The information: Science and Technology Australia (STA) is looking on the federal authorities to index its funding for analysis businesses and grant packages to CPI, based on the skilled affiliation’s 2026-27 pre-budget submission.
The numbers: Australia’s gross expenditure on analysis and improvement as a proportion of GDP was 1.7% in 2023-24, which is beneath the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development common of two.7%.
The group argues that whereas authorities funding for STEM analysis has elevated over time, it’s not maintaining with inflation. The value of most important provides have elevated 20% – 75%, with the price of some supplies up by 400% post-Covid.
The context: As such, the STA is looking for grant funding for the federal authorities’s Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council to obtain CPI-adjusted will increase.
The group additionally desires Research Block Grants — paid to universities based mostly on their relative efficiency in attracting non-government analysis and improvement earnings — to be listed to inflation.
The submission additionally recommends that Medical Research Future Fund disbursements be elevated “toward the annual distribution amount” and that publicly funded analysis businesses be “adequately and sustainably resourced”.
Beyond analysis funding, the STA is looking for an uplift in PhD stipends to forestall the lack of STEM expertise and funding in upskilling lecturers to enhance STEM efficiency and participation in colleges.
What they stated: “Death by a thousand cuts must be prevented. Small cuts — and the impacts of stagnating funding levels — accumulate into systematic dismantling of research capability,” the STA’s pre-budget submission reads.
“Programs supporting early-career researchers, emerging businesses, and translation pathways — precisely what’s needed for commercialisation and building new industries — are often first casualties of budget pressure. Once critical mass is lost, the entire innovation system becomes unviable.”
The sources: STA 2026-27 pre-budget submission, STA media launch