Dr Greg Ash – brief curriculum vitæ
Personal
Details:
Age: 60, Married, one
child.
Academic
Qualifications
BSc (Hons) ANU - 1976, Doctor of Philosophy, ANU - 1981
Present Position: Retired Sept 2014
Following completion of my PhD in 1981, I joined the
Department of Health and worked in a number of areas, including food standards
and the National Drug Information Service. The latter position required
evaluation of therapeutic drugs and the development of technical documentation
relating to the use and adverse effects of drugs.
From 1982 to 1985 I worked in the Working Environment
Branch of the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations as a Scientific
Officer. This area formed the nucleus of the National Occupational Health and
Safety Commission. It also involved providing expertise on OHS issues such as
noise, asbestos and lighting.
From 1985 to 1987 I was employed by Australia’s peak
employer body, the Confederation of Australian Industry (now the Australian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry) as a Technical Adviser on occupational health
and safety matters. This position involved extensive policy development on a
broad range of occupational health and safety matters, as well as liaison,
consultation and negotiation with employer and employee associations across
Australia. I represented the CAI on Committees and Working Parties of the
National Occupational Health and Safety Commission.
In 1987 I returned to the National Occupational Health and
Safety Commission. Main duties involved carrying out workplace consultancies for
Government agencies. In 1988 I moved to Comcare Australia to join the group
working on the introduction of the Commonwealth's occupational health and safety
legislation. Subsequently I worked as the Director of Comcare Australia's
Premiums Unit and in the Policy Secretariat dealing with issues such as
licensing and legislative reform.
1993 - 1999: ACT WorkCover - involved in the development
and implementation of regulations, standards and codes of practice under the ACT
Occupational Health and Safety Act 1989.
Provided executive functions to the ACT Occupational Health and Safety Council
and represented the ACT Government on committees of the National Occupational
Health and Safety Commission, including the Standards Development Standing
Committee and the NICNAS Working Group. I was Registrar under the ACT
Occupational Health and Safety Act 1989,
Nominal Insurer under the Workers' Compensation Act 1951 and Manager of the Workers'
Compensation Supplementation Fund. During 1999, I was seconded to the Planning
and Land Management Group (Department of Urban Services) to work on national
competition policy legislation reviews for a range of legislation.
1999 – 2014: National Health and Medical Research
Council – various roles:
I was initially responsible for policy development for the
Research Committee of the NHMRC. With a doubling in funding between 1999 and
2004, the main challenge was to ensure that this money resulted in a
re-engineering of the NHMRC’s research granting schemes and that the investment
in research leads improvement in the health of all Australians.
From 2003 – 2005 I was responsible for major activities of
the NHMRC – support for three of the NHMRC’s expert committees — Transmissible
Spongiform Encephalopathies, Antimicrobial Resistance and Gene Therapies; and
oversighting the development of the NHMRC’s performance management framework and
coordinating the NHMRC’s inputs on biotechnology issues. I had a lead role in
setting up the Human Genetics Advisory Committee as a Principal Committee of the
NHMRC.
From 2006 – 2007 A/g SES Band 1– responsible
for two of the Principle Committees of the NHMRC – the Human Genetics Advisory
Committee and the Embryo Research Licensing Committee in addition to the Expert
Committees. Also had roles in developing programs around the strategic planning
priorities of the NHMRC.
From 2008 – 2014 As Senior Principal Research Scientist I was primarily working on aspects of
peer review, mainly around NHMRC’s project grants scheme. This has also involved
chairing three or four Peer Review Committees per year in various areas. I
worked on a number of targetted calls for research – notably H1N1 and
Australia’s contribution to the International Cancer Genome Consortium.
I provide scientific input to grant variations requested by researchers.