Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of the Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2008. This bill before the House is yet another Rudd Labor commitment that was promised at the last election and is now being delivered by the Rudd government. The Australian Research Council was originally established through the Employment, Education and Training Act 1988 but later it became an independent statutory body under that act. The functions of the ARC are to provide advice to the government on research matters, to administer the National Competitive Grants Program and to make recommendations to the minister on the allocation of funds for that program.

The National Competitive Grants Program covers two main elements: Discovery and Linkage. Discovery projects provide funding for individual researchers of projects across many varied areas of research. Linkage projects are about getting government, industry, community organisations and higher education providers to support cooperative research. Future Fellowships will be administered as a new scheme under the Discovery element of the National Competitive Grants Program.

This bill provides nearly $950 million over the forward estimates for ARC funding, both for the ARC’s existing research schemes and for the new Future Fellowships scheme as proposed in the bill. It provides funding for the establishment of the Future Fellowships scheme, which will provide opportunities for mid-career researchers of significant ability to undertake important research in Australia. The bill also provides indexation to existing appropriation amounts in the act—and these are quite substantial. It provides an additional out-year financial forward estimate, being the amount of $731 million for the financial year starting 1 July 2011. The Future Fellowships scheme will make available funding for 1,000 four-year fellowships over the next five years.

At present, many highly qualified mid-career researchers find they have few options to work locally and have to go overseas to further their careers. The aim of the Future Fellowships scheme is to attract and retain Australia’s best and brightest international mid-career researchers, and Future Fellowships provides an incentive for overseas based Australian researchers to return home after gaining important and valuable international experience in their fields. The four-year fellowships will offer up to $140,000 a year to mid-career researchers, along with funding of up to $50,000 a year for the researcher’s administrating organisation to assist in the funding of travel, infrastructure and equipment.

In recent months, as a member of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation, I have been privileged to be present at every hearing of the inquiry into research training and research workforce issues in Australian universities. As that inquiry has gone around the country there have been many submissions taken and some very interesting evidence put before the committee. Although the inquiry is not yet finished, I can certainly comment on some of the public submissions that have been handed up. Overall there has been great support for the Future Fellowships scheme coming from many universities and other organisations involved in research and associated fields. Universities such as Edith Cowan University in Western Australia commended the scheme as announced in the budget. The Curtin University of Technology, also in Western Australia, welcomed the new and exciting initiatives such as the Future Fellowships and the existing ARC fellowships. They applauded these, saying they will assist in attracting and retaining mid-career and senior researchers. The University of Sydney noted the difficulty in transferring from ARC research fellowships and QE2 fellowships to Australian professional fellowships and sees the introduction of the Future Fellowships scheme as a good potential solution to the issue, along with its helping to support the National Health and Medical Research fellowship system. The University of Sydney submission also noted that low salaries and esteem in Australia are an issue and that the federation fellowships were good in this regard. The new future fellowships should help in terms of attracting new researchers back.

Victoria University’s submission calls for initiatives to be developed to encourage mid-career researchers and sees the launch of the ARC Future Fellowships as encouraging and a good start in an area where more needs to be and should be done. The University of Western Sydney submission notes that future fellowships for mid-career academics could play a strong role in providing opportunities for career advancement for research graduates and staff while calling for a priority in the allocation of these fellowships to attracting researchers to the sector rather than rewarding those already in it. The University of New South Wales submission welcomes the Future Fellowships program as the first step to providing an attractive entry back into Australia for overseas based researchers. And the submission from the University of South Australia describes the Future Fellowships scheme as an excellent initiative with the opportunity to recruit 1,000 outstanding international and national mid-career researchers to Australia, but calls for more investment to lift Australia’s international competitiveness in research. Monash University in my home state of Victoria in its submission also welcomes the announcement of a four-year investment of $326 million to be directed to funding future fellowships designed to attract and retain 1,000 talented mid-career researchers from both Australia and abroad.

The inquiry submission from the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations also welcomes the scheme as a significant first step in addressing the urgent need for more opportunities for mid-career researchers whilst also noting that early-career researchers could benefit from a similar scheme. The submission from the Innovative Research Universities Australia group, which comprises Flinders, Griffith, James Cook, La Trobe, Macquarie, Murdoch and Newcastle universities, notes that Future Fellowships is a very welcome initiative aimed at enhancing career pathways through the provision of opportunities for mid-career researchers.

If Australia aims to be a smart nation, we must invest in research and innovation to keep ahead of the world. Future Fellowships is an important funding component that will help us achieve this goal. The announcement on 3 September by Senator Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Science and Research, of the Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme adds another important component to this investment. The Australian Laureate Fellowships will provide opportunities to researchers at the peak of their careers, thus providing a path beyond the mid-career funding we are talking about with this bill. With $239 million to be allocated over five years, the program will be run by the ARC alongside the Future Fellowships scheme.

As I said before, in going around the country on the inquiry and talking to so many different people in different universities about their training and research and about what they see is wrong with the current system, it came through time and time again that the lack of a career path actually meant that many people missed out, were pushed out or lost interest. There is a hole where we need them in research. There are not enough people there; there is not enough attractiveness for some to stay in the system. They go out and work in industry—and I cannot blame them for that, because they have lives to lead and they do need to earn money to live—but we need to make sure that with proper funding we stay in front of the game. The introduction of both of these schemes demonstrates the Rudd government’s commitment to fostering research and excellence along with building a stronger and more diverse research community. I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context