AusBiotech supports discussion paper on Australian national research investment plan

Biotechnology trade group AusBiotech, responding to the Australian federal government’s discussion paper on the National Research Investment Plan (NRIP) giving the Australian Research Committee (ARCom) a biotechnology industry perspective, said it strongly supports the view put in the ARCom NRIP discussion paper that “the [research] system must have the capacity to translate research outcomes into public and private benefit and to respond to demand from a wide range of end-users.”

When it comes to fundamental discovery in science and biomedical research, Australia is a legitimate and impressive global contributor, producing 3% of the world’s research publications with only 0.3% of the population. “However, our ability to translate this strength into tests, cures, treatments and vaccines to benefit the Australian community continues to fall short of expectation,” said AusBiotech.

The 2012 (INSEAD) Global Innovation Index ranks Australia 13th in terms of innovation input and 31st in innovation output. But when these figures are converted to innovation efficiency ratio of output over input, Australia dives to a ranking of 107 out of 141 countries assessed.