Research and development spending went up and down in 2021-22 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Universities Australia (UA) focused on the down, with a screamer of a headline, “R&D investment in free fall.”
Except that it wasn’t, at least on the raw numbers.
UA focused on gross economy-wide R&D as a percentage of GDP, down from 2.09 per cent in 2013-14 to 1.68 per cent in ‘21-22. But the ABS also reports Gross Expenditure on Research and Development and in ’21-’22 that figure was 8 per cent up over two years to $38.7bn. Business R&D also increased by 14 per cent.
This did not deter UA from warning that, “we can’t continue doing more with less,” adding, “If we could lift investment in higher education research and development by just one per cent, we could raise productivity and increase the size of Australia’s economy by $24 billion over ten years.”
In contrast, the Australian Research Council has a new consultant report setting out what its’ competitive grants programs have delivered for Australia over 20 years -$3.32 in additional economic output for every dollar in funding.
In terms of quotable media grabs for Ministers, that translates to $184.3bn in GDP, a $152.5bn “cumulative increase in the real income of Australians” and 6,570 FTE jobs per annum.
Which is good. What is better is the way the ARC case fits the Productivity Commission’s view that the “main game” in productivity policy, “is the way new technology and business innovations spread across firms in the economy.”
The ARC’s report sets out how benefits of research it funds “ramp-up” productivity.
“In the long run, the effect of higher productivity in industries is passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices for consumer goods and services, with scarce resources freed up for use elsewhere in the economy, allowing an increase in total production. Lower consumer prices and the increased productive potential of the Australian economy arising from the productivity gains translate into higher real private consumption and higher economic activity.”
It’s a message that can translate into serious appeal, given the government appears intent on making research a subset of industry policy. Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic talks up the importance of research in the service of the government’s priority manufacturing areas. “High tech capability translates into new manufacturing opportunities.”
Plus the ARC Review supports its pitch with case studies – perhaps picked both for their community appeal as well as for their impact. Wise, very wise, as the Accord Interim report indicates there is not much official interest in more funding for research in the abstract.
Chair Mary O’Kane argues, universities have to make their case to the community and the funding will follow, (Future Campus, August 9)
In the last decade or so UA has had a couple of goes at research funding campaigns. One was 2014’s generic “keep it clever Australia,” (Campus Morning Mail) – which wasn’t. A second campaign used examples of specific researchers whose work “changes lives,” (CMM December 14 2018 and July 23 2019 ) and gave Ministers something to sell.
The latest combination of statistics and case studies from the ARC bowls up messages which could take the sector a step further towards engaging the nation.
