Funding stability down under

SYDNEY—Australia's scientific research establishments were among the winners in the country's national budget this year, details of which were unveiled by treasurer Peter Costello on Tuesday evening (May 11).At the broadest level, the government promised to extend the 2001 program for science and innovation, “Backing Australia's Ability,” and set out an initial spending program of $3 billion AUD ($2.1 billion USD) until 2005. That plan's successor package provides $5.3 billion for the years between 2006 and 2011, Costello said this week.The new money means that the peak level of spending due to be reached under the 2001 scheme will be sustained for another 5 years, giving the country's research community the chance to make longer-term plans. “We were all facing this hideous cliff in 2005–2006,” Vicki Sara, chief executive officer of the Australian Research Council (ARC), told The Scientist. “What this budget has done is given stability to the research system.” The ARC, a national funding body, will gain a sizeable chunk of the money. The budget provided an additional $1.18 billion to the ARC for research grants and an additional $10.9 million to support the administration of those grants.The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences also won a 3-year funding program, which CSIRO chief executive officer, Geoff Garrett, called “a huge win for science and for CSIRO and the part it plays in helping forge Australia's future.” “CSIRO's core research capability is the foundation of its research effort, and this new 3-year agreement, which totals $1.7 billion, will provide the platform, certainty, and continuity of funding needed to allow CSIRO's brilliant team of scientists to continue to do what they do best,” Garrett said in a statement. Last week, the government also awarded CSIRO $305 million in additional funding over the next 7 years for the National Research Flagships.It's clear that the government plans to fund Backing Australia's Ability into the future, Garrett told The Scientist. “Obviously, everyone would like more money,” he said. “But that continuity and security of funding is important.”The government's statements on science in the budget focused on maintaining an emphasis on funding research infrastructure, accelerating the commercialization of research outputs, and developing science and technology skills. “Government policies have consistently emphasized the important role that science and innovation can play in lifting Australia's future prosperity,” Costello said in his budget report. “The development and application of new products and processes significantly enhance economic growth and create new employment opportunities.”Sara acknowledged that there is unease in the Australian research community about a perceived push toward short-term commercialism. “But in spite of a reasonable amount of rhetoric about commercialization… the ARC got $1.2 billion of the $3 billion announced, and we support discovery research,” she said.Garrett told The Scientist that “our view, and the government's view, is that while in the past we've had significant investment in science discovery… the balance [with commercialization] has been out of kilter.”The organization's deputy chief executive officer, Ron Sadland, said that the Flagship programs were an example of striking that balance. “They marry, if you like, innovative science with really focusing on the critically important problems facing the nation,” he said.

Funding stability down under

Australian science and research groups win another 5 years of security in annual budget

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