Economic research and analysis are an important part of APRA's commitment to improving financial regulation. Most research at APRA is conducted by the research unit in the Policy Research and Statistics Division. The research unit undertakes applied research into issues that affect the performance of APRA regulated entities. The aim is to identify and analyse significant risk and performance issues faced by various financial institutions regulated by APRA at an industry level. We are dedicated to encouraging debate among academics, practitioners and policy-makers in all aspects of financial regulation.

To achieve this outcome we use a number of mechanisms:

• we publish a series of peer reviewed Working Papers in financial regulation, extending across economics and other disciplines.
• we maintain strong relationships with leading universities including the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales and Australian National University.
• we are linked with the Capital Market CRC (CMCRC) PhD Research Program and support PhD students to conduct research that is aligned with our Regulatory needs and interests. In addition, we have Research Projects, both internal and external, that are Australian Research Council (ARC) linkage grants; and
• we have a Brian Gray Scholarship Program which was established by APRA and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in September 2002 in memory of APRA’s former Executive General Manager, Policy Research and Consulting, Mr Brian Gray.