Research Australia 2013–14 Budget Submission

This pre-Budget submission to the Australian Government sets out Research Australia’s priorities for health and medical research funding in the 2013–14 Budget. It maintains that Commonwealth funding for research should be treated as an investment rather than an expense, citing the fall in coronary heart disease hospitalisations from 867 to 643 per 100,000 people between 1993–94 and 2009–10, the potential for better health to extend working lives as pension and superannuation ages rise, and 2012 polling in which 80% of respondents rated increased government research funding as important. Written while the Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research (the McKeon Review) was still under way, it makes six recommendations: a real increase in health and medical research funding, continuing at minimum the trend of real increases in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants; a specific allocation to implement and monitor the McKeon Review recommendations and develop a national research strategy; more funding for health systems research; more funding for research translation, including clinician researcher roles, research buy-outs for general practitioners through Medicare Locals, implementation research and an evidence portal; greater funding for population and preventive health research through an expansion of the National Preventive Health Agency’s grants; and retention of the R&D tax credit. On commercialisation, it notes that Australia produces 3% of OECD medical research publications but only 1.7% of related patents.