Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I am introducing the Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2021, which amends the Australian Research Council Act 2001 to ensure continuity of funding to the funding schemes of the Australian Research Council or ARC.

This bill will amend the Australian Research Council Act 2001 to update the existing funding caps and insert new funding caps through until 30 June 2025 for the funding of competitive research in Australia.

This routine update to the ARC's funding caps provides for anticipated inflationary growth so that the government can continue to support Australia's research sector.

The new cap for the 2021-22 financial year has been increased to just over $815 million, and a new paragraph is added to provide appropriations as per agreed Commonwealth policy to the 2024-25 financial year.

This funding builds on the Australian government's investment of $11.9 billion in science and research in 2020-21, around 6.7 per cent of which goes to the ARC.

The ARC's Discovery and Linkage programs, and their flagship programs, Discovery Projects and Linkage Projects, support a broad range of research efforts and date back to the birth of the agency in 2001.

Discovery is for fundamental discovery or 'blue sky' research, while Linkage supports collaborative research that facilitates linkages within universities and outside the university sector.

These programs continue today as an important balance of the ARC's research investment.

The ARC Centres of Excellence scheme supports centres of expertise through which our best researchers maintain Australia's international standing. Since the first funding round in 2003, the scheme has supported a total of 70 centres, with funding of $1.5 billion awarded.

Since 2009, the Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme has supported 210 laureate fellows with over $590 million.

Also since 2009, the ARC's mid-career fellowship scheme, or Future Fellowships, has provided over $1.3 billion to 1,800 worthy recipients in every research discipline, from STEM to HASS, and at universities around Australia.

In total, over its 20 years, the ARC has supported more than 29,000 unique research projects and competitively awarded over $13.5 billion since 2002. More than 38,000 researchers have participated in ARC funded projects and more than 9,000 institutions across Australia and globally have partnered on ARC grants since the agency was established.

ARC funding has been crucial to a long and significant list of Australian research achievements. They include the bionic ear (Cochlear), the establishment of the online database for the Australian Dictionary of Biography and the 2016 detection of gravitational waves.

The bill ensures the continuing support of the ARC and the many thousands of jobs in Australia's research sector that it supports.

Our ability to respond to the challenges of the future relies on the knowledge of our best and our brightest. Much of this knowledge is forged in the research centres of our universities.

It's in order to support and grow our research community that we bring this bill to the parliament.

I commend this bill to the House. I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Debate adjourned.