The Australian Academy of Science is about to launch one of its “most ambitious policy efforts” – ever.
It is a ten-year plan for science to “support our national ambitions.” Academy president Chennupati Jagadish (ANU) floated relevant ideas for it in Bandung last week.
The policy is needed, he said, to support the government’s present R&D review because, “the complex web of policies, funding instruments, institutions and incentives currently in place are not serving Australia’s national interest.”
In their place, the Academy calls for a “unified national system” working across all levels of government to, “align priorities and optimise allocation of resources,” connecting research and funding agencies and funding agencies. A “collaborative forum would “logically sequence funding to create continuity between discovery and application.”
And he talked-up a two-stage funding model. Government should support basic research, “that does not deliver an immediate application or economic return.” And the state should “incentivise” business to invest in research and development for the flow-on to the economy.
Professor Jagadish also warned against looking for links between research outputs and measured economic growth.
“Metrics often rely heavily on return on investment, which can be misleading and fail to capture long-term or indirect benefits such as improved public health, environmental sustainability, or workforce development.”
Instead, he said, to understand the impact of research on economic growth, “experts advocate for more holistic and longitudinal approaches.” He nominated collaboration density, talent mobility and “translational capacity.”
The ten-year plan will follow the Academy’s R&D funding proposal last month that included a levy on $100m per annum companies to raise up to $12bn a year which would be distributed by public agencies.