The federal government has appointed the chairs of the 13 assessment panels being established under the controversial research quality framework (RQF) system.

The chairs will head 13 different assessment panels, grouped by discipline, tasked with assessing the value of research by expert review, rather than the previous quantitative system.

The panel chairs of relevance to the life sciences sector are:

Biological Sciences - Professor Peter Langridge of the University of Adelaide, currently CEO of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and a member of the gene technology technical advisory committee of the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.

Agriculture, Veterinary, Food and Environmental Sciences - Emeritus Professor David Lindsay, an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Western Australia

Clinical Sciences and Clinical Physiology - Professor Brandon Wainwright of the University of Queensland, the new director of UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB).

Public Health and Health Services - Professor Terry Nolan of the University of Melbourne, head of Melbourne's School of Population Health and head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group.