Does the 2025–26 Budget do enough for science?

The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) has described the 2025–26 federal Budget as “very disappointing” for the health and medical research sector.

AAMRI was admittedly pleased to welcome the announcement of additional funding over five years to support research and translate medical research to clinical practice, including:

• $150.3 million over five years from 2024–25 to extend and expand the Zero Childhood Cancer Precision Oncology Medicine Program (ZERO), and to extend the Precision Oncology Screening Platform Enabling Clinical Trials (PrOSPeCT) program and the Australian Rare Cancers Portal.
• $0.6 million in 2025–26 to CSIRO to maintain the infrastructure and storage facilities for the Australian Health Biobank.
   

But no additional funding was announced for Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), with allocations for the MRFF remaining at $650 million per annum to 2028–29. This is despite recent recommendations from the Future Fund Board of Guardians to increase the funding allocation.

In addition, AAMRI says there was no new additional funding announced for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) over the forward estimates. NHMRC’s Medical Research Endowment Account (MREA), the Australian Government’s primary source of funding for health and medical research, is set to be lower in 2025–26 than forecast in the previous Budget.

AAMRI also noted the following:

• No new funding was announced for the Australian Research Council (ARC). The forecast budget for 2026–27 remains at similar levels to 2025–26.
• Support for the Research Support Program for universities is in line with the previous Budget — no additional funding has been announced.
• Support for the Research Training Program (which funds higher research degrees) has remained the same when compared to the previous Budget.
• Funding for National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) will continue to decline over the forward estimates, with a slight increase predicted for 2028–29 compared to 2027–28.
• Support for the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program remains relatively steady for the forward estimates, with no additional increases.
   

“The plan to build Australia’s future isn’t much of a plan without medical research,” said AAMRI CEO Dr Saraid Billiards.

“We hope with the lead-up to the federal election next month that we are able to talk further about covering the full costs of research, looking after our talented workforce and ensuring Australia’s healthcare system continues to stand up to the test of time.”

Science & Technology Australia (STA) has been a bit more positive, acknowledging that this year’s Budget is focused on tackling cost-of-living pressures for Australians — but warned that the country’s long-term prosperity depends on future deep investment in the budget-boosting power of STEM research and development.

“To wrench our nation out of the cost-of-living rut we find ourselves in … we must proactively transition our economy to being knowledge-based and skills-driven, underpinned by a strong R&D sector,” said STA CEO Ryan Winn.

“Similarly, the environmental issues we face require deep, long-term investment in environmental science. New investments in CSIRO to deepen gene-drive research in ways to mitigate the impact of invasive species will help protect Australian wildlife — but it’s just one part of the research capability needed to protect our precious biodiversity. We’ll need to continue to strengthen and apply that expertise to climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives — futureproofing our nation.”

Winn said that STA welcomes the government’s infrastructure and staffing investments into CSIRO, ANSTO, the National Measurement Institute, the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness and the Square Kilometre Array, describing these as important measures which support key parts of the nation’s science sector.

“The next task on the to-do list for Australia is to safeguard the country against long-term economic challenges,” he said. “For that, we reiterate STA’s call to deepen our economic complexity and invest in the education and R&D that will create future industries, and future jobs.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Sergey Khakimullin