Belinda Smith

He's CEO of the Australian Society for Medical Research and hosts a program on RRR in Melbourne.

He interviews lots of PhD students.

And I asked him, what is the state of research funding in Australia today?

When you hear politicians say things like, oh, Australia's punching above their weight when it comes to research, what do you feel?

Outwardly, it seems like Australia celebrates science and research and scientists.

You just have to look at the list of Australians of the year to see there's a lot of prominent scientists in amongst there, but the reality is so very different.

You've interviewed a lot of scientists over the past three decades.

How have you perceived their feelings about research funding change over that time?

Dr Shane Huntington, something medical researchers have wanted is for more money to be dispersed from a big pot of cash called the Medical Research Future Fund.

Here's Professor Gina Ravenscroft from the Harry Perkins Institute in Perth describing how she felt when the fund was announced just over a decade ago.

So when the Medical Research Future Fund was established, it accrued interest and the government promised to allocate a billion dollars a year of research funding once that pot of money hit $20 billion, which it did in 2020.

But there's been a spending gap placed on it.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

What reasons did the Morrison government give for implementing that cap of $650 billion a year?

Really?

Okay.

And have there been any moves to increase that cap or at least bring it back up to the original billion?

So the fund is paying out less than what it was originally intended to, so two-thirds of what it was intended to, with no indication in the near future that that will be increased to the original billion it was supposed to be or even up to the 1.4, which it could be.

But that's not the only issue with the Medical Research Future Fund.

What are some of the other problems with it?