R&D review has a critical link to the Future Made in Australia initiative

The federal government’s review of research and development, announced in the May budget, is critical to its Future Made in Australia program.

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic’s R&D Review, announced in the May Budget, has barely raised a murmur of public comment since then.

That’s a pity because it’s critical to the success of the Albanese Government’s signature Future Made in Australia policy and the ongoing success of our world-leading university sector.

Both need a thriving research ecosystem to deliver meaningful productivity gains.

Without them, our economy will wither and be even more reliant on “digging up and shipping out”.

Everyone in the investment and research sectors is acutely aware that Australia’s expenditure on research has been poor in the last decade and is declining.

The recent Universities Accord was an opportunity to look at university research from an investment perspective. Disappointingly, it was not taken.

Michael Molinari

Our universities are among the best in the world, with nine in the top 100 in the world in the recent QS rankings.

Over the past two decades their rise up the rankings has been enabled by the cross-subsidy of international student income.

The huge decrease in the number of international students under the government’s proposed changes will place pressure on their ability to sustain their research.

We’ve long bemoaned that we don’t have the success stories for the commercialisation of our research.

We’ve recently started to see this turn with increased level of entrepreneurial activity across our campuses, giving rise to companies like Hysata, Samsara Eco and AMSL Aero.

Without reform in how we incentivise and fund our research, however, this will disappear, and with it our opportunity to secure our place in the economy of the 21st century.

Given the scale of the challenge for our research sector, the review needs to consider bold action. Let’s not waste this crisis.

The review should consider a root-and-branch review of how research in Australia is funded, incentivised and directed. This should start with asking how we fund university research, but also how we incentivise corporate research activity.

In the university sector, how do we maintain our excellence in a world where research is becoming ever more specialised and expensive, reliant on large investment in capabilities and equipment? Should our efforts be concentrated in a smaller number of areas and institutions to remain at the cutting edge?

We have a clear statement of priority areas in Future Made in Australia. Alongside government investment through the National Reconstruction Fund, should we also consider aligning support for corporate research through the R&D tax incentive with these priorities?

Given the absence of any discussion of the R&D Review since the Budget my fear is that this will disappear into a ‘Yes Minister’ style interdepartmental review until everyone forgets about it.

The R&D Review is too important to let the government kick it into the long grass. Our future prosperity relies on it.

Michael Molinari is managing director of IP Group Australia, a leading global early-stage science investor across deeptech, life sciences and cleantech.