The nation’s future socio-economic and environmental prosperity will be underpinned by science, technology and innovation.

Without urgent attention to education, research and innovation policies, Australia may find its current competitive advantages in the international marketplace rapidly eroded.

Alternatively, strategic investment in science, technology and innovation will open up new and exciting opportunities to strengthen the quality of life for all Australians.

Recommendations

1. That Australia increases its support for the national R&D effort to ensure that it retains an internationally competitive science capability to underpin the nation’s industrial, commercial, environmental and economic position among leading world economies.
2. That Australia examines the implications of the continuing relatively low level of private sector investment in R&D and creates policy settings that encourage greater innovation.
3. That Australia further addresses the critical lack of suitably qualified science and mathematics teachers, and expands programs to encourage high school students to study science and mathematics.
4. That Australia maintains a long-term commitment to basic research funding in universities, and ensures that the Research Quality Framework (RQF) results in additional funds for high-quality research.
5. That Australia continues to invest in the future by building on the Higher Education Endowment Fund (HEEF) for capital works and research infrastructure in universities.
6. That Australia provides support for publicly funded research organisations sufficient to maintain their core capabilities, on which their competitiveness as world-class research providers depends.
7. That Australia increases its level of support for existing research centre schemes and develops new ‘International Research Centres’, and that the research fellowship awards be substantially expanded, particularly for early- and mid-career researchers.
8. That Australia makes a long-term commitment to maintaining first class national research infrastructure facilities and promotes Australian access to international facilities.
9. That Australia gives urgent attention to nurturing rewarding and secure career paths for talented early-career researchers.
10. That Australia recognises the importance of engagement with the international scientific community and uses science more effectively as a tool in foreign policy.

This research strategy highlights Australia’s research strengths across a broad range of nanotechnology disciplines and identifies opportunities for these strengths to be leveraged over the coming decade. It includes eight recommendations and 10 case studies.

Nanotechnology is transforming industries and everyday life by exploiting unique properties of materials at the nanoscale, enabling breakthroughs in medicine, electronics, energy, water treatment, and manufacturing. 

The technology offers solutions to national challenges such as healthcare, clean energy, food security, and defence.

Progress depends on overcoming barriers such as sustained funding, interdisciplinary collaboration, international partnerships, and effective translation of research into industry, alongside addressing safety and ethical concerns.

Recommendations

1. Maintain and expand Australia’s nanotechnology research infrastructure (human and capital) through the provision of stable, long-term financial support.
2. Foster and support interdisciplinary research.
3. The Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council need to be provided with additional resources to facilitate their expanded role of supporting interdisciplinary research.
4. Promote Australian nanotechnology on the international stage.
5. Establish an expert panel (comprising academia, industry and government)  to develop a national framework for translating nanotechnology research.
6. Expand training and reskilling programs to support and develop new nanotechnology-based industries in Australia.
7. In the interest of ‘ethically responsible science’ the nanotechnology research community should establish mechanisms to effectively engage with the public on the benefits and risks of nanotechnology, including social impact, regulation and ethical issues.
8. Establish and fund a national nanotechnology coordinating body to provide leadership for the discipline at all scales and a mechanism for implementing the preceding recommendations.

About the strategy

The National nanotechnology research strategy was launched by Senator the Hon Kate Lundy on 7 December 2012.

Preparation of the strategy included broad consultation with the research community, including release of an exposure draft and hosting stakeholder engagement workshops around the country.

The strategy was prepared by the Academy with funding received from the National Enabling Technologies Policy Section in the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.

This project pilots a benchmarking methodology for assessing emerging areas of science and technology in Australia by assessing Australia's capability in nanotechnology.

It identifies strengths, gaps and strategic opportunities for national advancement.

The study found that Australian nanotechnology researchers are producing high-quality work across all areas of nanotechnology, but there is evidence that Australia is not advancing our capabilities as quickly as the rest of the world. The findings also suggest that Australia may fall further behind in the future unless nanotechnology is maintained as a national research priority and funded accordingly. It is recommended that Australia's nanotechnology research performance be regularly evaluated using the methodology established in this study. 

This project was funded under the Australian Research Council's (ARC) Learned Academies Special Projects grant scheme.

Preliminary findings of the benchmarking project were presented at the Sir Mark Oliphant Conference 'Scaling down to a nano-materials world' in Melbourne on 1–4 December 2003.

Nanotechnology is already having a profound impact upon major industries worldwide, including electronics, computers, communications, defence, energy, biomedical, transport and manufacturing. It has emerged as a critical field with the potential to impact nationally significant issues as diverse as health, water and energy.

Nanoscale science and technology is multidisciplinary, involving physicists, chemists, biologists, materials scientists, chemical, mechanical and electronics engineers and medical scientists.

This report characterises Australia's nanotechnology capacity and capabilities and makes recommendations to support nanotechnology research, addressing barriers to industry partnerships and commercialisation, international collaboration, and infrastructure and operational costs.

Recommendations

1. Produce a National Strategic Plan for Nanotechnology Research in consultation with the research community.
2. Allocate long-term funding to an integrated nanotechnology network that simultaneously represents research and industry needs.
3. Develop a single, centralised, national support mechanism for international collaborations and linkages at all scales.
4. Allocate funding for existing nanotechnology infrastructure and equipment, and in the long-term incorporate operational costs, such as maintenance and the provision of technical staff, into infrastructure funding models.
5. Continue to support basic research in nanotechnology while also encouraging ‘market-driven, problems-based’ research.
6. Establish a nanotechnology entrepreneurial fellowship scheme.
7. Maintain support and funding mechanisms for Australian-based nanotechnology collaborations, with dedicated schemes for postgraduate students and early-career researchers.
8. Continue efforts to integrate with research, industry and business in the development of science-based regulation and direct community engagement on nanotechnology issues.

Australian astronomy is riding a wave of discovery powered by new technology. This technology has increased the sensitivity of existing telescopes and enabled the construction of new telescopes that can see wider and further than ever before. 

This is the mid-term review of New horizons: a decadal plan for Australian astronomy 2006–2015.

It reaffirms the key goals of the decadal plan, and acknowledges both the Government’s significant investment in astronomy facilities over the past five years and its recognition of astronomy as a flagship Super Science area. 

Download the mid-term review plan

Download the mid-term review issues paper

Science by nature is an international enterprise. Contributing to progress in science, developing excellence in Australian science, and maximising the benefits of science requires that Australia participates fully in this enterprise.

This report assembles an inventory of significant global scientific organisations and collaborative opportunities in which Australian scientists and scientific institutions might reasonably be expected to be involved, and maps the extent to which Australia is currently engaged in these programs and the benefits that flow from that engagement.

The report finds that Australia is reasonably well engaged with global scientific activities.

Approximately 100 major global scientific organisations are identified, along with many more significant activities and organisations under these.

Several clear benefits from Australia’s formal engagement with global scientific organisations are identified, including leadership opportunities, scientific conferences, collaborations, and political influence. 

The study also identified several strategically important gaps and recommended that Australia rejoin some organisations.

This precious and beautiful blue planet on which we live is complex beyond measure, so complex that a whole new science – an integrative science of the Earth system (Earth System Science or ESS) – is needed to understand it.

This report, prepared by the National Committee for Earth System Science, lays out a systematic and coherent plan to create an Australian scientific enterprise – combining inputs from the natural and social sciences, economics, and the humanities – which is devoted to understanding the planet’s life support systems.

Its primary aim is to discover the Earth’s biophysical limits and how to live within them.

The benefits of integrating Australia’s scientific endeavour with the efforts of the international scientific community are clear to Australian scientists.

International collaboration invariably improves the quality and breadth of research. Increasingly, quality science is undertaken and underpinned by formal and informal international collaboration and networks.

This paper makes the case for a strategic approach to internationalise Australian science.

The paper argues that to make effective use of the less than 3% of knowledge developed by Australia, we need timely and ready access to much of the other 97% created and developed overseas.

The Academy recommends an integrated national strategy that focuses and supports international science efforts across Australian Government departments and agencies to ensure continuity in strategic scientific relationships,  and provide a competitive basis for Australia’s international long-term scientific engagement.

The 2013 Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank brought together 60 early-career researchers to explore how Australia can contribute meaningfully to global brain research efforts.

The report identifies Australia's strengths in neuroscience and its healthcare system, and recommends establishing a national initiative with long-term investment, transdisciplinary collaboration, and integration of clinical, technological, and ethical dimensions.

Four groups make recommendations across the following areas:

• Cognition, intelligence and executive function
• Neurogenetics: inherited diseases and developmental biology
• Artificial intelligence, maths and modelling
• Ageing, dementia, Alzheimer's disease and end-of-life issues

This analysis found that the advanced physical and mathematical sciences – physics, chemistry, maths and Earth sciences – directly and indirectly:

• account for 22.5% of Australian economic activity, or around $292 billion per year
• provide 7% of total Australian employment (about 760,000 jobs in 27,000 businesses)
• generate 28% of our exports, or about $74 billion per year.

In addition, the parts of the Australian economy based on advanced physical and mathematical sciences have:

• grown at an average of 3.5% per year in the past decade, compared to an average of 3% per year for the Australian economy overall
• delivered productivity (gross value added per worker) double that of the economy as a whole.

This report was commissioned by the Office of the Chief Scientist and the Australian Academy of Science and prepared by economists from the Centre for International Economics. It is accompanied by a second report that focuses on the biological sciences, as well as a synthesis report that combines insights from all core sciences.

Download the infographic