UNSW cancer biologist Darren Saunders tweeted his labs were out of funding. Cue outrage

It got to a point where Dr Saunders returned to Twitter to advise; “Important clarification, as there’s some confusion. My funding wasn’t ‘withdrawn’. Research is funded by government and/or philanthropic grants. The funding we had has run out and I have not been able to secure new grants.”

Which does not make him Dr Robinson Crusoe. As he said yesterday; “churn and instability is baked into the business model of research careers.” Nor is Dr Saunders now unemployed, he is an aspro at UNSW.

But stating that this how it is for medical researchers can make one unpopular. Like Jonathan Carapetis, president of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. He was quoted in a Nine newspapers story on Dr Saunders circumstance, explaining just how low research success rates are but that his advice is that grants come “eventually.” Professor Carapetis was also careful to add there are funding gaps that need to be covered to keep researchers working.

But it still did not go down well. Yesterday AAMRI issued a statement assuring Professor Carapetis, “has long supported sector reform to improve medical research career pathways” and providing links to evidence of such.

Good-o, but even if NHMRC funding rates were 50 per cent, instead of sometimes a bare quarter of that, it would not stop stories about underfunding.