Media Releases 2003

18 December  2003

Future strategic investment fundamental to Australia's research capacity

Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee President, Professor Deryck Schreuder today released a major AVCC policy statement, Advancing Australia’s Abilities: Foundations for the future of research in Australia in response to the Government’s various research reviews.

"The Government’s initiative Backing Australia’s Ability (BAA) and its response to the Wills report on health and medical research have provided a welcome, renewed investment in Australia’s capacity to undertake world-class research" Professor Schreuder said. "Unfortunately most of BAA is set to end in 2006 and the university sector is facing the real possibility of the withdrawal of nearly $700 million from our national innovation system. Australia now needs a renewed commitment to the future and the Prime Minister has indicated that science and innovation remains one of the Government’s strategic priorities.

"Though relatively small in size, Australia has one of the best economies in the world in global terms and we rate among the top twenty countries for research output. This is a significant achievement and for Australia to continue maintaining and advancing its world ranking, future strategic investment in research is fundamental.

"The need to reinvest in our research and innovation base is well understood by our major trading partners and competitors. The United States and Canada continue to strengthen their research capacity and the European community has set a target for investment in research to reach 3 per cent of GDP by 2010.

"We must progress with the rest of the world and the Government must renew its investment to provide a strong, effective research base and put in place the research funding framework needed to maintain our international position.

"In Advancing Australia’s Abilities, the AVCC sets out:

• the challenges that we face as a nation in developing our research capacity;
• the investment that is needed to support our research capacity; and
• the research framework that will allow us to develop and support our research capacity.

A copy of the document can be found here

Media Inquiries Tracey Jiggins – phone: (02) 6285 8206 or 0400 166691