Nelson sets priority for research funds
By CATRIONA JACKSON, Education Reporter
Canberra Times
Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson has departed from normal practice by directing the nation's peak research body how to spend a third of its 2003 budget.
Making the announcement yesterday, Dr Nelson said 33 per cent of Australian Research Council funding would go to four priority areas of cutting-edge scientific research such as genomes, nanotechnology, interactive systems and photons.
About $170 million would support projects and centres for up to five years.
The announcement has thrown the ARC's grants system into turmoil, the chief executive officer, Vicki Sara, issuing a bulletin apologising for the delay caused by the move and announcing the scrapping of the guidelines for 2003 grants.
New guidelines, with significant changes, would be issued by the end of this week, and the time for grant applications had been extended, she said.
The ARC did not respond to requests for an interview.
The Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training confirmed that this was the first time the ARC had been directed by Government on priority areas for grants.
The Opposition attacked Dr Nelson's initiative, saying the "picking winners" approach contradicted the stated objectives of the ARC.
The Opposition spokesman on science and technology, Kim Carr, said more excellent research projects would now go unfunded.
The exclusion from the priority list of public-interest research and the environment, and all of the humanities and social sciences, was highly unsatisfactory.
"While I support the setting of national priorities, I don't support this elitist, behind-closed-doors method of decision-making," he said.
One senior academic, who did not wish to be named, said the move was a "major intervention in the autonomy of the ARC".
The ARC had set its own priorities in the past.
The president of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, Professor Deryck Schreuder, said the committee accepted that the Government had the right to set national research priorities, but had a number of concerns.
It was unclear what the move would do to budgets for other research in disciplines such as the humanities and social sciences, or to basic research that did not have immediate commercial applications, but laid the groundwork for new discoveries.
A spokesman for Dr Nelson defended the move, saying there had been grants for questionable research projects in the past.
The Government made no apologies for directing funding to subjects that analysts said were the real areas of growth.
He denied there was a danger in picking winners and said the Government was merely seeking the best financial returns for taxpayers' money.
There was still a huge sum for researchers working outside the four priority areas to compete for, he said.
Extensive expert consultations had informed the Government's decision to focus on nano and bio-materials, genome/phenome research, complex/intelligent systems and photon science and technology.
"The nominated areas have been identified as fields of existing and emerging research strength in which Australia can achieve international leadership," he said.
"Most importantly, they have the potential to deliver significant economic and social benefits to the Australian community."