SA Productivity Commission asked to investigate SAHMRI’s success
The SA Health and Medical Research Institute will be investigated by the SA Productivity Commission to judge its effectiveness and competitiveness.
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The performance of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute is to come under scrutiny.
Premier Steven Marshall has ordered the SA Productivity Commission examine the North Tce institute amid concerns it is lagging behind interstate rivals in winning major grants, including from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
SAHMRI was established in 2009 following the Review of Health and Medical Research in South Australia by Professor John Shine and Alan Young with the aim of increasing SA’s health and medical research capacity.
Mr Marshall’s order notes in recent years “South Australia’s ability to attract investment in health and medical research has been diminishing, most clearly demonstrated by a declining percentage of NHMRC grants being won by South Australian researchers.”
Over the past five years SAHMRI was awarded $18.5 million in NHMRC grants while Flinders University won $44 million, UniSA $68 million and Adelaide University $119 million.
SAHMRI executive director Professor Steve Wesselingh welcomed the review as an important opportunity to examine the state’s research and development performance across areas including grant funding and research activity and commercialisation.
He said that in the past three financial years SAHMRI’s expenditure on research alone has grown from just under $60 million to almost $75 million for the current year.
“We are just one part of this broad review, but we have actively contributed to the issues paper and will continue to support the Commission throughout the process,” he said.
“SAHMRI’s role in medical research and development has always been to facilitate collaborations across the state, including with the universities, so that together, South Australia’s research output and impact is far greater than the sum of our parts.
“That collaborative focus makes it pointless to directly compare major grant funding between SAHMRI and the universities.
“SAHMRI’s senior researchers are all affiliated with a university and on most occasions their grants are administered through that university. This is a model that has mutual benefits for both SAHMRI and our partner institutions.”
The commission was established to examine and make recommendations that facilitate productivity growth and unlock new economic opportunities.