2022–23 Pre-Budget Submission

This pre-Budget submission, prepared ahead of the Albanese Government’s first Budget in October 2022, maintains that Australia’s health and medical research (HMR) investment of about 0.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) is poorly coordinated and below what is needed to support a healthier population and a more diversified economy. Research Australia recommends a National Health and Medical Research Strategy, informed by a national stocktake of HMR funding across the pipeline and a workforce plan, and for Government spending on research and development (R&D) to rise to at least 0.75% of GDP, noting it has fallen to around 0.5%. It cites a decline of $314 million (11%) in pure basic research at universities between 2018 and 2020, and a fall in the ratio of Research Block Grant funding to direct research income from 46.4% in 2010 to 38.3% in 2020. Recommendations include real increases to National Health and Medical Research Council and Australian Research Council funding, the Research Support Program and the Research Training Program; a new stream of the Independent Research Institute Infrastructure Support Scheme to cover indirect costs of Medical Research Future Fund grants; full funding of the 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap; a goal of becoming a net exporter of pharmaceuticals by 2035; a feasibility study into manufacturing facilities for clinical trial materials; and an Australian equivalent of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.