Budget delivers a mixed bag for science

The Australian Government’s first Budget will see funding for medical research increase while support for science and innovation takes a hit.

A key announcement in the budget is the formation of a new $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund.

The fund will operate like a type of investment trust to provide additional funding for medical research. Proceeds from the government’s newly introduced health funding savings, including most of the $7 GP co-payment and the $5 PBS co-payment, will go into the fund until it reaches $20 billion.

The idea is for the fund to provide a sustained funding stream for medical research. Payments will begin in 2015-16, including payments to the National Health and Medical Research Council, and are expected to reach around $1 billion per year from 2022-23.

Alongside this positive move, the government has reduced funding for science agencies including a $75 million cut over three years for the Australian Research Council and a $111.4 million cut from the CSIRO budget over four years.

Other federal science agencies, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, the Australian Institute for Marine Science and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, received funding cuts of $27.5, $7.8 and $120 million, respectively.

The Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) program was cut with funding reduced from the current $148 million to $138 million by 2017-18. And the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation will receive an $11 million cut over four years - although additional support of $100 million for ag-related R&D corporations will be provided.

Some other positives include $140 million in new funding for the Future Fellowships scheme, which supports mid-career researchers looking to build their career,  the continuation of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure, $5.5 million for the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science and $13.4 million for National Science Week.

As noted by the Australian Academy of Science, these cuts to funding basic research, particularly outside biomedical science, come after an overall decline in the science budget of $470 million since 2011.

“While the new Medical Research Future Fund provides a positive vision, the rest of Australian science is left substantially weakened,” said Academy President Professor Suzanne Cory.

Applied science, research and innovation has taken a big hit with the government axing a number of innovation and commercialisation programs including:

• Australian Industry Participation
• Commercialisation Australia
• AusIndustry’s Enterprise Solutions Program
• Innovation Investment Fund
• Industry Innovation Councils
• Enterprise Connect
• Industry Innovation Precincts

The R&D Tax Incentive, a broad-based entitlement program that helps businesses offset some of the costs of conducting R&D, will also be reduced by 1.5 percentage points.

Research students in PhD and Masters programs will also be hit with the introduction of tuition fees.

Whether all the measures announced this week will be supported in their passage of legislation through parliament remains to be seen. As they say, the devil is in the detail