The research-intensive universities lobby has ignored education in an unusually-concise budget submission, arguing that research funding is essential to improving productivity.
The Go8 calls for:
- A beginning in the Budget towards funding the full economic cost of research, so that universities need not rely on “discretionary income” from international student fees. It calls for indirect costs that are not covered by headline research grants to be included in national competitive grant schemes. Plus it proposes a 50 per target to be reached over unspecified time, unless the (yet to be released) Strategic Examination of Research and Development has any better ideas. The Eight accordingly calls for “establishment funding” in the budget as well as resources so universities can calculate out how much the government will have to pay them on top of existing grants
- Lifting the $650m annual limit on Medical Research Future Fund outlays. The Eight join the medical research community in demanding an extra $450m for the year, to reach the ceiling authorised by the Future Fund Board of Guardians, which oversights the MRFF’s capital. The Go8 adds the underspend is “the very definition of a false economy, that every dollar invested in medical research and development saves $3.90 in “negative health impacts.”
- Keeping cash in the kitty to pay for an associate membership of Horizon Europe. The Go8 is keen on their members being able to compete for grants for the major EU research fund. The Commonwealth has long kept quiet about joining.
Overall, it is a relatively modest bid, ahead of the 2027-28 budget which will include funding to meet the imminent Australian Tertiary Education Commission’s expected costing model for teaching.