Science industry sceptical about future fund

Members of Australia’s science industry gathered recently to discuss the implications of the federal Budget.

Convened by Duncan Jones, CEO of Science Industry Australia, the meeting was well attended by representatives from Australia’s scientific supplier companies.

Those present agreed that medical research was the budget winner - with the new $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund - and health and education were the losers.

Although the MRFF was welcomed as a great investment - according to the Prime Minister, the MRFF will start paying in 2015-16, with $19.9 million in dividend payments, increasing to $77 million in 2016-17 and $1879.3 million in 2017-18 - there was scepticism about it getting off the ground. Where was the $1 billion in uncommitted monies from the Health and Hospitals Fund coming from? And will the health reforms legislation, which is earmarked to keep the fund going, find passage through the senate?

The detail has not been provided, only to say that ‘some’ of the funds will be distributed through the NHMRC. And without the MRFF, forward estimates for NHMRC funding are flat.

Jones put things in perspective by pointing out that the federal Budget deals with 8% discretionary spending - 92% of government spending is dictated by the economy.

“The real GDP for Australia is 2.5%, rising to 3.5% in 2016-17,” Jones explained. “This sits near the G7 average of 2.8% - meaning we are in a good position, our economy is growing - increasing GDP, inflation is low, and the dollar is settling at a lower rate which is good for terms of trade.”

Nonetheless, spending cuts, in what is being reported as the toughest Budget since 1997, include significant cuts to the science budget. CSIRO, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the CRC program took cuts totalling $420 million over forward estimates.

Jones reported that the $80 million cut to the CRC program meant the current funding round would be shelved - no doubt a wasted effort for those working towards getting their applications in by July 2014. And the next two funding rounds will also be affected.

The reduction of Australian Research Council funding by $74.9 million over three years, the reduced R&D Tax Incentive, abolition of industry and commercialisation support such as the Innovation Investment Fund and Commercialisation Australia, along with the introduction of fees to research masters and PhD students were also named as negatives for the science industry.