{"id":829305,"date":"2026-07-28T15:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829305\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T15:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:24:14","slug":"research-funding-predicts-future-quality-of-life-in-australia-its-tanking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829305\/","title":{"rendered":"Research funding predicts future quality of life. In Australia, it\u2019s tanking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Angus<\/p>\n

July 29, 2026 \u2014 12:01am<\/p>\n

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Most Australians believe they live in a scientific powerhouse. They\u2019d be wrong.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of scientists are sounding the alarm over our woefully unambitious level of investment in research and development, which has eroded over 15 years to the point that our quality of life is under threat.<\/p>\n

\"AustralianAustralian science funding has crashed to historic lows.Aresna Villanueva<\/p>\n

Since a peak in 2009, overall investment into R&D has crashed to 1.69 per cent of GDP, a historic low that runs way below the OECD average of 2.7 per cent and could see Australia ranked last in the OECD within five years<\/a>. As that value has edged downward, the facilities of Australia\u2019s premier science organisation, CSIRO, have also quietly fallen into disrepair.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s chief executive, Professor Doug Hilton, will tell the National Press Club on Wednesday that 80 per cent of CSIRO\u2019s 800 buildings are at their technical end of life or not fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

Maintenance costs are why the axe has had to swing on 350 jobs despite an additional $387.4 million funding injection from the latest budget, according to a draft version of Hilton\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

Amid feeble funding and slashed research jobs, most with a stake in science agree we are at a crossroads between choosing a vigorous reversal of scientific decline or accepting descent into becoming The Dumb Country.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the Australian Academy of Science, comprising about 650 distinguished researchers, has marshalled its biggest campaign in 70 years.<\/p>\n

Science funding tied to quality of life<\/p>\n

Australia is good at waving the flag for science. In 2024, the late Professor Richard Scolyer<\/a> and colleague Professor Georgina Long were named dual Australians of the Year for their work on melanoma. This year it\u2019s space engineer Katherine Bennell-Pegg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A survey by the academy showed 86 per cent of Australians assumed our investment in science is on par with other countries. The reality shocked them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Australian scientists may be world-class, but every stroke of their brilliance \u2013 synthetic DNA<\/a>, new heart-rescuing drugs crafted from funnel-web venom<\/a>, and ultra-efficient solar panels<\/a> \u2013 has been made despite chronic underfunding, a Byzantine grants system and ailing facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t really seen science being an election issue for a very long time, and it\u2019s probably just complacency because the public believes that everything\u2019s doing great,\u201d says Dr Hayley Teasdale, a neuroscience researcher and head of science with the academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut scientists are now telling their kids not to follow in their footsteps<\/a>, and that is heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teasdale knows the feeling of dashed scientific dreams. There was no local work in her field when she completed her PhD in Canberra.<\/p>\n

\"DrDr Hayley Teasdale, head of science policy and advice at the Australian Academy of Science.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

But her expertise was keenly desired elsewhere: a neurotech company in San Francisco hired Teasdale as their lead scientist, to work on non-invasive brain stimulation treating the symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease and depression.<\/p>\n

She returned to Australia during COVID. \u201cThere were no jobs here for me to continue my research in Australia,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve lived the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teasdale is now a torchbearer for the academy\u2019s Restore Science campaign, which has rallied almost 18,000 people to write to their MPs calling for the return of research investment to an internationally competitive level.<\/p>\n

The campaign follows the release of the Ambitious Australia report, a road map to a bolder, stronger science sector<\/a>, commissioned by the government and delivered in March. The report calls for the reversal of declining research grants; lifting spending to the OECD average would require a boost of 43 per cent, or $2 billion.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Science improves our lives through cheaper energy<\/a>, more nutritious food<\/a>, better medicine<\/a>, new materials to use and sell<\/a>, and more biodiverse cities<\/a>. Without strong science and the urgent diversification of our economy beyond what we dig from the ground, the report warned, our lives in future decades will be worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe imperative for change is clear,\u201d wrote the report\u2019s leader, Tesla chair Robyn Denholm. \u201cFuture generations of Australians face a substantial reduction in their standard of living unless there are bold, nation-changing reforms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Some reform has followed. Last week, the government overhauled the Australian Research Council\u2019s National Competitive Grants Program \u2013 one of the major sources of government science funding \u2013 from 15 schemes to seven, and simplified the process to reduce time burnt by researchers applying for grants (which can take up as much as half of a senior scientist\u2019s workload).<\/p>\n

But that refresh, and the recent measures in the budget<\/a>, did not deliver more cash. It just rearranged lab stools on the Titanic. If there\u2019s one thing the report stressed, it\u2019s that incremental change is no longer enough to save science.<\/p>\n

CSIRO cuts over, but 10-year upgrades needed<\/p>\n

With its axed researchers and ageing facilities, CSIRO has served as a metaphorical microcosm for the broader state of Australian science. But the exit of 800 support staff and 350 researchers \u2013 including from the health and biosecurity unit and climate modelling teams<\/a> \u2013 has put the organisation back on steady ground, Hilton says.<\/p>\n

Some senior CSIRO staff have said mismanagement of COVID-era funds<\/a> put the organisation in the red. Hilton says the job cuts were required after previous executives prioritised science jobs over building upgrades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand why in the past people have preferenced keeping scientists on board and keeping our research portfolio broad, at the expense of repairs and maintenance,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there\u2019s a point where it does become unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CSIROCSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton.Martin Ollman<\/p>\n

Addressing the maintenance and facility upgrade backlog will be a 10-year job, he warns. But he doesn\u2019t foresee any more broad job losses in the pipeline: \u201cThe scale of those major cuts are behind us now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking broadly about the state of research funding, Hilton says science has to prove its worth against all the other pillars of a nation the government has to answer to: defence, the NDIS, an ageing population, the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf science wants to contest for [funding], then we genuinely have to ask ourselves as organisational leaders, as team leaders in science, and as individual scientists, whether we\u2019re doing absolutely everything to create the case that we are delivering the best value for money,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s part of being a good steward of public money, and it\u2019s part of the trust people have in science and scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

He, too, sees us at a momentous junction between regression, inaction and forging a new path ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really sympathetic to the campaign the Academy of Sciences is running,\u201d Hilton says. \u201cBut for me, it\u2019s not about restoring science back to something that it was in the 1970s or 1980s. It\u2019s how do we chart a new course for science where people widely across a big continent \u2013 in rural and regional areas, in outer suburban areas, in inner metro areas \u2013 they can all see the absolutely crucial nature of science in their future?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Examine newsletter explains and analyses science with a rigorous focus on the evidence. Sign up to get it each week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"AngusAngus Dalton<\/a> is the science reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 29, 2026 \u2014 12:01am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-829305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}