Research creation : a scholarship of creativity?

While the term "research-creation" has gained a currency in Canada such that it commands not only a understanding of particular kinds of research practices, but has also become a formalized term within the main funding body (SSHRC) for the Humanities, enabling artistic practices and research a purchase in the competition for the research dollar. This is unique within the OECD even while under certain circumstances adjudicating panels distributing research dollars will have Creative Arts added to their nomenclature (as in a panel for Humanities and Creative Arts for the Australian Research Council (ARC)). This paper explores the sometimes contentious space referred to as "research-creation" but known as practice-based research in the national context of interest for this paper, Australia. There is a shared lexicon in this field with UK institutions as is often the case in the educational exchanges between Australia and the UK. I argue in this article that, in the high stakes game of research funding, it is incumbent to find in Research Creation the scholarly values that underpin mainstream research funding. To reinforce this argument, I will present through summaries and media, an exhibition and symposium in "research-creation" that was held in Australia in 2014 that exemplifies best practice in the field.