Media Releases

NO KNOWLEDGE NATION: Australian Research Council Funding Gutted

13 May 14

money-722x300As predicted by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations shortly before the September 2013 federal election, tonight’s budget has shown the Coalition taking an axe to the Australian Research Council (ARC) and potentially politicising the way ARC grants are funded.

The Australian Research Council will be charged an “efficiency dividend” of $74.9 million over three years, in one of the most significant individual cuts to higher education and research in the 2014-15 Federal Budget.

The budget papers do not say what aspects of the ARC’s functions will be impacted by the cut or where the $74.9 million will go, saying merely that it will be “directed to repair the Budget and fund policy priorities”.

“It is inconceivable that Joe Hockey can claim in one breath to be investing in research excellence, and then in another take away $74.9 million from one of Australia’s most significant research funding bodies” Ms Hopper said.

“The Coalition may not see research funding as a policy priority, but it’s investing in the knowledge future of our nation” said Ms Hopper.

Elsewhere in the budget, funding for research initiatives – including the Antarctic Gateway Partnership (University of Tasmania, CSIRO and the Australian Antarctic Division of the Department of the Environment) – is achieved through the “reprioritisation” of existing ARC funding.

“We bear no ill-will toward the medical and environmental research projects that have been funded tonight, but Joe Hockey needs to spell out where that funding has come from within the ARC budget” said Ms Hopper.

“’Re-prioritisation’ sounds a little bit too close to ‘political intervention into how peer-reviewed research is funded’ to me – we need more research funding, not a shifting of the boundaries on current research” Ms Hopper said.

Contact:

Ms Meghan B. Hopper
President – Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations
president@capa.edu.au / 0421 807 303