Several universities are being threatened with tough penalties for allegedly providing data that would artificially boost their performance on prestigious research rankings used to allocate government funding.

Fairfax Media understands the Australian Research Council has written stern letters to several universities warning them they face punishments for providing misleading data for their research excellence assessments.

The company is going through a clinical trial for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Credit:Peter Braig

The council warned universities earlier this year that it would take the provision of any false or misleading information seriously, and that serious offences could be prosecuted under Commonwealth law.

The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) report evaluates the research performance of universities in various academic disciplines, assigning them a score from one to five. Those with the lowest scores are judged to have research well below world standard, while those with the highest scores are judged to be among the best in the world.