Federal Budget fallout

The Australian Academy of Science said the 2013 federal science Budget is short-sighted and failed to take a visionary approach to securing the nation’s future and economic, social and environmental wellbeing.

“While the academy welcomes short-term investments in researchers and research infrastructure, this Budget unfortunately represents a missed opportunity to support a strategic long-term vision for Australia’s future,” said the Academy’s president, Professor Suzanne Cory.

The academy is critical of the lack of long-term investment in research and development (including infrastructure) and lack of strategic international science program in the Budget.

Here are some of the highs and lows:

• $135.3 million over five years for the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Future Fellowships program
• $185.9 million over two years to the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme
• The continuation of funding for Cooperative Research Centres, the National Health and Medical Research Council, and CSIRO - although 165 jobs have been cut from CSIRO’s workforce
• $9.8 billion over six years for schools - a new needs-based funding model that increases Commonwealth funding for schools to $104.3 billion from 2014 to 2019
• $226 million to fight cancer, including $55.7 million for breast cancer screening, $18.5 million for prostate cancer research and $23.8 million for bone-marrow transplants
• $378.6 million over 15 years for the Venture Australia program, $350 million of which will make up a new Innovation Investment Fund
• $3.2 million over 15 years for the promotion and marketing of Australian start-up success stories with a further $25.4 million to the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education to handle this investment
• Alteration of venture capital tax concession programs to help spark activity among angel investor groups
• $3.3 billion in cuts and deferrals over four years to tertiary education and research
• Deferral of $370 million of funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, while $225.4 million will be deferred and $32.3 million redirected from the biodiversity fund
• $58 million in funding for the Clean Technology Program moved to 2017-18

“We must invest in tertiary education, and we must invest in research and development over the long term - at least a decade - to create high-quality jobs, to attract and retain leading researchers and skilled technicians, and to yield meaningful results,” said Cory.