Australia should invest more in research and development to regain global research standing
The International Student Cap: Where are we, where do we stand and how do we go? The problem of measuring the Australian university spending on research and development
The international student cap highlights broader challenges facing Australian universities, including an uneven spread of resources among institutions that are competing for dwindling funds. “In Australia, spending on research and development is already at its lowest ever share of gross domestic product (GDP),” says Ryan. In the period from 2008 to 2020, Australia spent about 2 percent of its GDP on research, but this fell to 1.68 percent in the period from 2021–22. It is well below the average of 2.7% of GDP for the members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The United States, by comparison, spent 3.5% of its GDP in 2021–22, and Japan spent 3%.
Realizing that potential will be difficult. Shifting policy conditions, a declining demand for higher education domestically and rising salaries are putting extra strain on a system that is already close to breaking point. The mood, according to Norton, is gloomy. “Some universities will do better than others, finding alternative revenue sources and managing the resources they have more effectively,” he says. “But overall, I see no grounds for optimism at the sector level.”
The cap would kick in at the beginning of 2025, pending parliamentary approval by 1 January. Although the bill was originally supported by the opposition Coalition government, a surprise announcement in early November revealed the Coalition party intends to vote against the bill. The caps were assumed to be implemented so universities and other educational institutions spent months planning for them.
The Australian Research and Development Progress in the 21st Century: How the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander can contribute significantly to the scientific research and development of Australia
A psychologist who was part of the survey says there could be long-term effects on the researcher community. “As job prospects narrow, many are looking abroad or considering leaving academia altogether, which could result in a ‘brain drain’ that would really impact the quality of Australian research in the long run,” she says.
Crossley is confident that the industry can build strength and thinks that the changes to research funding in the Universities Accord is a good place to start. Those suggestions — which include bulking up investment in basic research, attracting more students by removing barriers to research training and implementing fairer stipends — could help plot a path towards a more sustainable future for Australian research.
Australia has a lot of work to do to strengthen its standing in science, but it does need some domestic improvements in the way people are engaged with research. Positive movements on this front are not enough for institutions to change ingrained systems and attitudes towards data-sharing. Studies in the environmental sciences and other areas are being informed by the knowledge and expertise of First Nations people. Measures to ensure that this is done respectfully and ethically are very important if Australia wants to raise the quality and impact of its research.
According to Emma Lee, a trawlwulwuy woman of tebrakunna country, in northeast Tasmania, and a sociologist at Federation University in Victoria, “There are some amazing federal government policies and strategies that are genuinely elevating Indigenous commercial and conservation acumen as central to Australia’s economic future.” The sustainable ocean plan was an example of strong collaborative work in managing and protecting Australia’s marine environment. She notes how the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has centred Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the project and says their consultation work highlights the importance of informing food security and conservation policies with Indigenous ecological knowledge. She also points to the importance of collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to achieve Australia’s legislated target of net zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, and says some good work is being done in the fisheries and farming sectors.
During the mining boom of the early 2000s, Australia’s research and development (R&D) intensity, a term to describe R&D expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), was at its peak. But it has since been in steady decline, bucking the trend of other major Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies. Australia’s rate of growth in the amount of R&D intensity fell from 2.15% in 2009, to 1.68 in 2022, putting it at its lowest level in 20 years.
Another stark change is the increase in open access, or free to read, papers over this time. In 2015, 65% of ARC-funded publications were pay-to-read, according to Navigator, and 28% were free to read (the status of the remaining per cent is unknown). These numbers stayed relatively consistent until 2022, at the height of the pandemic, when free-to-read papers jumped to 47%. By 2023, 60% of papers were free to read and 29% were pay-to-read, and in 2024, which is an incomplete year, free-to-read publications account for 68% of ARC-funded output so far.
The biggest topic areas in ARC-funded research between 2015 and 2024 are computational models and algorithms, and clinical studies and public health, accounting for 103,840 and 101,586 publications, respectively, of the total 212,979 for the period, according to Navigator (papers can be related to one or more topic and subtopic). Within computational models and algorithms, 101,866 publications were related to ‘mathematical modelling and numerical methods’, a sub-topic within the field. The clinical interventions and health services research sub-section is where the majority of clinical studies and public health publications come from.
The 2022 and 2023 adjusted Share is shown for the institutions that recorded the largest change in adjusted Share for the period. The changes reflect the country’s overall decline in Share in the Nature Index as it tries to compete with China and India, which are among a small handful of top-20 countries to achieve positive growth in adjusted Share.
These charts highlight the strongest institutional players in a sector that needs to regain its footing in an increasingly competitive global research landscape.
