Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for Education, in writing, on 2 December 2019:

With the abolition of the Education Investment Fund, how does the Government plan to assist universities to undertake major campus renewal projects that maintain facilities for teaching and research.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

The Australian Government announced in the 2014–15 Budget, that the Education Investment Fund (EIF) would be abolished in response to a recommendation from the National Audit Commission. At this point responsibility for the EIF funds transferred to the Department of Finance.

At the end of 2018, Australia's public universities, as well as the Australian Catholic University and the University of Notre Dame Australia, had total cash and financial investments of nearly over $20 billion. These institutions generally have low levels of debt relative to these assets even without considering further non-financial assets. The university sector is well-placed to provide for its own capital investment needs.

With regard to research infrastructure, university researchers will benefit from the $1.9 billion committed by the Government in the 2018–19 Budget to the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). NCRIS, which commenced in 2004–05, is a national network of world-class research infrastructure projects that support high-quality research that will drive greater innovation in the Australian research sector and the economy more broadly. It enables open, merit-based access to research infrastructure in areas of national priority identified with the research sector.

NCRIS projects support strategically important research through which Australian researchers and their international partners can address key national and global challenges. The most recent NCRIS program guidelines (2018) provide projects with funding through to 2022–23.

The Government will also provide $910 million to higher education providers (HEPs) in 2020 through the Research Support Program (RSP). The RSP provides a flexible funding stream for HEPs to support their research activities, with funding able to be spent on any activity related to the conduct of research, including research infrastructure projects, the maintenance costs of research facilities and the indirect costs associated with Australian competitive research grants.

Through the National Competitive Grants Program, the Australian Research Council (ARC) administers the Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme. The LIEF scheme enables researchers to participate in cooperative initiatives so that expensive research infrastructure, equipment and facilities can be shared between higher education organisations and also with industry. It also fosters collaboration through supporting the cooperative use of international or national research facilities.

Under the LIEF scheme applicants may seek ARC funding for:

All commitments made under the EIF were honoured, with the last payment made in 2018. The Government announced in the 2019–20 Budget that remaining uncommitted EIF funding would be used to fund the new Emergency Response Fund (administered by the Department of Finance).