Submission to the Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research in Australia

This submission to the Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research in Australia addresses the Review’s terms of reference through the Chairman’s four questions on why Australia needs a competitive research sector, how research should be managed and funded, what its priorities should be and how translation can be improved. Research Australia maintains that health and medical research is an investment in health, national security and productivity, and treats the Review as the start of a consultation process. It cites evidence including a 25.5% NHMRC grant success rate in 2011, NHMRC spending of $533 million of its $787 million grants budget on the eight National Health Priority Areas, and Australia producing 2% of scientific articles but only 0.6% of triadic patents. Its 27 recommendations include removing barriers to domestic and international collaboration; counting philanthropic and contract research income when calculating Sustainable Research Excellence and Independent Research Institutes Infrastructure Support Scheme overhead funding; government matching of public donations and tax deductions for bequests made before death; a survey of research workforce funding and the real cost of research positions; harmonised, two-stage ARC and NHMRC grant applications; rationalised ethics committees; an evidence-based approach to setting research priorities while keeping research quality the overriding criterion; and a National Health and Medical Research Strategy agreed by all governments. On translation, it recommends commercialisation to count more in funding and careers, commercialisation training for early and mid-career researchers, review of university intellectual property policies, and funding for eHealth case management tools.