After four years as President, this is my last message to you in the Academy’s monthly newsletter as I pass on the mantle of Academy President to Jagadish in late May. It has been a challenging time for the Academy, the Australian community and the world, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to help guide the Australian scientific effort and lead the Academy during this period.
May I thank you, our friends and supporters, for your readership and the comments and feedback we receive in response to this newsletter.
We continue to be energised and inspired by the many Australian scientists and their organisations who contribute to creating a healthier and more sustainable future.
This month as Australia prepares to head to the polls, the Academy has released its election position statement, ‘Science and Australia’s positive future’, urging the incoming government to seize the opportunity to secure Australia’s economic and social prosperity through patient investment in science. In the weeks leading up to the election, look out for a series of ‘Science for Australians’ articles which explore the issues raised in the position statement.
We are delighted to announce that the STEM Women platform is going global later this year. The platform will enable women working in STEM anywhere in the world to raise their profile and be more easily discovered and offered career-advancing opportunities. This worldwide project is supported by the InterAcademy Partnership, the Network of African Science Academies and the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences.
In April, the Academy was glad to welcome, together with the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Australian Government’s $18.2 million investment in the ‘Global Science and Technology Diplomacy Fund – Strategic Element’. This fund will create a flexible and streamlined approach to supporting international collaboration and boost Australia’s science and technology research and commercialisation efforts.
Also on this front, we welcomed the release of the Australian Government’s 2021 National Research Infrastructure (NRI) Roadmap, for which we submitted our recommendations last year. I am confident this roadmap will help Australia’s research infrastructure deliver long-term national benefit and help us meet future challenges.
With the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluding that humanity has the tools today to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and arrest catastrophic climate change, Australia has a valuable opportunity to capitalise on its natural resource wealth – including critical minerals such as lithium and copper – required for clean energy technologies such as green steel and hydrogen power. We continue to work with government to help realise a cleaner and more prosperous future.
Climate change is also having a huge impact on Earth’s natural and cultural assets. In a recent report, our expert roundtable, assembled in collaboration with the with the Australian Academy of Law, found that reforms to the World Heritage Convention are needed to manage and protect the world’s most precious heritage places. This roundtable report has been used globally to inform those considering this matter.
Thank you again for your readership and my successor, Professor Chennupati Jagadish, will greet you in the June newsletter.
All the very best,
John Shine
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
