The Rudd Government will increase Australia’s capacity to generate new ideas and technologies by investing more than $700 million more in world-class university research over the next four years.
Universities do most of Australia’s basic research and nearly all of our research in the humanities, arts and social sciences. The knowledge they create is translated into products and services to help make Australia more competitive and prosperous and enhance our standard of living.
University research helps to build high-tech industries, create new jobs, protect the environment, and improve the lives of individuals, families and communities.
This investment honours the Government’s commitment to reversing a decade-long decline in support for university research.
It also addresses key findings and recommendations of the Review of the National Innovation System, the Bradley Review of Higher Education, and the recent House of Representatives inquiry into research training and workforce issues.
The Government will commit $512.0 million over four years for a new Sustainable Research Excellence in Universities initiative to address the gap in funding for the indirect costs of research. The new measure will augment the existing Research Infrastructure Block Grants (RIBG) Scheme, with the aim of raising the average support for the indirect costs of university research to 50 cents per dollar of direct competitive grant funding by 2014. To achieve this target, funding for the program will more than double over time.
The new scheme will provide a portion of the funding to all universities on a formula basis in line with the current RIBG. As funding rises over time, an increasing proportion will be allocated on the basis of transparent information from universities about the real costs of undertaking research. In return for extra funding, universities will become more accountable and funding will better reflect performance. This will ensure resources are allocated rationally and used efficiently.
The Joint Research Engagement measure will complement the additional funding for the indirect costs of competitive grant-funded research by transforming the existing Institutional Grants Scheme into a funding stream more closely focused on collaboration between universities, industry and other end-users.
The current inadequate indexation arrangement for research block grants will be replaced from 2012 with an index that better recognises the cost pressures on Australian universities, at a cost of $51.6 million over the forward estimates. Maintaining the value of institutions’ ongoing funding will provide a greater incentive for them to establish diverse missions and undertake world class research.
A new Collaborative Research Networks program will be established, with an investment of $52.0 million to help smaller and regional universities develop their research capacity by partnering other institutions.
This program will support the development of ‘hub and spoke’ arrangements to boost collaboration between universities and help universities build on their research strengths. This architecture will minimise duplication and fragmentation, help universities build capacity and lift our research performance by concentrating resources in areas of excellence and strategic importance.
The reform of university research funding will be underpinned by the introduction of the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative to measure and improve research quality, in line with Labor’s election commitment. The Government will invest $35.8 million in ERA’s ongoing development and implementation.
The Government has acknowledged the importance of supporting our best and brightest postgraduate students through its commitment to double the number of Australian Postgraduate Awards (APAs) by 2012. Building on this commitment, the value of the APA stipend will be increased by more than 10 per cent from $20,427 in 2009 to $22,500 in 2010, at a cost of $51.7 million.
This substantial reform of university research funding comes on top of the $1.58 billion the Government has already invested in university infrastructure, and $1.7 billion in university and research infrastructure funding through the Super Science Initiative and Round Two of the Education Investment Fund.
Media contact: Catriona Jackson, Minister’s Office, 0417 142 238