The Science Policy and Diplomacy Newsletter of the Australian Academy of Science highlights important science policy discussions and events in Australia and around the globe. We report on the involvement of science in national and international policy and diplomacy, and the Academy’s contributions to these discussions.
Professor Frances Separovic AO FAA, Foreign Secretary
In his opening address at the 2023 Australian Academy of Science Symposium on ‘international scientific collaborations in a contested world,’ Academy President Professor Chennupati Jagadish AC stated that in today’s world, the global science system has never been more vulnerable. Critically, it has also never been more valuable.
The rapid global scientific progress being made in areas such as artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, and quantum technology continues to present promising developments towards addressing the world’s most pressing problems. Concurrently, however, these areas of scientific progress are increasingly becoming matters of strategic national interest.
For Australia, we are tasked with navigating this international context in a manner which balances national security imperatives with strategic international scientific partnerships. Australia is built upon the results of international scientific collaboration. Despite the continuing decline in R&D investment in Australia, currently at just 1.68% of GDP, Australia contributes to 3.5% of global research and is ranked ninth globally in scholarly outputs. Moreover, 90% of the top 50 cited papers in Web of Science from Australian researchers over the past decade have been co-authored with overseas researchers.
Reflecting our strong integration with the global scientific research community, 45% of Academy Fellows elected over the past five years were born overseas. Australia’s research strengths, and indeed the strength of the Academy, is derived from our collaborations and our diversity of thought.
Against the backdrop of accelerating global challenges around a changing climate, biodiversity loss, international conflict, and shifting geopolitics, we continue to learn that global challenges necessitate global solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect example of this.
The Academy will continue to advocate that enhancing national secutiry, while crucial, does not exist in a zero-sum relationship with international scientific collaboration. As researchers and advocates of evidence-informed decision-making, it is our responsibility to continue to be security aware, while also continuing to champion science as a vital diplomatic asset for our country.
We look forward to sharing the official proceedings from our symposium in our next issue of this newsletter in early 2024. These proceedings will feature contributions from me and Professor Steven Chown FAA as sympsoium convenors, alongside thought leaders across defence, foreign affairs, security agencies, industry, universities and research institutions.
As the year draws to a close, I would like to thank you all for your support of the Academy over this past year. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnerships with you throughout 2024 and wish you all a safe, happy holiday season.
Watch a recording of the symposium
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The International Science Council Regional Focal Point for Asia and the Pacific (ISC RFP-AP), led by the Australian Academy of Science, has just completed the first year of a five-year program of work to connect and raise the voice of science across Asia and the Pacific.
In 2023 the ISC RFP-AP contributed to two landmark gatherings in October. In Apia, Samoa, a historic agreement was reached to establish a Pacific academy for the sciences and humanities. In Kuala Lumpur, a Global Knowledge Dialogue, held in partnership with the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, brought together more than 150 scientists from 31 countries to provide input into regional priorities.
The Establishment Committee for a Pacific academy for the sciences and humanities held its first online meeting this month and will meet in person in early 2024.
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Scientists from 31 countries came together in Kuala Lumpur on 6 October 2023 for the International Science Council (ISC) Global Knowledge Dialogue, the first held in the Asia-Pacific region.
Jointly hosted by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and the ISC Regional Focal Point for Asia and the Pacific, the event saw 150 participants contribute to topics on science for sustainability, interdisciplinary health, and living within planetary boundaries, all designed to address the Sustainable Development Goals through science advice and diplomacy.
The ISC Centre for Science Futures held a satellite meeting to explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on science systems, gathering experts from 12 countries. Discussions centred on research funding, AI’s transformative role in scientific practices, and supportive policies.
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In late November, the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), held the 16th Australia–China Symposium on Marine Sciences for Sustainable Development in Sydney.
This meeting is part of an annual Australia–China Symposia Series, supported through the Australia–China Science and Research Fund (ACSRF), jointly managed by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
Since 2004, these in-person meetings have successfully provided opportunities to build strong bilateral networks and increase international research collaborations between Australia and China.
For the first time as part of the Australia–China Symposium, colleagues from both countries got to hear directly from First Nations scientists in a yarning circle that opened day two of the symposium.
Malgana woman and Traditional Custodian Bianca McNeair and Professor Roxanne Bainbridge shared their experiences of working across cultures and the importance of building relationships when working with Indigenous scientists and Traditional Custodians.
The importance of building relationships was highlighted as the basis from which projects and work can stem. Acknowledging the unique connections of First Nations peoples and their rights is imperative for domestic and international colleagues.
Indigenous scientists shared how first scientists and modern scientists can build on one another's understandings and knowledges to create success across marine science and the health sectors.
The architecture and nature of Australia’s capacity to engage in the global research system is at stake with the introduction of the Defence Trade Control Amendment Bill to Parliament.
This legislation will see Australia expand its backyard to include the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) but raise the fence for many other countries when it comes to international research collaborations.
A more seamless collaborative environment with the US and UK as part of the AUKUS arrangements is welcomed, but the Australian Academy of Science is concerned about the negative impacts this will have on research collaborations with all other countries, which serve our national interest.
The Academy has called for further action to strengthen the governance of Australian research following the publication of an evaluation of the performance of the Australian Research Integrity Committee.
In a new position statement on research integrity published earlier this month, the Academy said protecting the scientific enterprise from research misconduct is a difficult task and that although Australia’s current system attempts to be all-encompassing, there are deficiencies in several areas such as coverage, accountability, and transparency.
Australia is at risk of being left behind when it comes to reaping the benefits of high-performance computing without a long-term strategy and more significant strategic investment from government.
Experts at a national roundtable hosted by the Australian Academy of Science in November have called for a regional exascale computing facility to be hosted in Australia. They say a national strategy backed by at least one exascale capability would secure Australia’s sovereign research capability and enable science to meet national and regional priorities into the future.
Australia needs to boost its nuclear science capabilities to maintain the health of Australians through medical research and its translation into care, to defend Australia, and to meet our space ambitions.
That is the conclusion reached by experts at a national nuclear science roundtable hosted recently by the Academy.
The roundtable determined that Australia’s nuclear science sector needs a national strategy that leads to new knowledge and infrastructure and equips Australians for jobs in this expanding sector.
Australia’s taxonomists’ ambitious goal to name all undescribed species in Australia within a generation may remain out of reach without more government and philanthropic support.
Earlier this year, Minister for the Environment and Water the Hon Tanya Plibersek MP acknowledged how the Australian economy benefits by between $4 and $35 for every dollar spent on taxonomy and naming species, citing a cost-benefit analysis by Taxonomy Australia and Deloitte Access Economics.
However, the latest State of the Environment Report found the annual federal government budget of just over $2 million for the taxonomy research community has remained unchanged for more than a decade.
The Australian Leukaemia Foundation has engaged the Academy to conduct scoping work toward the development of a 10-year plan aimed at facilitating an ecosystem that accelerates breakthrough blood cancer research in Australia.
The Academy and the Australian Research Data Commons co-hosted a symposium that brought together policymakers and science leaders to discuss how government and research can work together to address the grand challenges of society through an open flow of data and knowledge. Dr Simon Hodson (Executive Director of the International Science Council's Committee on Data) presented international science policy trends from the International Science Council, UNESCO and OECD. He also spoke on science and government at the international level, including the the relationship between international science policy and international multilateral government bodies such as the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, and World Meterological Organization.
Throughout 2023, the Academy participated in the Institutionalising Science Advice to Governments in Asia project with fellow Academies in the region. The Australian Academy of Science shared its experience in developing novel scientific advisory mechanisms in Australia.
The project was sponsored by the Inter Academy Partnership and the Association of Academies and Societies of Science in Asia and included a workshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in July.
The final report contained a synthesis of existing science advice mechanisms across a range of countries, with advice on how to institutionalise science advice across the region.
The Academy’s role as an independent scientific advisor to the Second Inquiry into the convictions of Kathleen Folbigg demonstrated how the science and justice systems can work together more effectively to create a more science-sensitive legal system.
Following Kathleen Folbigg’s pardoning in June and the subsequent quashing of her convictions in December, the Academy has been calling for law reform so that miscarriages of justice are not repeated and so that, overall, the justice system can be better informed by scientific and technological advances.
In particular, the Academy is seeking the adoption of a reliability standard for the admission of evidence, mechanisms for the selection of expert witnesses by independent and reliable sources, and the establishment of a post-appeals review mechanism in Australia.
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Australia is not alone in its efforts in this area. In December, the Academy hosted Dame Julie Maxton DBE, Executive Director of the Royal Society in London.
Dame Julie has been leading efforts in the UK and US aimed at strengthening the relationship between the science and legal systems, including the publication of primers, professional development training for the judiciary, and seminars across the UK.
Watch the recording of Dame Julie's lecture
The Academy supports the ISC’s Principle of Freedom and Responsibility in Science (Article 7). The right to share in and benefit from scientific advancement is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as is the right to engage in scientific enquiry, to communicate knowledge, and to associate freely in such activities.
Every two years, the global climate adaptation community converges to share, discuss, and celebrate together. This year, Adaptation Futures 2023 was held in Montreal, Canada in October. Streams of the conference covered Indigenous knowledge, multiple risks, adaptation choices, limits to adaptation, nature-based solutions, equity & justice, teaching & learning, and governance & finance.
Future Earth Australia program manager, Kate Nairn, chaired a session to establish “a globally relevant just adaption network,” calling together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers with a particular interest in justice. Jointly run by the co-chair of Future Earth Australia’s A national strategy for just adaptation Professor Petra Tschakert, the session built on months of connection and sharing stories of how adaptation researchers can better support each other.
Adaptation Futures 2025 will be hosted in Aotearoa New Zealand.
As part of this year’s Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Symposium on Nature for Sustainable Development, Future Earth Australia Program Manager, Kate Nairn, was invited to address the symposium.
The theme of her talk, holistic sustainable development, focused on what it means to address the triple planetary crises in a nature-positive way. The talk outlined why embedding equity and justice principles must be considered as part of any and all development.
Professors Brian Schmidt AC FAA FTSE FRS, Cheryl Praeger AC FAA, and John Church AO FAA FTSE have been appointed as Fellows of the International Science Council in recognition of their “outstanding contributions to promoting science as a global public good”. Computer scientist and member of the Academy's EMCR Forum, Associate Professor Andreea Molnar has also been appointed a Fellow.
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