New ANZSOG Academic Fellows begin their work to strengthen our academic capacity

ANZSOG has welcomed its four inaugural Academic Fellows, who have commenced their time at ANZSOG with a one-week residential in our Melbourne office. 

The new Resident Academic and Visiting Academic Fellowships are an exciting initiative which will help deepen ties and collaboration between ANZSOG, our partner universities and the academic sector more broadly, and help us continue to produce and support research relevant to the work of government.  

Speaking at the welcome event, ANZSOG Dean and CEO Professor Caron Beaton-Wells welcomed the Fellows and said that the appointment of the fellows was consistent with the original vision of ANZSOG as an institution that was deeply knitted into academia as well as the public sector. 

“We are consciously and actively looking for ways in which we can enrich our academic ecosystem and in turn give back to the academic ecosystem to which we are so deeply connected, and to share and showcase the incredible research that takes place across Australasia and the world,” she said.  

Deputy Dean (Academic) Dr Paul Fawcett said that the Fellows program would reconnect and strengthen ANZSOG’s relationship with its university partners, and its academic capacity. 

The Fellows program brings together a select group of distinguished scholars from across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand as well as internationally.  

The three Resident Fellows from our University partners are:  

• Associate Professor Yee-Fui Ng, from Monash University 
• Associate Professor Grant Walton, from the Australian National University 
• Associate Professor Dr Azad Singh Bali, from the University of Melbourne 

They have been joined by International visiting Fellow:  

• Associate Professor Kimberly Moloney, from Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar.  

These Fellows will work in close partnership with ANZSOG and its government stakeholders to conduct research, share insights, and contribute to the development of evidence-informed public policy and practice.  

ANZSOG has published an Issues Paper which is a brief preview of the work the Fellows will develop and share, and why it matters for public governance. The papers reflect a clear alignment between ANZSOG’s strategic priorities and the Fellows’ applied research agendas.  

• Yee-Fui Ng examines the institutional design and operational effectiveness of anti-corruption commissions across Australia. Her work provides a nuanced analysis of independence, accountability, and performance measurement, offering practical recommendations for reforming integrity institutions. For anti-corruption to be as effective as it needs to be, powers and responsibilities and emphases between jurisdictions might benefit from alignment of standards. 
• Grant Walton introduces the concept of relational place to explore how corruption and integrity systems operate across spatial and jurisdictional boundaries. This is highly salient in a world of globalised flows of people, knowledge and resources – and transnational crime. His research contributes to a more adaptive and networked understanding of integrity threats, with implications for policy design and institutional coordination. 
• Azad Singh Bali examines how specific capacities and capabilities shape effective policy formulation in the public sector, focusing on the complexities of social policy. He is working on a diagnostic framework that links policy tasks in specific fields to the skills required to enable public actors to identify and address capability gaps with precision. The work raises questions about subject matter expertise, and transferability and retention of knowledge – issues that are acute with high staff mobility in the public sector. 
• Kim Moloney investigates the legal and institutional dimensions of international administrative tribunals, highlighting their relevance for Australian public sector actors engaged in global governance. Her work bridges domestic and international perspectives on accountability and personnel management. Kim asks us to consider the legal precarities for international public service personnel. 

The ongoing Academic Fellows Program will be a cornerstone of ANZSOG’s commitment to bridging the gap between theory and practice, and will embed academic expertise at the heart of our work. 

The program will run annually with up to four resident fellows and four visiting fellows selected through a call for proposals, with nominations already open for the 2026 cohort.