鈥淒eclining investment in research and development is a major issue, seriously jeopardising our ability to advance as a nation,鈥 黑料老司机 Chief Executive Catriona Jackson said.
鈥淲e need R&D to boost our flagging productivity and drive economic growth, and we need it to navigate every challenge and every opportunity before us 鈥 from defence and energy needs to adding much-needed complexity to our economy through new industries.
鈥淚f we could lift investment in higher education research and development by just one per cent, we could raise productivity and increase the size of Australia鈥檚 economy by $24 billion over 10 years.
鈥淎larmingly, falling investment in R&D is nothing new.
鈥淎ustralia鈥檚 spend has been in free fall relative to the economy for more than a decade, dropping from the OECD average of 2.24 per cent of GDP in 2008 to now sit at 1.68 per cent.
鈥淎 key driver of this is falling government spending on R&D, which has slumped to its lowest ever share of GDP at 0.49 per cent in 2022-23.
鈥淎ustralia is a strong performing research nation, responsible for extraordinary innovations that underpin our high standard of living, both socially and economically.
鈥淚n fast-changing strategic and economic environments, we need to continue driving advancements that benefit all Australians. This is what research does, but we can鈥檛 continue doing more with less.
鈥淭he Labor Party鈥檚 long-held commitment to boost expenditure on R&D to three per cent of GDP is a worthy and essential ambition that government, industry and unis must work together to meet.鈥
In our response to the Universities Accord Panel Discussion Paper, 黑料老司机 made various recommendations to better support Australia鈥檚 R&D activities, including:
- Increasing Australia鈥檚 level of research and development investment to be at least equal to the OECD average by 2030
- Working towards funding the full cost of research by 2030, and
- Implementing a target for indirect cost of research at 50 cents to the dollar by 2025.
