16,000 research jobs set to fall victim to virus

The COVID-19 pandemic will hit Australia’s research workforce with up to 16,000 researchers likely to stop work this year.

Kylie Walker, CEO of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering

The COVID-19 pandemic will decimate Australia’s research workforce with up to 16,000 researchers likely to cease work this year, according to analysis carried out by Australia’s top science bodies at the request of the federal government’s recovery co-ordinator, Nev Power.

The paper, Impact of the pandemic on Australia’s research workforce, warns that the massive cut in the research workforce could severely affect industry, because universities perform 43 per cent of Australia’s applied research work.

“A decline in innovation may limit economic growth by slowing the development of new technology, skills, and efficiency gains in service and production processes,” said Kylie Walker, chief executive of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, which led the work on the report.

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With up to $4.6bn in university revenue expected to be lost this year due to the crisis, possibly 7000 researchers could lose their jobs at universities, the paper says.

“There are concerns that women, early-career researchers and recent graduates will disproportionately experience negative impacts,” it says.

More than 9000 international research students, a backbone of research efforts, are also likely to cease doing research this year because of travel bans and other COVID-19 interruptions.

The report also warned that academics who keep their jobs through the crisis are likely to have their teaching workloads increased to compensate for the casual lecturers who are no longer being engaged. This will further limit research capacity.

It said that the loss of income due to COVID-19 was not only being felt by universities, but was also affecting other bodies, such as medical research institutes, research agencies and co-operative research centres. These were being hit by lower levels of philanthropic funding, investment income and business investment in research.

The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes has estimated that its group could lose from $200m to $400m in the next two years for these reasons.

Apart from the loss of researchers, Australia’s general research effort is also being affected as other projects are put on hold to concentrate on COVID-19.

The lockdown is also hampering research work.

“Physical distancing and travel restrictions are hindering some research, denying access to laboratories, major research facilities and archives,” the report said.

“In addition to this, clinical trials and population health studies have been affected by the new demands on clinical resources and interrupted access to patients and population cohorts.”

The report was the sixth produced by the Rapid Research Information Forum, which was formed to respond to COVID-19 and is made up of 35 research groups. It is chaired by chief scientist Alan Finkel and its operations are led by the Australian Academy of Science.