AusBiotech comments on the National Research Investment Plan discussion paper

AusBiotech strongly supports the view put in the ARCom NRIP discussion paper that “the [research] system must have the capacity to translate research outcomes into public and private benefit and to respond to demand from a wide range of end-users.”

When it comes to fundamental discovery in science and biomedical research, Australia is a legitimate and impressive global contributor, producing 3 per cent of the world’s research publications with only 0.3 per cent of the population. However, our ability to translate this strength into tests, cures, treatments and vaccines to benefit the Australian community continues to fall short of expectation.

The 2012 (INSEAD) Global Innovation Index ranks Australia 13th in terms of innovation input and 31st in innovation output. But when these figures are converted to innovation efficiency ratio of output over input, Australia dives to a ranking of 107 out of 141 countries assessed.

The Federal Government spends more than $9 billion annually on research, with about 98.5% provided to the research end of the spectrum, leaving only about 1.5 per cent of that spent on commercialisation: translating the research into products. Approximately 50% of this is directed to the automotive industry, which leaves little for other areas of Australian ingenuity.

It is AusBiotech’s view that 1.5 per cent is too low to be considered an appropriate proportion and a larger portion of the country’s research investment should be dedicated to translation. Despite the Government’s support of the research end of the R&D spectrum, the development end is continually left wanting – when support is needed for the entire value chain, from basic research through commercialisation, if Australia is to optimise social and economic returns on research.

The full submission can be found here.