In a time of risk and opportunity, science is critical

The President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Chennupati Jagadish, said the Australian Government cannot build a stronger, more resilient nation with a stagnant research and development system that relies on decades-old settings.

Over the past two decades, a significant drop in R&D is leaving Australia more exposed to external pressures and shocks, as well as increasing sovereign vulnerability. There are serious consequences for national well-being, security and prosperity.

“Good intentions, just-in-time measures, ad-hoc interventions, politics and overlapping state and Commonwealth priorities have led to a research system spread over 176 programs and 14 federal portfolios,” Professor Jagadish said.

“We are left with an incoherent system band-aided to slow the bleeding but not to fix the problem. The lack of a coherent and strategic approach is yielding negative impacts.”

The Academy’s pre-budget submission published today recommends the Australian Government urgently commission a cross-portfolio, cross-sectorial review of Australia’s R&D system.

Professor Jagadish said while the University Accord final report is expected to recommend structural reform across the higher education system, Australia also desperately needs a holistic review of the fundamentals that underpin the science and research system.

“Such a review would inform a 10-year roadmap to enable R&D to power Australia’s economy and meet Australia’s ambitions,” Professor Jagadish said.

The Academy’s submission highlights some of the impacts of Australia’s poorly functioning science and research system, including:

• declining productivity – in 2020, Australia’s productivity growth was the slowest in 20 years, and Australia’s investment in R&D declined to a new low point over the same period  
• a lack of understanding of whether Australia has the right scientific capacity and capability to meet national and global challenges
• a services and resource-focused economy which makes us vulnerable to economic shocks and volatile international conditions.

“Reversing the downward trend of government investment in R&D is not the work of any single budget. All levels of government, industry, universities, the research sector and philanthropy must play their part,” Professor Jagadish said.

“But a national strategy, a roadmap, and a decade of commitment to boost investment in R&D is an essential start.”

Read the Academy’s submission.

Read the Academy President’s full opinion piece on this subject.