Calls for a special fund to boost Australia’s scientific, technological future

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Science and Technology Australia wants a brighter country, and it reckons a Science Future Fund is just the way to give it a push along the way.

A pre-Budget submission from the peak science and technology organisation that represents more than 110,000 scientists and technologists says the federal government should create a special fund to achieve this.

It says that a properly set up Science Future Fund could do for science what the Medical Research Future Fund has done for medicine: ensure the trend of low investment in research and development is reversed.

The association’s statement in support of the proposal says that the fund could generate a return of up to $2.3 billion and not cost the budget more other than the initial amount used to kick it off.

“Such a fund would deliver long-term, patient investment in our talented scientists and technologists and science entrepreneurs to lead Australia into the future that will rely on scientific and technological expertise,” the group’s submission says.

“With a seismic investment, such a fund would be a game-changer for Australian economic growth. It would build our discovery science capability, generating a new era of science breakthroughs that would feed into government commercialisation schemes — Australia’s Economic Accelerator, the National Reconstruction Fund and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation — to boost our nation’s economic development.”

The Medical Research Future Fund is used as an example by a team at Science and Technology Australia to demonstrate what may be possible if a fund is set up in a similar way for science.

“The Australian government created the MRFF in 2015, and through Budget savings over five years, built a $20 billion dollar pool of capital by 2020,” the submission explains.

“The Future Fund Board oversees the fund’s investments, with a mandate to produce an average return of at least 1.5–2 per cent a year, over a rolling 10-year period.”

The medical research fund began disbursing funds in 2017, according to the submission, even though it was still building its capital pool.

“In 2020, the MRFF was disbursing nearly $600 million in funding for critical medical research initiatives. It now disburses $650 million in funding a year – nearly doubling the government’s total funding for medical research in Australia,” the submission says.