In March, the Australian Academy of Science joined with the Australian Chief Scientist to launch a report on the economic impacts of advanced physical and mathematical sciences.
The study found that advances over the past 20 years in the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics and earth sciences directly underpin 11.2% of Australia’s economic activity, and indirectly support a further 11.3% by way of ‘flow-on’ savings and productivity gains for consumers and other industries that use the outputs of science-based industry.
This amounts to a total of $292 billion in economic activity each year, and while only a small proportion of the advances in these fields have been made in Australia, our science workforce is critical to applying advanced scientific knowledge to Australian challenges.
The Academy is working with the Office of the Chief Scientist to extend this study to the advanced biological sciences, with a report expected in October or November 2015.
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