Australian genomics alliance calls for funds

A group of genomics researchers are pushing the Federal government to provide AUD$250 million in funding for genomics research over the next five years.

The Australian Genome Alliance, led by the Australian Genome Research Facility's director Sue Forrest and Assoc Prof Phil Batterham, the deputy director of the ARC-funded Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, has filed a Federal Budget submission with Federal Treasurer Peter Costello requesting that $50 million be allocated annually for the next five years as a special budget allocation toward genomic research, citing the "social and economic benefits of the genetics revolution triggered by the human genome project" and a need to ensure that Australia's unique genetic biodiversity is not usurped by other nations.

Copies of the letter are likely to be distributed to other Federal ministers including the Minister for Education, Science and Training Brendan Nelson, the Minister for Industry Ian Macfarlane, and former Science Minister Peter McGauran as well as to the chief scientist Robin Batterham, said Forrest.

The letter points out that genomics is central to several of the Federal Government's National Research Priorities, including an Environmentally Sustainable Australia, Promoting and Maintaining Good Health, Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries and Safeguarding Australia.

"There is quite a demand for genome sequencing in this country," said Batterham. "The thing that has actually escaped the decision makers is that there is no logical funding source for genome projects."

While the ARC and NHMRC are able to fund small, focused sequencing projects, neither agency has the budget or the flexibility to provide funding for the larger projects, he said, and the agricultural research and development corporation are similarly unable to provide the level of funding required.

Ironically, Batterham says that genome sequencing is picking up pace around the world as researchers discover the benefits of having genomic information to hand.

"It's getting cheaper and the yield of information is getting greater," he said. "Sequencing is becoming a tool that will allow us to take an inventory of the environment."

Forrest said she hoped that the budget submission would at the very least provide an opportunity for the researchers and politicians to engage in discussion about what is needed.

She and Batterham believe that genomic information should be regarded as an essential piece of 'soft' infrastructure, akin to having a synchrotron for physics.

"It doesn't look impressive, but it is a crucial underpinning to future research," Batterham said.

They are also keen that the push for funding be seen as a shared vision and shared issue, not just one group pushing for funds for their own project. The submission refers to a number of current and proposed genome projects ranging from the wallaby project underway at the AGRF with the support of the Victorian State Government, Applied Biosystems and the NIH, to projects on agriculturally important pest species Helicoverpa armigera, the southern blue gum and Brassica species.

The Alliance envisages that the funding would be managed by the ARC, with a process put in place to evaluate the merits of projects.

"We need to make the process somewhat less ad hoc -- form an orderly queue so that the best projects get done in good time," Batterham said.

"The government has to be convinced that there is a pipeline -- that as data becomes available, Australia is in the primary position to use that data. In the case of Helicoverpa, I'm convinced that we are in the position to translate benefits from the sequence to affected crops."