News & Views item - November 2005

 

 

Australian Academy of Science Publishes Research and Innovation in Australia: a Policy Statement. (November 18, 2005)

    The Australian Academy of Science (AAS) has released it's twelve page policy statement regarding support by government and the private sector for research and innovation. It comes down particularly hard on the lack of support by the private sector.

 

The President of the AAS, Jim Peacock writes in his forward, "The level of business investment in R&D remains a great concern... the very low level of business expenditure on R&D (BERD) drags the national gross expenditure (GERD) well down the OECD table of national data. This situation has pertained for many years, with some minor variations, and represents a real disengagement by industry from leading-edge scientific input to the industrial process... any change will have to come from government initiatives, rather than relying on so-called market forces, that have been unable to deliver any real change so far.

    "In terms of government expenditure on R&D, both in universities and publicly funded research organisations, the Academy remains concerned that the level of government investment as a percentage of GDP remains essentially static, and many areas of weakness in the national science, engineering and technology (SET) environment are apparent.

    "The Academy contends that there is a real challenge for government to determine whether the current science and technology funding framework is capable of taking Australia forward in the global economy of the next few decades, to continue to develop as a competitive knowledge-based economy, and remain a paid-up member of the first world."

 

The specific recommendations made by the AAS are listed below. The rationale is given in their publication and how much of a ripple it will produce on the government's mill pond of self satisfaction or whether the Labor opposition will bestir itself to formulate meaningful policies for the support of research and higher education are moot questions.

 

 

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