The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia has joined with Australia’s other Learned Academies in welcoming the release of the Strategic Examination of R&D (SERD) chaired by Robyn Denholm.
Speaking to media on the morning of release, Academy President Professor Kate Darian-Smith congratulated the Australian Government and the expert panel members for their work in bringing this review together.
“Australia has a proud history of research, development and innovation that has allowed our small nation to punch above its weight in the global economy and provide a high quality of life for all Australians,” she said.
“We support the focus on improved coordination, the prioritisation of effort, increased funding to support the full costs of research, and a renewed focus on research training.
“We support the inclusion of First Nations knowledges in our research and development
“With respect to the priority areas, these are just some of the important challenges facing Australia. We have many others, including social cohesion, regional security, resilience to economic shocks and international conflicts, and challenges to democracy to name just a few.
“It is important that Australia’s research be broad and that blue sky thinking and innovation be enabled to flourish both within the report’s identified national priority pillars as well as outside these areas
“Each of these priorities will require input from all of the research disciplines – more physical and natural sciences in some cases, more social science and humanities in others. Scientific and technical advances are not enough: they require the social, economic and political insights of the social sciences to be embraced by the community and be truly transformative for Australia’s future generations.
“It will be important that major reform to the Research, Development and Innovation system ensures that governance and the implementation process are driven by different expert perspectives along with industry and other research end-users.”
The final report, Ambitious Australia, can be found here.
A letter from the Presidents of each of Australia’s learned Academies to the Treasurer, Minister for Science, Industry and Innovation and Minister for Education can be found here.