Industry group Science and Technology Australia (STA) condemns the present Strategic Examination of Research and Development being prepared for the Albanese Government, warning, “it is failing vital discovery research (and) does not propose a coherent solution for Australia’s research infrastructure system.”
“Based on the issues papers’ content, STA is deeply concerned the SERD will not deliver on this critical need to boost Australia’s discovery research capability, nor forge better connections across the entire research development and innovation system. There is no clear articulation of a vision or ambitious future state for Australia’s research system,” CEO Ryan Winn and policy chair Kathy Nicholson have told SERD chair Robyn Denholm and colleagues.
This is the first substantive criticism of the SERD, in development for Industry and Science Minister Tim Ayres, which has recently released the last of six discussion papers that emphasise applied research in a national strategy with government setting priorities.
The generality of responses from the research establishment have included business sharing research and development expenditure with universities and superannuation funds investing in R&D.
However, STA, which represents public and private science, warns SERD “has lost its way,” focusing on business R&D and failing “to articulate a coherent or ambitious future national system and vision to foster great ideas from research all the way through to products, jobs, policy and services.”
And STA slams the SERD process, which it says“lacks a tight focus that can drive fast and tangible change towards a clear objective. It needs to have clearer actions, with clear short-, medium-, and long-term changes which will drive measurable improvements in the sector.”
Overall, STA wants the review to recommend ways to “secure and strengthen Australia’s discovery research capability” and “bridge gaps between discovery research and innovation.”
In its paper on foundational research, (“creating knowledge”) SERD suggested university funding should be changed “to enable research specialisation,” warning 37 of 41 now research 12 or more fields. “Greater impact could be achieved by specialisation in areas of comparative advantage.”