Inaugural Director of the Royal Institution of Australia Speaks Out. (December 18, 2008)

When Gavin Brown retired from the vice-chancellorship of The University of Sydney, he moved directly into the directorship of the Royal Institution of Australia (RI-AUS).

After a hiatus the one-time mathematician, who some years back in a moment of frustration referred to the then Minister for Education, Science and Training, Brendan Nelson, as the "frog prince", has written for the Australian R&D Review on "Fostering Australian university research".

It would be pleasing to think that some of the chief scientists, state and federal, might take note and in turn might have influence with those "key decision makers" Professor Brown alludes to.

Some cogent excerpts:

 For many years the biggest problem for me has been the lack of any systematic scheme to develop basic research infrastructure... Existing block grants cannot be used in this way so there is severe difficulty in mounting major new initiatives, especially inter-disciplinary ones.

Close behind comes the frustration of underfunding of research grants. These typically go to individual researchers with the university being required to provide both overheads and partial contribution... the only solution is more money in the system - a strategy backed by OECD comparisons.

To save on costs one might tackle those problems by further concentration of research resources to fewer universities [an approach advocated by the Go8. However,] recent observation of Japan suggests great caution.

Australia’s research contribution to world productivity is around 2 per cent in areas which can be measured. This has obvious strategic implications for we must have a ticket at the table to access the remaining 98 per cent. It means we must take the risk and fund some areas of high impact basic research...

Similarly we would benefit from a climate of more open innovation in the commercialisation of university research. Over the last few years I feel that government agencies have over-estimated the potential returns and written more onerous contracts. The universities have responded by doing the same with an eye to taxpayer audit.

Key decision makers must be kept abreast of the world issues arising from research, not least so that they are less susceptible to emotion-based lobbying, and everyone, especially youth, should gain an appreciation of both the joy and practicality of research.