Lift R&D investment to 3pc of GDP says Group of Eight unis

Group of Eight universities have urged the federal government to adopt a ten year plan to lift Australia’s investment in research and development to 3 per cent of GDP.

Australia’s public and private sectors need to pull together to boost the nation’s investment in research and development.

Group of Eight universities have urged the federal government to adopt a 10-year plan to lift Australia’s investment in research and development to 3 per cent of GDP to boost the nation’s capacity for productivity growth.

A new Go8 paper lays out steps for the public and private sectors to work together to increase R&D investment, which has fallen sharply as a percentage of GDP since 2008. The drop is mainly due to a reduction in business R&D investment, which was driven downward by the fall in mining R&D that waned after the end of the minerals boom.

From a peak in R&D investment of 2.24 per cent of GDP in 2008-09, this so-called R&D intensity dropped to 1.68 per cent of GDP in 2021-22.

The Go8 call comes as federal Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic prepares to announce terms of reference for the review of research and development which was announced in the May budget. It is expected to include an examination of ways to boost Australia’s research density.

The Go8 paper, titled A Dec­adal Roadmap to 3% of GDP, calls for a series of measures to help boost R&D investment.

It calls on the government to commit to reaching a 3 per cent of GDP target for research intensity by 2035 and outlines a series of policy steps to get there.

At the moment, Australia’s research intensity is about one ­percentage point below the average level for OECD countries and the gap is widening.

The paper urges the government to offer incentives to small and medium enterprises to work with research institutions (including universities) on R&D collaboration, and adjust the R&D tax incentive to give further advantages to businesses that have a formal R&D collaboration with a research institution.

It also calls for changes in visa rules so research students from overseas who obtain a PhD at an Australian university get a path to permanent residency and high quality researchers are attracted to Australia.

The paper also calls for more support for domestic research students through better support for science, technology, engineering and maths courses, and a boost to the low stipends offered to higher degree research students.

In the medium term, the Go8 wants to see more investment in R&D from superannuation funds and a stronger and more reliable funding for Australia’s research infrastructure.

In the long term, it wants a ­government-initiated investment fund, similar to the Medical Research Future Fund, to back research outside of the medical area.

It also calls for all levels of government to support “knowledge precincts” around Australia where business and universities co-operate on research. The paper also called for open access to publicly funded research to improve the dissemination of knowledge.

Go8 deputy chief executive Matt Brown said the paper was “not a call for government to tip in billions of dollars to research”.

“What we need to do is figure out structural ways, over time, for the business R&D sector to flourish more,” he said.

While both business and government investment in R&D has fallen since 2008, the university sector’s R&D commitment has not. When Australia’s R&D intensity peaked in 2008-09, the university commitment was 0.54 per cent of GDP. In 2021-22, the level was 0.56 per cent of GDP.

Go8 chief executive Vicki Thomson said universities were limited in how much more they could contribute to R&D because of their reliance on international student fees to fund research and the policy mix being imposed on the sector.

She said boosting R&D was the best way to dealing with challenges, such as moving to a net zero economy, and developing opportunities such as AI.