Did the Budget do enough for science?

The 2015 Federal Budget will invest around $9 billion in Australian science, research and innovation, according to Minister for Industry and Science Ian Macfarlane.

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) will benefit from $193 million of this funding, $20.5 million of which will keep the Australian Synchrotron operating in 2016-17. Macfarlane described the synchrotron as “critical scientific infrastructure that benefits industries including mining, health, manufacturing, food security, energy and biosecurity, as well as improving productivity and research commercialisation”.

“Through the synchrotron, Australia is developing treatments for lung disease and Alzheimer’s and contributing to the development of innovative devices and materials for energy production and transport applications,” Macfarlane added.

$49.1 million over the forward estimates will deliver new infrastructure at ANSTO’s Lucas Heights campus, while $22.3 million over four years will allow ANSTO to retrofit two existing waste storage facilities. The buildings will eventually enable the characterisation and packaging of waste - created from the production of medical, scientific and industrial activities - to the forthcoming National Radioactive Waste Management Facility for long-term storage and disposal.

The previously announced Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), which was to be partially funded by the now-abandoned GP co-payment, will apparently be legislated and operational by 1 August. $400 million is set to be distributed from the fund over the forward estimates - $10 million in its first year.

Other research funding includes $15.3 million over four years for tropical health research and $9.4 million for Antarctic research. Macfarlane also announced “a four-year investment in the CSIRO of over $3 billion over the forward estimates” - an interesting development given the 2014 Budget saw $111.4 million removed from the organisation over four years.

The 2015 Budget has additionally promised $300 million in continued funding for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme (NCRIS) over the next two years. However, the executive director of Innovative Research Universities (IRU), Conor King, said this funding “does not address the ever-growing need for significant medium-term certainty of investment that ends the annual frenzy to keep the [NCRIS] facilities functioning”.

King further noted that the NCRIS funds have been taken from the Sustainable Research Excellence (SRE) initiative, which will be cut by $263 million over the forward estimates and by $150 million in 2016-17 alone. These cuts reduce university-level capacity to support researchers, according to King.

“It’s great that NCRIS facilities will continue to be supported for the next two years, but significant reductions to block grants to researchers in universities is like taking engines off the jumbo jet,” said Professor Andrew Holmes, the president of the Australian Academy of Science.

“You need to fund the scientists as well as the tools they need to do their work; it can’t be one or the other. NCRIS needs a long-term sustainable funding model.”

Michael Cunningham, national leader life sciences at Grant Thornton Australia, meanwhile argues that there is a lack of significant measures to encourage commercialisation in Australia. For example, the government signalled that it will continue to make cuts of 1.5% to both the R&D refundable tax offset (43.5%) and the non-refundable tax offset (38.5%), despite not going forward with its intended 1.5% corporate tax rate.

“As most people are aware, the R&D incentive is a cornerstone underpinning Australian innovation, and it is extremely disappointing to see the incentive still being under attack despite being an extremely successful policy to date,” Cunningham said.

The Australian Academy of Science last year concluded that funding for science and research is overall declining - a claim which it repeated this year. Professor Holmes said the academy welcomes the government’s promise to further deliver on its national science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) policy, but he said it is “absolutely imperative that this strategy is linked to significant additional funding for the sector, and that this funding begins to flow soon”.

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