The Government's Strategic Examination of R&D (SERD) is failing vital discovery research, doesn't propose a coherent solution for Australia's research infrastructure system, and is not addressing calls to build a more cohesive system.
And the strong focus on budget neutrality in the SERD process misses the opportunity to supercharge Australia's research system and set the country on a pathway to prosperity through transformational innovation leading to new and expanded businesses and industries.
That's the stark warning from the nation's scientists and technologists after the release of six 'issues papers' from the SERD panel looking into how to revitalise Australia's research system.
The SERD is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform Australia's economy away from its deep reliance on resource extraction, and build economic complexity through innovation.
But the issues papers suggest the process has lost its way - with an excessive and unfocused emphasis on increasing business expenditure on R&D (BERD) and a failure to articulate a coherent or ambitious future national system and vision to foster great ideas from research all the way through to products, jobs, policy and services.
"The SERD process should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. But its strong focus on BERD in the issues papers has skewed all proposals towards translational research, and even then, limited to commercial outcomes. This is at the expense of foundational discovery research and research to drive good policy," said Science & Technology Australia President Professor Sharath Sriram.
"Based on these issues papers, the SERD process lacks a tight focus that can drive fast and tangible change towards a clear objective. It needs to have clearer actions, with clear short-, medium-, and long-term changes which will drive measurable improvements in the sector."
"Even in the paper specifically focused on foundational research, the vast majority of the proposals are in support of translational research - which is perplexing."
"This focus means that rather than leveraging the SERD's chance to supercharge Australia's discovery research capability, the nation's scientists and technologists find ourselves in the dire situation of questioning whether funding currently directed to discovery research is under threat."
"The SERD process will affect other critical aspects of Australia's RD&I system. For example, the development of the 2026 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap - a process vital to ensuring Australia's researchers have access to essential research facilities - has been put on hold in anticipation of the SERD findings, yet the issues papers largely neglect this crucial feature."
"And while the issues papers cover much ground, they do so with significant duplication and repetition, and fail to properly describe a coherent, let alone transformative and visionary, system change. This is a missed opportunity for Australia."
In a letter to the SERD panel, STA has called on the final SERD report to secure and strengthen Australia's discovery research capability, ensure RD&I pathways are better connected to bridge gaps between discovery research and innovation, and reform business incentives to strengthen the nation's RD&I system.
"We thank the panel for their months of work on this critical review and we note the primary goal of the review is to explore ways to boost Australian business expenditure on R&D. But this must not be at the expense of the vital discovery research that will underpin all future economy-boosting Australian innovation," Professor Sriram said.
