The Federal Government has shown immense lack of experience and judgement by its  $328m cut to university research support in the recent MYEFO.

This is particularly evidenced by its highlighting that prestigious ARC and NHMRC funds  were not touched. Well actually, they were. The Research Support Programme and Research  Training Programme that the government has cut are the ones that are used to make ARC and  NHMRC grants serviceable. So these particular cuts have a serious multiplier effect on the  damage that they do to university research. The Government could hardly have made them in  a worse place.

University science is particularly hard hit by these cuts. 21st century experimental research  requires a large army of postgraduate students to make it function effectively, so cuts to the  Research Training Programme will impact science far more heavily than most. Likewise, cuts  to the maintenance and technical support provided through the Research Support Programme  will hit science very hard.

Science, along with Medicine and Engineering, are the areas that bring in the lion’s share of  research funds and contribute the lions share to global university research rankings. These are  the rankings that promote our multi-billion dollar international education industry. If you  want to do damage to this industry, just pull the plug on some of the research support in these  areas and watch the flow on effect.

It stretches credibility, to put it mildly, that one needs to make a $328m cut in order to service  a $138m regional university package, with a roughly $10bn budget surplus looming. If there  really are good arguments for the cut then the government needs to make them quickly.  Otherwise how many university scientists will be left who would vote for a government
making decisions that look like this?

And in case there is a view that there aren’t many votes among university scientists, it should  be noted that contrary to more ancient myths, scientists do have friends, and lots of them.  Scientists are influencers and opinion leaders to whom many look for advice.

The many graduates from university science courses, our postgraduate students, their friends  and family, the many individuals, businesses and corporations who are driving solutions on  the basis of science, will all listen and understand the negative impacts of this budget  decision, for themselves and for the nation’s future.

While it is encouraging to see an injection in funding for regional universities, it is unfortunate that this has been achieved by reducing the University Research Block Grants scheme.

 The Academy notes that research and development funding are in decline and at the lowest levels in 40 years”

Economic growth and prosperity will not be achieved by cutting research, a driver of the knowledge economy.

Every day, Australians right across the country – from farmers to families with young children – benefit from research breakthroughs.. 

These cuts are the wrong decision for Australia’s future — and they will rob Australians of life-saving treatments, research to help prevent floods and bushfires, and advances in almost every aspect of people’s lives. 

Over the course of this year, we have seen cuts to funding for student places at universities, a proposed new tax on student loans, and a further tax on universities who recruit global talent. And now we have this fresh blow — just before Christmas — to our research capability.

The Budget is forecast to return to surplus and yet the Government has decided to cut funds to research which drives economic growth. This makes no sense.

Three quarters of Australians want us to spend more on research and development as a share of our national economy than we currently do. The Australian public gets it – now we need the Government to follow the public’s lead.

Like all universities with a strong research focus we are deeply disappointed with this cut which will further impact on our international competitiveness.

We are extremely disappointed to see additional cuts to the Research Block Grants scheme, this will mean less funding for universities to conduct research and will reduce their ability to adequately support their scientists and technologists. Taking money out of research will help the bottom line today, but will have hidden costs for many years to come – future generations may look back and thoroughly regret these decisions. Let’s use the strengths of science and technology to bolster our economy, instead of letting the research and development sector slide further into decay.