Parliament House
Canberra, ACT
[check against delivery]
There are too many academic and parliamentary heavyweights here to acknowledge individually, so let me begin by extending the warmest of welcomes to all friends of Australian research.
At about this time each year, we announce the latest research projects to win Commonwealth support from the Australian Research Council’s National Competitive Grants Program.
This is the second time I’ve been part of the show as Minister.
While I have many great days in this job, I don’t mind telling you this is one of the best – and one of the proudest.
It makes me proud to see the quality, diversity and creativity of the projects we are supporting.
It makes me proud to reflect on the intelligence and imagination of the researchers behind these projects.
It makes me proud to be part of a great and enduring Australian tradition of invention and discovery.
Projects and dollars
The numbers are impressive.
One thousand, one hundred and forty-five outstanding projects will receive funding totalling $394 million.
This breaks down into:
• $325.5 million for 925 fundamental research projects under the Discovery Projects Scheme
• $66.8 million for 211 cross-sectoral research collaborations under the Linkage Projects Scheme
• and $1.8 million to support the work of nine Indigenous scholars under the Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development Scheme.
Competition for this funding is fierce.
The success rates for applicants are:
• under one in two for Linkage Projects
• a little over one in three for Indigenous researchers
• and under one in four for Discovery Projects.
I will always argue we need more money for research.
There are always many more projects worthy of support than we can afford to fund.
Yet no one can deny the excellence of projects that have succeeded against these odds.
They have been tested in the crucible of peer review and they have been judged the very best.
Each addresses a significant challenge in an innovative way.
Each will yield new knowledge to the world, and lasting benefits to the nation.
Projects
The headline figures are impressive, but it is only when start looking at individual projects that you appreciate the range of Australia’s research capabilities, and why it is so important that we continue to develop them.
Many of the projects to begin next year will address the biggest challenge of our time, namely climate change.
Our researchers will give Australian engineers the understanding of processes deep beneath the earth’s crust needed to make carbon sequestration and geothermal power a reality.
They will give Australian farmers sorghum that is a safe forage crop in dry climates and an efficient feedstock for bio-fuels.
They will give Australian accountants the tools they need to accurately report greenhouse gas emissions.
They will give our neighbours in the Asia-Pacific a legal framework for reducing emissions from deforestation.
These are just four examples, but they give a fair taste of the multifaceted and multidisciplinary ingenuity our researchers are bringing to bear on the problem.
They confirm my belief that research has the power to make the world a better place.
That belief underpins each and every one of these thousand-plus projects.
Some focus on improving life at work.
Some focus on improving the way Australians learn.
Some projects focus on improving our environment – and Professor Shine will say more about this in a moment.
A great many focus on improving our health – remembering that the Australian Research Council is a very significant supporter of health-related research, alongside its sister agency, the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Some projects focus on making our world safer.
Others are closing the gap in knowledge and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians – as Virginia
O’Rourke will explain.
Industry
Many of the projects we are announcing today will improve the performance of industry.
This round of Linkage Projects will see Australian university researchers partnering with 437 companies and other organisations.
The partner organisations have pledged $120.3 million in cash and in kind to these projects.
The Discovery Projects Scheme also funds research of immediate interest to industry.
Together, the two schemes are supporting work on …
• quantum technologies
• carbon nano-materials
• stable forms of silicon
• and nano-materials for bio-sensing
… that may one day be used in mineral exploration, cryptography, computing, power generation, environmental management, bio-security and electronics.
It isn’t all about hard technologies, either.
One project aims to promote ethical conduct in financial markets and the financial services sector.
It could not have come at a better time.
Inspiration
If we are serious about encouraging innovation, we cannot afford to take a narrowly utilitarian view of research.
Research serves many purposes.
One is to solve practical problems.
Another is to enlighten and inspire.
That’s why the Australian Research Council is supporting:
• research on the history of Australian photography
• and the development of technology that will enable the blind to experience the visual information in 2-D images – including Australian photographs.
That’s why it is supporting a quest to trace the ancestors of the so-called Hobbit (Homo floresiensis), the tiny hominid discovered on the island of Flores in 2003 – with more than a little help from the ARC.
Internationalism
The Hobbit project – like so much ARC-funded research – has a strong international dimension.
In fact, the Discovery Projects we are announcing today involve 1,351 collaborations with researchers and institutions in seventy-three countries.
Our most important collaborator is the United States, which is involved in 339 of the Discovery Projects starting next year – or well over a third.
We are also forging new partnerships – and sometimes in unexpected quarters.
For example, the Hobbit project will see Australians working side by side with scientists not only from the United States, but from Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and the Republic of Georgia.
This is eloquent testimony to the fact we are part of a global research community, and an increasingly global innovation system.
We must recognise this reality and make the most of it.
That is why the Australian Government has thrown key ARC fellowships and awards open to the very best scholars, regardless of nationality.
And that’s why we are introducing a new R&D Tax Credit next financial year to stimulate investment in research by both local and international firms.
The future
Australia has a great research tradition – today’s expo is further confirmation of that, with twenty-five institutions represented this year, up from seventeen in 2008.
Yet we cannot solve the world’s problems on our own.
We have to harness all the resources at our disposal.
That means more international collaboration.
It means more cross-disciplinary research.
It means more partnerships between researchers and business.
And it means nurturing the researchers of tomorrow – and I hope that includes many of our guests from Macgregor Primary and Burgmann Anglican here today.
Congratulations to the individuals, teams and institutions that have been successful in securing funding.
I know you have worked hard to get this far, and I know you will work hard to merit the faith the Australian community has placed in you.
Congratulations also to the Australian Research Council, which is an absolutely critical part of Australia’s innovation system.
This truly is a day to be proud of Australian research.