercially feasi- and the science leaders driving it. He points ble quantum computers, which may arrive to teams working on photonics, astrophysics, sooner than expected given the federal gov- biophysics, quantum computing, high-energy ernment, the Commonwealth Bank and Tel- physics and the physics of sustainability, stra have committed more than $70 million Faculty of among other fields. “It has been a conscious towards the project over the last year. Science, decision to try to attract good researchers and While the world waits for the commercial- USYD support them to build up big groups that can ization of the quantum computer, Eggleton 39. make an impact,” Bedding says. believes the growing physical sciences com- Ben Eggleton is one such research leader. mercial scene in Sydney will ensure the sus- He heads AINST’s Photonic Circuits Group tainability of its place as a strong player in the and the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth research field. “What we’ve got to do is create School of Physics, Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), an entrepreneurial culture, which is broader USYD another Australian Research Council Centre than maths and physics. You then have a criti- of Excellence. Eggleton says quantum com- cal mass that is sustainable and companies 5.0 puting and photonics are the two highlights of that are employing graduates,” says Eggleton. physical sciences research in Sydney. Austral- He points to Sydney-based companies such ia’s centres of excellence are established with as superconductor foundry operator, Silanna, government funding on the basis of partner- and optical innovator, Finisar, as current suc- ships between multiple institutions. It means cesses. “We’re providing the framework that strong and ongoing collaborations under- we need to survive as academics.” ■ WFC is the contribution to journals included in pin CUDOS and CQC2T at UNSW. In the ^Competitive grant funding from 2011-2014. the index by institutions and, by extension, case of CUDOS, much of this collaboration Source: ÜberResearch cities and countries.