Keeping Your Eye on the Ball. (October 11, 2004)

    Alan Leshner is Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). His editorial in the October 8 issue of the journal  Science "U.S. Science Dominance Is the Wrong Issue" while aimed at his US readers has some worthwhile matters for the Australian science community as well as Australia's fourth term Coalition government to ponder.

The quality, breadth, and depth of the presentations at the recent multidisciplinary Euroscience Open Forum 2004 in Stockholm, Sweden, made two things clear. First, superb science is being carried out in many countries; second, the scientific enterprise has become truly global in character.

 

Both the U.S. policy climate and funding trends for science are deteriorating, and those changes pose significant risk to the future of U.S. science. On the funding front, the events of September 11, 2001, led to a major shift in the priorities for support of science, a shift that emphasized areas closely related to defense and homeland security at the apparent expense of many other scientific domains... The most recent fiscal year 2005 congressional budget markups would provide notable increases only for defense and homeland security R&D. The rest would be funded at flat levels on average... How can we recruit the best young people to science careers if they foresee a grim funding picture for their future work?

 

The relationship between science and large segments of the U.S. public and policy communities is also eroding... we are now experiencing a counterproductive overlay of politics, ideology, and religious conviction on the U.S. climate for science.

Unless significant steps are taken in the near future to up the support for Australia's research prowess by revitalising university research infrastructure, making the research milieu in the publicly funded research institutes as well as the universities more conducive to support front line research, Australia will see its increasing current account deficit accelerate while the government points pridefully to its budget surplus.

In the 8 years and 7 months that the Coalition has been in power it has demonstrated that it has little belief in the importance of Australian scientific research for the well being of the nation.

Buy in what we need seems to be the credo, and protestations by the higher education and research sectors have elicited little other than palliative care.

Not until a convincing case is made to the Australian people for the revitalisation of Australia's universities and public research together with worthwhile boosts for business expenditure for research and experimental development is there any likelihood of progress. And not until a concerted, sustained and professional drive is mounted by the universities and the public and business research sectors will there be any significant progress. No one is going to do it for them, certainly not members of the Coalition government's Cabinet.

Alan Leshner makes the point, "the scientific enterprise has become truly global in character." If Australia is to have the credentials to become an integral part of that enterprise, it has got to bring worthwhile contributions to the party and 2020 is not going to be soon enough.