Elizabeth Blackburn: "I think there are tremendously good scientists in Australia but..." (April 3, 2013)

Something over three-years ago Australia's 2009 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine spoke to The Australian's Andrew Trounson and asked rhetorically:  "I think there are tremendously good scientists in Australia but sometimes I just feel, are they really being able to run with it in the way they are capable of?" And went on to say that in the US, she benefited from a five-year grant that allowed her to follow her nose without having to write up "damn little" reports and catalogue milestones on a regular basis. "This was the perfect setting and I'm not aware that I would have been able to do that [here]." And to make sure she was getting her message across: "Short dribs and drabs" of money with tight constraints on basic research are in her opinion wasteful.

Now 38 months down the track we have University of Queensland molecular geneticist Professor Melissa Little warning that a "culture of fear" is blocking the shift to five-year grants because researchers are too focused on an inevitable drop in success rates that would result from longer-term grants.

While the McKeon review of medical research is backing a significant increase of five-year research grants at the expense of the current preponderance of three year grants, it also estimates that the move would reduce the success rate of proposals to drop from ~20% to about 13%. In fact the NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) estimates it could drop to as low as 10%.

Professor Little told Mr Trounson that as a consequence researchers were too fearful to apply for 5-year grants because they worried they wouldn't be approved.
"It is driven by fear," Professor Little said. "They are opting for three-year grants because they don't have confidence the selection panels will give them five years."

President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI), Brendan Crabb supports Professor Little's assertion saying: "There is a strong perception that five-year project grants are for elite researchers or for exceptional circumstances."

During US President Barack Obama's first term Steven Chu made the comment that in dealing with members of the US Congress, it helped to have a Nobel Prize.

But so far Elizabth Blackburn's view of what public support for fundamental research should consist of doesn't seem to have gained much traction even when supported by the Review of Health and Medical Research in Australia chaired by the high profile Simon McKeon AO, Chairman of the Board of CSIRO, Executive Chairman of Macquarie Group’s Melbourne Office and Chairman of Business for Millennium Development. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. Previous Board appointments include Chairman of the Board of Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia and Director of Bio 21 Australia.

Oh yes, Mr McKeon was the 2011 Australian of the Year.

The viewpoint that there must be a significant increase in five-year research grants while the overall percentage of approvals is kept at 20% as a minimum is a black hole to be avoided with dread.