Canberra to ‘take time’ over Serd response

Australia’s government supports the “agenda” of its landmark research review but will not rush consideration of the recommendations, a Canberra forum has heard.

Science minister Tim Ayres told the National Press Club that he was “attracted” to the Strategic Examination of R&D (Serd) panel’s proposals to be more “purposeful” by organising innovation activities around “national missions”. And his government was “closely examining” proposals towards “re-energising” R&D co-operation between the public and private sectors.

But Ayres declined to “rule anything in or out”, saying he would be doing a disservice to the panellists if he cherry-picked their recommendations. “I don’t think, [with] a review of this scale, that it would be treating it with respect to have a couple of glib press releases, pick the low-hanging fruit off the things that we can easily do, and then sail on to the middle distance.

“This review will intersect with interests, and people in the system will have views about it. It is whole-of-government work, and I will take my time to work with colleagues to develop a whole-of-government response.”

The comments will disappoint science advocates who had been hoping Ayres would use the Press Club address – a regular fixture in the annual Science Meets Parliament event – to commit to some of the Serd panel’s 35 recommendations and sub-recommendations.

In language reminiscent of education minister Jason Clare’s references to the Australian Universities Accord, Ayres said the Serd vision would not be delivered in a hurry. “This isn’t something that you deliver in a single budget or indeed in a single term of government.”

The Serd is the fifth major research and innovation review in a two-decade period during which “nothing much has changed”, apart from R&D spending hitting a “historical low” as a proportion of GDP, the Press Club heard.

Asked why the public should accept his “trust me” assurances, Ayres said the government valued science “as a central part of Australia’s democracy” in a world where empirical thinking and facts were “a source of challenge and contest”.

“We’ve got tough decisions to make,” he said. “We’ll work through those with the research and development community, but science is at the core of what we believe.”

He stressed the need for more “focus” in national innovation efforts, saying government must “do more than just fund and hope”. The leadership and staff of the national science agency, Csiro, were already doing the “difficult work” of ensuring its research priorities were “consistent and pointed in the right direction”.

Asked whether he would heed calls to guarantee sustained public funding for Csiro, with the changes to the agency’s research focus already costing more than 1,000 jobs, he said the government had provided an extra A$278 million (£145 million) last year and would “make decisions in future budgets”.

“We will be here for the Csiro. We’ll be here for Australian science. We’ll back Australian science capability because it’s in the national interest.”

Ayres said he was “proud and delighted” that Australia was fast-tracking negotiations to associate with Horizon Europe, and praised the Group of Eight (Go8) for helping make it happen by matching the government’s contribution towards joining the scheme.

“When trade in goods and services and commodities is volatile, the exchange of ideas between scientists is invaluable,” he said. “Horizon Europe is about opening a pool of global talent with trusted partners to deepen local knowledge [and] lift Australian capability in fields like critical technologies, defence and clean energy.

“I’m so grateful for that Go8 contribution and for the cultural leadership message that contribution sends that we are all in this together.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com