2022–23 Pre-Budget Submission

This pre-budget submission to the Australian Government for the 2022–23 Budget maintains that maintaining and expanding Australia’s health and medical research and innovation capacity, which underpinned its COVID-19 response, is in the national interest and a pathway to a more diversified economy. Research Australia notes that Gross Expenditure on Research and Development fell from 2.25% to 1.79% of GDP between 2008–09 and 2019–20, Australian Government R&D investment has dropped to around 0.5% of GDP, Australia ranks 86th of 133 on the Harvard Economic Complexity Index, and universities increasingly fund research from their own revenue. Its recommendations include a whole-of-governments review of pandemic preparedness; a National RNA Technology Mission; Government R&D spending of at least 0.75% of GDP; a goal of becoming a net exporter of pharmaceuticals by 2035; a feasibility study into manufacturing facilities for clinical trial materials; an Australian equivalent of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and its manufacturing centres; real increases to National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Australian Research Council (ARC) funding; a Chief Scientist-led review of indirect research costs, reversal of Research Block Grant cuts and a new Independent Research Institute Infrastructure Support Scheme (IRIISS) stream for Medical Research Future Fund grants; an expert working group on the Patent Box; expanding the $1.9 billion research infrastructure envelope; implementing the Innovation Metrics Review; multi-year funding for the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030; infrastructure for the Data Availability and Transparency Bill; and resourcing the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to release My Health Record data for research.