Chief Scientist Cathy Foley says Australia must continue to research with China

Cathy Foley warns Australia must continue to conduct research with China despite growing geopolitical tensions.

Australia’s Chief Scientist Cathy Foley. Picture: Getty Images

Chief Scientist Cathy Foley has warned Australia must continue to conduct research with China despite Canberra’s growing geopolitical tensions with the communist superpower.

The nation’s top scientist also said Australian scientists did not have to do “everything” with Chinese partners and said she found the Beijing-backed Thousand Talents Program to be a “bad deal” in one past dealing she had at CSIRO.

The Morrison government has moved to clamp down on university research deals between Australian institutions and Chinese military-backed scientists, and parliament is investigating national security risks in the higher education sector.

In her first major address at the National Press Club in Canberra, Dr Foley said Australia’s small research imprint required the nation to continue some engagement with China.

“Australia does two per cent of the world’s research. So if we don’t partner and collaborate we’re not very smart, are we?” she told the National Press Club.

“We need to make sure we engage. China is the biggest research investor in the world.

“That doesn’t mean we have to do everything with them. When something gets interesting, you don’t collaborate with anybody. You keep it close to yourself so you’re able to make the most of it.”

The Australian revealed last year the Chinese government has been recruiting Australian scientists and academics to a secretive research program called the Thousand Talents Plan by offering lucrative incentives, which obliges recruits to abide by Chinese law.

Some Thousand Talents contracts stipulate scientists cannot disclose their participation in the Chinese government program without permission and their new inventions are patented in China, often secretly.

Dr Foley said she had found – during her time at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) – the Thousand Talents Plan did not reap benefits for Australia and did not offer the nation enough control over Australian research

“When I was a chief of division at CSIRO, one of my staff … got offered a Thousand Talents Program (spot) and went through the whole process and it was a really bad deal,” she said.

“We were paying the salary, and they were getting the opportunity to work overseas, and we weren’t controlling the research. So I didn’t actually let them do that (take the spot).

“We need to make sure (research) turns to the national benefit.”

Dr Foley took on the chief scientist role from her predecessor Alan Finkel last November and has been mostly focused on using science to propel the post-COVID economic recovery.