When you’re closer to the pension age than the voting age, it is easy to forget what it’s like to embark on a career in research. It is also too easy to offer glib assurances that experience soon contradicts.
So I will start with the reality we all accept: it’s a tough path and it takes a resilient person to attempt it.
It can also be a rewarding path, professionally and personally. It can take us to places we hadn’t envisaged, if we are prepared to adjust our course as we get to know the terrain. It puts us in the company of people it is a joy and a privilege to know as our fellow travellers. That’s why smart people keep on choosing it, for all its frustrations.
It is no small thing to forge your path, knowing that that path might leave footprints on human history. That’s what happens when you join the business of changing the world.
My vision for Australia relies on people like you: pursuing great science from which our society will benefit.
In that vision you have access to world-class big ticket research equipment, because we make long-term funding commitments and put a sensible workforce strategy at the core of the infrastructure plan.
In that vision you are prepared to think about options beyond the university, and perhaps outside research, whether you commercialise a technology, build a start-up, help a business to transform or lead the implementation of a new clinical procedure.
When you plan your research you receive clear signals from the possible sponsors about their priorities.
If you want to collaborate outside your discipline, your institution or your country, you have systems that make it easy.
We’re not there yet. But we should not let the doom and gloom purveyors run this conversation and deter us from trying as hard as we can to bring it about.
I say with absolute conviction that Australian science is first class in many areas, including agriculture, climate, medical, materials engineering, and many others.
There are many fantastic examples of Australian research spurring Australian, and then global innovation. There are many extremely talented Australians, and extremely talented people are drawn to Australia to pursue their research. That tells me we’ve got every reason to invest in optimising the system.
I will be taking up this task up with alacrity. My mandate includes new commissions from the Prime Minister to deliver a long-term map of our research infrastructure needs; to guide the development of a 15-year plan for science and innovation; and to advise the Government on the future of research and development tax incentives.
At the same time, I’ll be making the case for our institutions and our people in every forum I can: public or private; local or global.
I do believe the conversation is changing, and that the national will is there to make much more of our research potential.
My advice to you in the meantime is to see the breadth of that potential in yourself. The obvious need is to be resilient, but most important is to be flexible and follow the opportunities.
With the fundamental generic skills that will complement your specialised skills—including data analysis, statistics and project management—there might be more people interested in you than you predict.
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
