Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, representing the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations. Would the minister update the House on the National Competitive Research Grants announced recently?

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hindmarsh for his question. This government recognises that investment in research and innovation is absolutely crucial to our future—to building prosperity, to lifting Australia’s living standards, to responding to environmental challenges. Yesterday my colleague the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, Kim Carr, announced National Competitive Research Grants to support 1,126 new research projects. These grants are recommended by the Australian Research Council and the government will provide a total of some $376 million to make the projects possible. There are some 931 projects through a commitment to the Discovery Projects scheme, with some $318 million provided there, supporting fundamental research by individuals and teams which is judged to be of an excellent quality. There are a further 186 projects funded through the Linkage Projects scheme. Here we invite collaboration between higher education researchers and partners outside the sector, including from industry. It was very pleasing to see some nine projects put forward by talented Indigenous Australian researchers, which will be funded through our $2 million Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development scheme. Also pleasing is that, in the Discovery Projects, the success rate for women matches that of men for the first time in five years. This is an achievement that this government is determined to entrench as business as usual.

I do want to especially congratulate researchers at the University of New South Wales, in the electorate of Kingsford Smith—an outstanding institution that I know well—who received some $34 million to fund about 115 innovative research projects, including approximately $430,000 for a child development study to identify risk factors to improving children’s health and educational achievements. Other investments and support include some $680,000 to the University of Western Australia to develop better tools for imaging cancer and guiding related surgical procedures. I could not help noticing a $163,000 grant to RMIT to develop clothing that can generate energy—a matter quite close to our hearts in this House. The research team expects that we will soon be seeing sports gear and defence uniforms that can power low-energy portable devices. Through the mists of time, I think Dick Tracy would be pleased.

I want to stress that this government has increased Commonwealth spending on research and innovation by some 34 per cent, compared with the previous coalition government. We know that supporting world-class research is absolutely essential to our nation’s future and we will continue our commitment to ensuring that the best and brightest provide the research that we need to meet the challenges of the future.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.