Latest news with #AustralianAcademyofScience
ABC News
6 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Tax big businesses that don't invest in new technology, science body argues
Billions of dollars in incentives to get Australian businesses to invest in innovation have not shifted a low level of research and development (R&D). Having tried a carrot, one of the nation's top scientific bodies wants to try the stick: whacking big business with a levy if they don't invest a minimum amount in R&D. 'Research and development underinvestment by both government and business had been long term and is now intolerable," said Anna-Maria Arabia, chief executive at the Australian Academy of Science. As the government searches for ideas to boost the nation's flagging productivity and economic growth, the Australian Academy of Science is calling for a rebatable levy on businesses with annual revenue of more than $100 million. The idea is to force them to spend up on R&D — say 0.25 per cent or 0.5 per cent of their revenue — or cop a levy equal to that, with the money invested by the government in innovation. The academy is arguing that a massive boost in research and development is needed to boost productivity. "It's not just me saying it, it's the Treasury, it's the Productivity Commission," said Ms Arabia, who blasted the complacency of Australian businesses. And it is not just them either. The Lowy Institute's Jenny Gordon was chief economist at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and supports the push to fund R&D more effectively. "I don't know whether I'd call it a stick, I mean, you could also call it an incentive scheme," she said. "This is an alternative way to say, 'Well, we need to raise funding, reliable funding for R&D'. So that is not at the whim of government and whatever the budget decides to allocate. Australia spends vastly less than similar nations on R&D. In 2023, the Productivity Commission wrote that Australian businesses were not "keeping pace" with innovation. Prior to the pandemic, the Harvard Growth Lab Atlas of Economic Complexity ranked Australia 93rd in terms of the complexity of its economy. At the time that was lagging Kazakhstan, Uganda and Senegal, and only just ahead of Pakistan and Mali. The academy, an organisation representing Australia's top research scientists, argues sustained underinvestment by the business sector means there is now a gap of $32.5 billion when compared with the OCED average (we spend 0.89 per cent of GDP, less than half the OECD average of 1.99 per cent). It is proposing the levy to push business to go harder on innovation: to secure the future of Australian business. "Our back is up against a wall now," Ms Arabia said. Professor Roy Green knows about the benefits of innovation, as a special innovation advisor at the University of Technology Sydney and on the board of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He believes Australian business has been coasting on the research done by tertiary institutions and government. What that means now, he says, is that we "have very poor productivity performance that the government is now trying to address … largely because of our failing research and development support system". The amount spent on R&D has fallen in all sectors: universities, public institutions and private businesses. "Public R&D barely makes a dent," Professor Green said. "And that's combined with a massive fall in business expenditure in R&D. The only institutions that are holding it up are universities, and that's only because of increased funding from overseas students — which we've just cut." Levies to push business to take up beneficial activities — such as the training guarantee in the 1990s — show it can be done, he added. The government's looming Economic Reform Roundtable will bring together business groups, unions, community sector representatives and experts in Canberra next month. Ahead of the event, groups like the academy are making suggestions for changes they would like to see, and submissions on what they see as key issues. The submission from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) was released before the suggestion by the academy to put a levy on business, and so does not include a response to it. What it does do is note how much we lag other nations and make suggestions for how to fix that. "This underperformance is closely tied to broader issues in the business environment, including weak private investment and an outdated tax and regulatory framework that discourages innovation," the ACCI submission noted. ACCI wants to see a long-term policy commitment and a clear strategy from Commonwealth and state governments. Among its recommendations are "refundable tax credits, direct grants, and concessional financing options" for small to medium-sized businesses and "stage-specific, low-interest government loans to support business R&D investment". Earlier this year, another business lobby group, the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group), welcomed a government discussion paper on R&D. "We must fundamentally re-imagine Australia's R&D strategy as a dynamic, responsive system that recognises industry isn't just a vehicle for commercialising R&D developed elsewhere," Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said at the time. "To put it simply, the current system is not working in Australia's interests." The group reiterated what the paper suggested, that R&D-intensive businesses demonstrate stronger jobs growth and resilience in uncertain times. "R&D investment is not merely an academic exercise but a crucial driver of national prosperity," Mr Willox said, calling for a radical push to boost the field. "Everything must be on the table. There can be no sacred cows. "Simply calling for R&D spending to reach 3 per cent of GDP [gross domestic product] isn't enough. As a start, we must address fundamental issues around commercialising public sector research and how to strengthen industry-research collaboration." As the roundtable approaches and more big ideas are thrown out, the future structure of R&D could be undergoing development of its own.
The Advertiser
03-07-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
'We're here': Australia joins the race for US academics
Australia hopes to bring America's brightest minds Down Under as Donald Trump's research cuts spark a US brain drain. The US president has taken a chainsaw to science funding, slashing thousands of government grants and transforming the global state of research. Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, said efforts by the Australian Academy of Science to attract American talent was good national co-ordination. "I'm very pro-American, but if their current government doesn't want some of their best to brightest minds, why should we let them go to Europe or Asia?" he told AAP. "We haven't invented this challenging environment for American higher education ... but that doesn't mean that we should sit back and watch the French, the Germans, the Asian nations, recruit these clever people without at least Australia saying 'we're here too'." The academy has designed a relocation package which includes research funding, access to facilities, family relocation support and visa acceleration in a bid to recruit leading US scientists and Australians returning home. About 70 people have already indicated interest. Some were directly impacted by the Trump administration's budget cuts and lost either their positions or support for their areas of research. Though there have been cuts across a range of disciplines, some of the more significant slashes have been applied to areas such as virology and immunology, alongside cuts to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration which enables researchers to forecast weather and model climate change. Other interested researchers have seen the havoc wreaked on American academia and become "disillusioned or despairing" of their ability to pursue their interests in the US, Australian Academy of Science chief executive Anna-Maria Arabia said. By comparison, Australia's research landscape is more stable and less politically driven. "Whilst it's a volatile situation and quite an unfortunate one that we are experiencing, there is a tremendous opportunity for Australia," she told AAP. By bringing more to Australia, they can contribute to research and development which can eventually open up new economic sectors, new trade potential and a plethora of other benefits, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering chief executive Kylie Walker said. "You're looking at a decade or more to show benefits from that investment, but when they come - my goodness - they come," she told AAP. Australia isn't the only nation hoping to capitalise on Mr Trump's attack on academia. His cuts have ignited a "global race" for science and technology talent, and Australia's universities, research organisations and agencies such as the CSIRO are all trying to attract them. Almost half of the academy's fellows, which are Australia's most distinguished scientists, were born overseas and many had a multiplier effect when they arrived in Australia as they trained the next generation and helped seed industries. "This is the Australian story, this is what science is in Australia," Ms Arabia said. "It's multicultural, it's of the highest standard, it's undertaken in a supportive environment and in a democratic environment where we nurture science and our scientists." Australia hopes to bring America's brightest minds Down Under as Donald Trump's research cuts spark a US brain drain. The US president has taken a chainsaw to science funding, slashing thousands of government grants and transforming the global state of research. Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, said efforts by the Australian Academy of Science to attract American talent was good national co-ordination. "I'm very pro-American, but if their current government doesn't want some of their best to brightest minds, why should we let them go to Europe or Asia?" he told AAP. "We haven't invented this challenging environment for American higher education ... but that doesn't mean that we should sit back and watch the French, the Germans, the Asian nations, recruit these clever people without at least Australia saying 'we're here too'." The academy has designed a relocation package which includes research funding, access to facilities, family relocation support and visa acceleration in a bid to recruit leading US scientists and Australians returning home. About 70 people have already indicated interest. Some were directly impacted by the Trump administration's budget cuts and lost either their positions or support for their areas of research. Though there have been cuts across a range of disciplines, some of the more significant slashes have been applied to areas such as virology and immunology, alongside cuts to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration which enables researchers to forecast weather and model climate change. Other interested researchers have seen the havoc wreaked on American academia and become "disillusioned or despairing" of their ability to pursue their interests in the US, Australian Academy of Science chief executive Anna-Maria Arabia said. By comparison, Australia's research landscape is more stable and less politically driven. "Whilst it's a volatile situation and quite an unfortunate one that we are experiencing, there is a tremendous opportunity for Australia," she told AAP. By bringing more to Australia, they can contribute to research and development which can eventually open up new economic sectors, new trade potential and a plethora of other benefits, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering chief executive Kylie Walker said. "You're looking at a decade or more to show benefits from that investment, but when they come - my goodness - they come," she told AAP. Australia isn't the only nation hoping to capitalise on Mr Trump's attack on academia. His cuts have ignited a "global race" for science and technology talent, and Australia's universities, research organisations and agencies such as the CSIRO are all trying to attract them. Almost half of the academy's fellows, which are Australia's most distinguished scientists, were born overseas and many had a multiplier effect when they arrived in Australia as they trained the next generation and helped seed industries. "This is the Australian story, this is what science is in Australia," Ms Arabia said. "It's multicultural, it's of the highest standard, it's undertaken in a supportive environment and in a democratic environment where we nurture science and our scientists." Australia hopes to bring America's brightest minds Down Under as Donald Trump's research cuts spark a US brain drain. The US president has taken a chainsaw to science funding, slashing thousands of government grants and transforming the global state of research. Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, said efforts by the Australian Academy of Science to attract American talent was good national co-ordination. "I'm very pro-American, but if their current government doesn't want some of their best to brightest minds, why should we let them go to Europe or Asia?" he told AAP. "We haven't invented this challenging environment for American higher education ... but that doesn't mean that we should sit back and watch the French, the Germans, the Asian nations, recruit these clever people without at least Australia saying 'we're here too'." The academy has designed a relocation package which includes research funding, access to facilities, family relocation support and visa acceleration in a bid to recruit leading US scientists and Australians returning home. About 70 people have already indicated interest. Some were directly impacted by the Trump administration's budget cuts and lost either their positions or support for their areas of research. Though there have been cuts across a range of disciplines, some of the more significant slashes have been applied to areas such as virology and immunology, alongside cuts to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration which enables researchers to forecast weather and model climate change. Other interested researchers have seen the havoc wreaked on American academia and become "disillusioned or despairing" of their ability to pursue their interests in the US, Australian Academy of Science chief executive Anna-Maria Arabia said. By comparison, Australia's research landscape is more stable and less politically driven. "Whilst it's a volatile situation and quite an unfortunate one that we are experiencing, there is a tremendous opportunity for Australia," she told AAP. By bringing more to Australia, they can contribute to research and development which can eventually open up new economic sectors, new trade potential and a plethora of other benefits, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering chief executive Kylie Walker said. "You're looking at a decade or more to show benefits from that investment, but when they come - my goodness - they come," she told AAP. Australia isn't the only nation hoping to capitalise on Mr Trump's attack on academia. His cuts have ignited a "global race" for science and technology talent, and Australia's universities, research organisations and agencies such as the CSIRO are all trying to attract them. Almost half of the academy's fellows, which are Australia's most distinguished scientists, were born overseas and many had a multiplier effect when they arrived in Australia as they trained the next generation and helped seed industries. "This is the Australian story, this is what science is in Australia," Ms Arabia said. "It's multicultural, it's of the highest standard, it's undertaken in a supportive environment and in a democratic environment where we nurture science and our scientists." Australia hopes to bring America's brightest minds Down Under as Donald Trump's research cuts spark a US brain drain. The US president has taken a chainsaw to science funding, slashing thousands of government grants and transforming the global state of research. Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, said efforts by the Australian Academy of Science to attract American talent was good national co-ordination. "I'm very pro-American, but if their current government doesn't want some of their best to brightest minds, why should we let them go to Europe or Asia?" he told AAP. "We haven't invented this challenging environment for American higher education ... but that doesn't mean that we should sit back and watch the French, the Germans, the Asian nations, recruit these clever people without at least Australia saying 'we're here too'." The academy has designed a relocation package which includes research funding, access to facilities, family relocation support and visa acceleration in a bid to recruit leading US scientists and Australians returning home. About 70 people have already indicated interest. Some were directly impacted by the Trump administration's budget cuts and lost either their positions or support for their areas of research. Though there have been cuts across a range of disciplines, some of the more significant slashes have been applied to areas such as virology and immunology, alongside cuts to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration which enables researchers to forecast weather and model climate change. Other interested researchers have seen the havoc wreaked on American academia and become "disillusioned or despairing" of their ability to pursue their interests in the US, Australian Academy of Science chief executive Anna-Maria Arabia said. By comparison, Australia's research landscape is more stable and less politically driven. "Whilst it's a volatile situation and quite an unfortunate one that we are experiencing, there is a tremendous opportunity for Australia," she told AAP. By bringing more to Australia, they can contribute to research and development which can eventually open up new economic sectors, new trade potential and a plethora of other benefits, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering chief executive Kylie Walker said. "You're looking at a decade or more to show benefits from that investment, but when they come - my goodness - they come," she told AAP. Australia isn't the only nation hoping to capitalise on Mr Trump's attack on academia. His cuts have ignited a "global race" for science and technology talent, and Australia's universities, research organisations and agencies such as the CSIRO are all trying to attract them. Almost half of the academy's fellows, which are Australia's most distinguished scientists, were born overseas and many had a multiplier effect when they arrived in Australia as they trained the next generation and helped seed industries. "This is the Australian story, this is what science is in Australia," Ms Arabia said. "It's multicultural, it's of the highest standard, it's undertaken in a supportive environment and in a democratic environment where we nurture science and our scientists."
Perth Now
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
'We're here': Australia joins the race for US academics
Australia hopes to bring America's brightest minds Down Under as Donald Trump's research cuts spark a US brain drain. The US president has taken a chainsaw to science funding, slashing thousands of government grants and transforming the global state of research. Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, said efforts by the Australian Academy of Science to attract American talent was good national co-ordination. "I'm very pro-American, but if their current government doesn't want some of their best to brightest minds, why should we let them go to Europe or Asia?" he told AAP. "We haven't invented this challenging environment for American higher education ... but that doesn't mean that we should sit back and watch the French, the Germans, the Asian nations, recruit these clever people without at least Australia saying 'we're here too'." The academy has designed a relocation package which includes research funding, access to facilities, family relocation support and visa acceleration in a bid to recruit leading US scientists and Australians returning home. About 70 people have already indicated interest. Some were directly impacted by the Trump administration's budget cuts and lost either their positions or support for their areas of research. Though there have been cuts across a range of disciplines, some of the more significant slashes have been applied to areas such as virology and immunology, alongside cuts to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration which enables researchers to forecast weather and model climate change. Other interested researchers have seen the havoc wreaked on American academia and become "disillusioned or despairing" of their ability to pursue their interests in the US, Australian Academy of Science chief executive Anna-Maria Arabia said. By comparison, Australia's research landscape is more stable and less politically driven. "Whilst it's a volatile situation and quite an unfortunate one that we are experiencing, there is a tremendous opportunity for Australia," she told AAP. By bringing more to Australia, they can contribute to research and development which can eventually open up new economic sectors, new trade potential and a plethora of other benefits, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering chief executive Kylie Walker said. "You're looking at a decade or more to show benefits from that investment, but when they come - my goodness - they come," she told AAP. Australia isn't the only nation hoping to capitalise on Mr Trump's attack on academia. His cuts have ignited a "global race" for science and technology talent, and Australia's universities, research organisations and agencies such as the CSIRO are all trying to attract them. Almost half of the academy's fellows, which are Australia's most distinguished scientists, were born overseas and many had a multiplier effect when they arrived in Australia as they trained the next generation and helped seed industries. "This is the Australian story, this is what science is in Australia," Ms Arabia said. "It's multicultural, it's of the highest standard, it's undertaken in a supportive environment and in a democratic environment where we nurture science and our scientists."
Sydney Morning Herald
24-06-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Brett Sutton made it through a pandemic. Now he's fighting a new war
Sutton has been quietly doing the groundwork for nearly a year now; the CSIRO held a design workshop in May. The design is not yet set, or the name, but Sutton wants a 'paddock to plate' approach: ensuring the science itself is robust, the way universities promote studies is accurate, and that scientists are resourced to fight for the truth on social media. This week, his idea won in-principle support from the Australian Academy of Science and the Academy of Health and Medical Science, as well as from the Australian Science Media Centre (Nine, owner of this masthead, is a paying member of the centre). 'In an increasingly fragmented information environment, bringing the right voices together in a co-ordinated way has never been more important,' said Professor Louise Baur, president of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Australian Academy of Science president Professor Chennupati Jagadish said he was concerned evidence-based information was being 'drowned out by disinformation, and reliable and independent sources of knowledge are increasingly rare'. Globally, Australians retain an extremely high trust in scientists – ranked fifth in a survey of 68 countries published in Nature Human Behaviour earlier this year. And misinformation has always been a part of society; much of it, like astrology, is tolerated as harmless. The problem we now face seems instead to be driven by a global collapse in trust in institutions, combined with a media and social media environment that empowers people to choose the version of the truth they want to watch, said Associate Professor Will Grant from the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. 'It's a pull away from competing over what is true to instead saying we can have our own truths, our own world,' he said. Some 61 per cent of Australians worry about political meddling in science, per Edelman research released this year. Nearly half of people globally distrust government to care for their health. Trust in media to accurately report health information fell by 16 per cent in Australia since 2019; 35 per cent of people now say they can be as knowledgeable as a doctor if they have done their own research. In 2019, Australians' trust in government fell to its lowest level since 1969, according to a tracking survey run by the Australian National University. Society has three institutions for finding out the truth: science, journalism and the courts, said Grant. 'All those are under attack. 'We are decaying our central institutions. We are losing our central social ability to adjudicate truth.' Sutton's coalition was welcome, said Dr Susannah Eliott, CEO of the Australian Science Media Centre, but faced a tricky task, as people might actually find a coalition of science institutions less trustworthy than individual scientists. A similar effort in the US, the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science, floundered because it tried to simply compete directly with misinformation, rather than engaging people in genuine dialogue, said Tina Purnat, a misinformation researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 'It can feel pretty paternalistic if you are on the receiving end,' she said. 'I think the positioning of any coalitions as 'defenders of science' and using combative language can massively backfire in any effort to de-escalate polarised discussions.' Sutton is not yet clear on what shape his coalition will take or how it will be funded, but he wants it to be separate from government. 'Government can be the reason why people lack trust in where information comes from,' he said. AI: a growing misinformation threat Even as Sutton works to pull together his coalition, Australian researchers are tracking a new and growing misinformation threat: artificial intelligence-enabled bots. Automated accounts have long plagued social media. But they have generally been fairly easy to spot. Not any more. Bot developers have linked Twitter and Facebook accounts to AI models like ChatGPT, giving the bots the ability to post like humans – and even respond or retweet. 'The bot is pretty much mimicking human behaviour,' said Dr Muhammad Javed. His team at Melbourne's Centre for Health Analytics has tracked these bots as they made a major impact on social media discussions of vaccination. In preliminary data presented to the Communicable Diseases & Immunisation Conference earlier this month, they found nearly a quarter of social media content around the new RSV vaccine was generated by bots – most of it around safety concerns. Loading Social media companies have made efforts to limit anti-vaccination content – but the bots were getting around this by behaving as though they were real humans posting adverse effects they had received from a jab, Javed said.
The Age
24-06-2025
- Health
- The Age
Brett Sutton made it through a pandemic. Now he's fighting a new war
Sutton has been quietly doing the groundwork for nearly a year now; the CSIRO held a design workshop in May. The design is not yet set, or the name, but Sutton wants a 'paddock to plate' approach: ensuring the science itself is robust, the way universities promote studies is accurate, and that scientists are resourced to fight for the truth on social media. This week, his idea won in-principle support from the Australian Academy of Science and the Academy of Health and Medical Science, as well as from the Australian Science Media Centre (Nine, owner of this masthead, is a paying member of the centre). 'In an increasingly fragmented information environment, bringing the right voices together in a co-ordinated way has never been more important,' said Professor Louise Baur, president of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Australian Academy of Science president Professor Chennupati Jagadish said he was concerned evidence-based information was being 'drowned out by disinformation, and reliable and independent sources of knowledge are increasingly rare'. Globally, Australians retain an extremely high trust in scientists – ranked fifth in a survey of 68 countries published in Nature Human Behaviour earlier this year. And misinformation has always been a part of society; much of it, like astrology, is tolerated as harmless. The problem we now face seems instead to be driven by a global collapse in trust in institutions, combined with a media and social media environment that empowers people to choose the version of the truth they want to watch, said Associate Professor Will Grant from the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. 'It's a pull away from competing over what is true to instead saying we can have our own truths, our own world,' he said. Some 61 per cent of Australians worry about political meddling in science, per Edelman research released this year. Nearly half of people globally distrust government to care for their health. Trust in media to accurately report health information fell by 16 per cent in Australia since 2019; 35 per cent of people now say they can be as knowledgeable as a doctor if they have done their own research. In 2019, Australians' trust in government fell to its lowest level since 1969, according to a tracking survey run by the Australian National University. Society has three institutions for finding out the truth: science, journalism and the courts, said Grant. 'All those are under attack. 'We are decaying our central institutions. We are losing our central social ability to adjudicate truth.' Sutton's coalition was welcome, said Dr Susannah Eliott, CEO of the Australian Science Media Centre, but faced a tricky task, as people might actually find a coalition of science institutions less trustworthy than individual scientists. A similar effort in the US, the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science, floundered because it tried to simply compete directly with misinformation, rather than engaging people in genuine dialogue, said Tina Purnat, a misinformation researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 'It can feel pretty paternalistic if you are on the receiving end,' she said. 'I think the positioning of any coalitions as 'defenders of science' and using combative language can massively backfire in any effort to de-escalate polarised discussions.' Sutton is not yet clear on what shape his coalition will take or how it will be funded, but he wants it to be separate from government. 'Government can be the reason why people lack trust in where information comes from,' he said. AI: a growing misinformation threat Even as Sutton works to pull together his coalition, Australian researchers are tracking a new and growing misinformation threat: artificial intelligence-enabled bots. Automated accounts have long plagued social media. But they have generally been fairly easy to spot. Not any more. Bot developers have linked Twitter and Facebook accounts to AI models like ChatGPT, giving the bots the ability to post like humans – and even respond or retweet. 'The bot is pretty much mimicking human behaviour,' said Dr Muhammad Javed. His team at Melbourne's Centre for Health Analytics has tracked these bots as they made a major impact on social media discussions of vaccination. In preliminary data presented to the Communicable Diseases & Immunisation Conference earlier this month, they found nearly a quarter of social media content around the new RSV vaccine was generated by bots – most of it around safety concerns. Loading Social media companies have made efforts to limit anti-vaccination content – but the bots were getting around this by behaving as though they were real humans posting adverse effects they had received from a jab, Javed said.
