Saving research from the coming crisis

Without funding from international student fees, research will run down. It’s a problem the government could do something about it

The Innovative Research Universities lobby warns that while headline federal funds for research are guaranteed this year the $2.5bn invested by the states and industry isn’t. There is also the need to keep ticking over infrastructure that the big grant agencies don’t support.

What needs saying: When presented in the national, not institutional interest, it’s a message that may matter for ministers.

“Australia produces 4 per cent of world research, an impressive feat for a country that generates 1 per cent of world GDP and is home to just 0.3 per cent of the global population. The quality of that research is also high by global standards, with Australian researchers cited 50 per cent more often than the world average, the best rate of any large country. Australia is a global research superpower, but only as long as our research is properly funded,” IRU warns.

And who might listen: Education Minister Dan Tehan is a research true believer. “Researchers in universities around the country carry out research every day on different matters affecting the everyday lives of us all, not only in Australia but also right around the world. Cutting edge research is changing our world dramatically, but the incremental progress of long-term research programs is also vital for many industries, where commercial success comes from being just a cut above the rest,” he said last year, (CMM September 19 2019).

What the government could do: The IRU suggests the government could create a research package for 2020-21, including incentives for business to JV with universities.

Good-idea, come the budget the government will be over handing-out crisis cash.  But it could transfer savings it wants to make through changes to the research and development tax incentive (now stalled in the Senate) to a research translation fund to take projects out of the lab and onto the market.

Plus Industry Minister Karen Andrews could grow the number of cooperative research centres, which have ten-year lives and commercial objectives.

And now state intervention in everything is on the agenda the government might like a big idea from the Research Infrastructure Review. Back in 2015 Philip Marcus Clark and colleagues proposed a national research infrastructure fund, managed by an independent board of scientists and industry leaders (CMM December 16 2016). The report disappeared when it was released but one of its core messages has weathered well; “The government has recognised the importance of better linking our high-quality research with industry. The discoveries in our universities and research agencies must translate into outcomes that will contribute to economic growth.” It’s a line that could work in the Treasurer’s budget speech.