Research Australia calls on govt to ramp up funding

Australia must ramp up its investment in health and medical research to ensure its future prosperity, said Research Australia CEO Dr Christine Bennett and Australian Graduate School of Management professor Michael Vitale in a joint paper published this week in the Medical Journal of Australia.

"Securing a strong, enduring, sustainable economic future for Australia requires a long-term view for building on the valuable investment to date," the authors wrote.

The paper advocates that Australia follow the recommendations contained in the Grant report -- the Investment Review of Health and Medical Research -- released by the federal health department in December last year.

The Grant report was conducted in response to the government's 1999 Health and Medical Research Strategic Review (the 'Wills Report') which found that additional investment in health and medical research would reap significant returns over the long term. The report prompted an increase in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding, effectively doubling the annual NHMRC budget to about $412 million by 2005.

"We've increased our spending on health and medical research and we can see some results already," said Vitale, who was a member of the grant report's review committee. "However, while we've been doing it, so has everyone else. So relatively speaking we're still in the same position we were in at the time of the Wills report.

"If we want to maintain our competitive position in the global arena we need to build on that earlier investment, by once again increasing our funding."

Vitale said Australian funding for health and medical research is "well below the OECD average".

The Grant report also recommended that major changes be made to the NHMRC and its governance arrangements, Vitale said. If these recommendations were followed, "the NHMRC would generate more impact with the money that it spends, and would have more money to spend because less would go for administration," he said.

Vitale said he would like to see changes to the government structure of the NHMRC, a greater government focus on commercialisation and increased funding for health and medical research. "With regard to the funding recommendation, if we don't do it, we will fall behind in the generation of Australian owned commercial products in the life sciences area," said Vitale.

Research Australia's Bennett said in a statement that with the right support from government and industry, health and medical research could hold the key to Australia's future prosperity in a global knowledge economy.

"The Howard government has already shown leadership by substantially increasing research funding four years ago and by announcing new infrastructure funding in its election campaign last year," she said. "But if we do not continue the momentum we will quickly drop off the leader board, potentially costing this country billion of dollars in additional healthcare expenditure and lost business, jobs and export opportunities.

"Even flat-line funding would be a reduction in real terms and would see us fall further behind other countries as their investment and policy environments focus on optimising their leadership positions."

According to Research Australia public opinion polls in 2003 and 2004, most Australians want to see increased government and industry investment in health and medical research and are prepared to contribute themselves. Almost half of Australians said they would rather see surplus government funds invested in research than receive tax cuts.