Australia’s government has promised to overhaul tax perks for research and development and improve the coordination of its research grant schemes, in the “first stage” of its response to the Strategic Examination of Research and Development (Serd) report.
The 12 May federal budget also includes a A$387 million (£207 million) lifeline for the beleaguered science agency Csiro and a A$509 million increase in allocations from the underspent Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
The government has also made unspecified provisions to fund Australia’s involvement with Horizon Europe and meet “infrastructure obligations” for the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project.
But these investments will be bankrolled by cancelling the remaining A$800 million promised through the research commercialisation programme known as Australia’s Economic Accelerator, and redirecting billions of dollars more of grant funding earmarked for future decades.
In a bittersweet budget for universities, higher education institutions will be charged A$11 billion a year to fund the operations of the National Student Ombudsman. And while net overseas migration forecasts have been revised upwards, the current turmoil in visa processing appears unlikely to end.
