Scheme to link government with researchers to springboard Qld science

The Queensland government will support researchers in applying for federal funding grants by stepping in and becoming their partner in the process.

The Department of Environment and Science’s R&D Linkage Opportunities 2023 Program has been allocated $900,000 over the next three years to help researchers get Australian Research Council grants.

The Queensland government will partner with researchers to improve their chance of getting federal funding grants.Credit: Stuart Layt

Queensland’s Chief Scientist Bronwyn Harch said fantastic science was being done in Queensland, but it needed help to take it to the next level.

“The program positions the state government as the collaboration partner with the researcher when they apply for the ARC grants,” she said.

“ARC grants require an industry or government partner, and we already partner with individual researchers on projects, but this program will mean that will be more organised and not on an ad hoc basis.”

Under the program, research organisations would approach the department with the projects, and the department would help them develop their ARC application.

Queensland acting Chief Scientist Bronwyn Harch.

If the application for ARC funding is successful, the government will be the collaboration partner, meaning any scientific breakthroughs would benefit the researchers and the government.

ARC is an independent funding body within the federal government and is one of the primary public sources of research funding, awarding more than 1000 grants every year.

It is expected to invest more than $850 million in research projects in 2022-23, and it is hoped the DES program will help secure more of that funding for Queensland.

Harch said they were focusing on environmental research in the first instance, especially around decarbonisation and climate resilience.

“I expect there’ll be a bit of cross government collaboration around this as well, in sectors like agriculture, which could benefit from programs like this,” she said.

“We also have in there projects around how to better translate research, which is about making the research and innovation system better as well – to actually look at the research ecosystem and make it better.”

Other priority research areas for the project include advancing the circular economy, managing Queensland’s biodiversity and threatened species, and First Nations data sovereignty and cultural heritage.

Harch said she hoped the program would foster an initiative like the National Wastewater Monitoring program, which provides detailed information about drug use in Australia, and which began life as a small project out of the University of Queensland.

“Hopefully researchers and the government coming together to design these proposals gives them an advantage,” she said.