Boomers vs Millennials: Federal funding leaves young scientists under pressure

by Lachlan Gray | Apr 16, 2020 | Boomers & Millennials

Whilst Australia has halted declining research funding, Federal funding policy has made it far more difficult for younger scientists to gain experience and stable employment. This is the fourth story in our series exploring intergenerational inequity. Lachlan Gray reports.

I recall back in 2014, during my second year of university, I was told by my lecturer to get out of Australia if I wanted any sort of career in science. At that time, and indeed now, that sentiment has continued to be relevant. Since the election of Tony Abbott in 2013, Australia has witnessed a dramatic decline in meaningful scientific funding from each successive Coalition government.

Most scientific research occurs within of universities who are traditionally at the whim of federal government policy where the competition for grants has seen droves of Australian researchers packing up and heading overseas. Research in Australia is heavily dependent on federal government funding, so has always faced political influence, with projects being geared towards short term scientific and economic gains. The implications for this are clear. Australia is missing its opportunity to invest in new technologies, medical research and to contribute to the global scientific community.

Australia’s main problem, rather than a lack of funding, is our inability to support ‘Blue Sky’ research projects. These are research endeavours which have no clear goal and are generally curiosity driven. ‘Blue Sky’ research is generally overlooked as the apparent financial or societal impacts are often difficult to ascertain, but it is these long form projects that can yield breakthroughs and unforeseen scientific developments and technological innovations. An example of such a breakthrough was the invention of wifi by CSIRO funded scientists in 1994.

A common criterium for grant applications is the ‘state your work’s impact’ segment where applicants are assessed on the clear and direct implications for their research. Success in this category is often attributed to work which deals with big name issues such as cancer, dementia and mental health research. More exploratory studies are often overlooked.

A 2016 study conducted by the Australian Society for Medical Research revealed that 1 in 4 researchers felt uncertain in their future employment due to difficulties in acquiring research funding. Of those surveyed, 80% had considered leaving the industry for another career, 15% had already left and 63% indicated that overseas funding opportunities had a strong influence on them leaving Australia.

An unpublished 2020 study surveyed Australian early career researchers (ECR’s) and similarly discovered that motivations for leaving their current position included lack of funding (28.2%) and job insecurity (48.9%). Furthermore, success rates for National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants currently sit at 15% depending on the scheme.

So, it’s unsurprising that Australian researchers, specifically early career post-doctoral researchers, are moving overseas and inadvertently contributing to the dreaded ‘Brain-Drain’ of the industry. As a consequence of this lack of funding, many postdocs find themselves unable to climb the career ladder into more stable full contract positions. The last 20 years has seen the national age of chief investigators for research proposals steadily increasing, with 43% of chief investigators aged 30-49 and 57% aged 50-74 in 2013.

So how did we find ourselves in this predicament? Science has received an ebbing and flowing of attention since the Abbott government where the politicising of scientific funding reached an all-time high. Many readers may recall the shocking defunding of the CSIRO, with specific focus on climate and environmental research, in 2013. This occurred simultaneously with the failure to appoint a Minister for Science in both Abbott and Turnbull governments.

Subsequentially, there have been convoluted reshufflings of science funding in the 2019-2020 federal budgets where $328.5 million was cut from expected research funding and a freeze was placed on funding increases for research, facilities and training programs such as PhDs. In fairness, $86 million was set aside for funding in the same budget, but this was met with a contradictory $345 million cut to university research funding. Similarly, $3.4 million in funding was to be put forward for the support of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) but no considerations were made to facilitate the current employment issues faced by early career researchers.

Australia should take this opportunity to look overseas at European nations with far superior systems of funding. For example, in 2019 Germany legislated an increase in research budgets by 3% a year for the next decade, resulting in a €17 billion injection into the scientific research industry. And in contrast to Australia, Germany has seen a steady success rate of ~28% in awarded grants for life sciences since 2015.

However, the drain of resources from science is steadily being mitigated through the establishment of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) in 2015 by then Treasurer Joe Hockey. By 2021, The MRFF will consist of a $20 billion long-term investment which will support Australian health and medical research paid for by the net interest. The MRFF is paid for through utilisation of the funds in the existing 2009 Health and Hospitals Fund and a general reduction in health spending.

The MRFF is clearly a positive development, which mitigates the steady decline in research funding, however, the generational inequalities and difficulties faced by emerging Australian scientists is yet to be addressed.

The Morrison government has made its mistrust of science very clear. It is reflective in the pitiful and insubstantial climate change policies that were brought forward during the last election. This is matched with the government’s inability to link Australia’s too recent bushfire tragedy with a rise in global temperatures.

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Lachlan Gray is a Masters by Research candidate at the University of New South Wales.

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