The Commonwealth Government has announced new national Science and Research Priorities to ensure our high performing science, research and innovation system delivers maximum benefit.
The nine cross-disciplinary priorities are food, soil and water, transport, cybersecurity, energy, resources, advanced manufacturing, environmental change and health.
The priorities will help our world-class science and research efforts to reflect the needs of industry, the national economy and the community.
The Government will work with universities, research institutions and industry to identify projects and investments to address the priority areas.
We will always make a considerable investment in science, research and innovation and continue to support a range of high-quality basic and applied research across all disciplines and in all areas.
Nevertheless, we have finite resources and need to be strategic in how we invest.
Setting priorities and, over time, aligning a proportion of Australia’s research investment to them will help us build critical mass and scale in areas vital to our future.
Other countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, already have science and research priorities in place.
The priorities were developed in consultation with Australia’s Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb AC, industry and science and research sectors. They were agreed to by the Commonwealth Science Council and endorsed by the Government.
26 May 2015