The Special Research Centres of the Australian Research Council are funded on a three-yearly basis, with a maximum life of nine years. The Centres are reviewed in their third and sixth years of operation and funding for the following triennium is conditional on the results of those reviews.
The first triennial review of the RCfTA took place in July 1993. The report of the Review Panel was generally favourable. The Review Panel was `very impressed with the exceptional quality of the research' and noted `the very high quality of the Post-Doctoral Fellows'. The Review Panel voted unanimously to continue funding of the RCfTA, and the announcement of continued funding was made by the Minister for Education, Mr Beazley, in mid-November.
Two specific recommendations of the Review Panel concerned the setting up of an Advisory Board, and the presentation of the Annual Report. As a result an Advisory Board has been set up and held its first meeting in February 1994. The presentation of the annual report has been changed this year with the objective of making it more readable.