Australia will need to invest another $25 billion each year to catch up to the OECD average on investment in research and development or another $32 billion to achieve federal Labor’s stretch goal.
That is according to a paper launched on Wednesday to kick off a year-long examination of a national R&D system that has morphed over 30 years and suffered from falling investment since 2008.
The paper is sobering reading for policymakers, Industry minister Ed Husic said, because it lays out exactly how little value Australia has extracted from its innovation inputs.
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Australia has much of the necessary foundational science, we have many innovators with specific domain knowledge in many industries, we have created and are blessed with a wonderful quality of life so no problem attracting the world’s best people. So what is missing ? We lack coordination, cooperation and collaboration. Just look to our many technology peak industry bodies which struggle to exist with a largely volunteer administration. While many industry development challenges are not trivial, we do have the capability to overcome many and do better. My recommendation, greater support for a network of industry bodies who can attract leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and work together to create sustainable value.
You write that “Neither side of politics has been able to arrest the steady decline in gross expenditure on R&D”. Yet that steady increase in the early 00s corresponds with several strategic interventions by the Howard Government – NCRIS, the Backing Australia’s Ability and Backing Australia’s Future packages and others. The same period saw the creation of an independent ARC and significant increases in funding for the NHMRC following the Wills Review – almost all the recommendations of which were implemented in full, a stark contrast to subsequent reviews.
A key factor in all this was an active and engaged Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. Leadership from the top matters.
True, the this period was when the policy and funding settings were firmly shifted in favour of applied research and commericalisation, a push which has driven significant changes in the behaviour and culture in research organisations but has had no impact on the business/industry/demand side of the equation. And we are still no closer to achieving a full cost funding framework – something that’ probably further away that ever in the wake of the recent NIH announcement. But things did improve for a while. I suggest, then, that it’s not that the major parties haven’t been able to arrest the decline in R&D funding; it’s just that they’re not interested.