Backing Australia's Ability

In 2000/2001 alone, my Government will have provided approximately four and a half billion dollars funding for innovation including a record $2.7 billion for science, research and industry innovation programs, $1.8 billion for higher education research and research training and additional funds for specialised programmes such as those targeted at the ICT sector.

Backing Australia's Ability takes that commitment to a new level.

Backing Australia’s Ability will provide $2.9 billion of additional funding over five years, as I’ve said the largest commitment to innovation ever made by an Australian Government,

Strengthening our ability to generate ideas and undertake research

A main aim of the strategy is to ensure that our research base, the backbone of any nation’s innovative capacity, remains strong and internationally competitive. For that reason, substantial support will be provided to foster research in both the public and private sectors.

To support internationally competitive research, the Government will double funding over the next five years for national competitive research grants administered by the Australian Research Council. This funding will directly support ground breaking research in areas in which Australia enjoys, or wants to build, a competitive advantage.

We have recognised though, that creative minds often require specialised equipment in order to take their ideas forward. For that reason, more than $337 million will be provided towards increased project-specific infrastructure over the next five years.

This will support not only ARC research but also that undertaken through the National Health and Medical Research Council grants scheme.

Moreover, we will provide $246 million over the next five years to fund the best infrastructure proposals from universities to upgrade their scientific and research equipment, libraries and laboratories.

Over the next five years, we intend to establish world-class Centres of Excellence in ICT and biotechnology at a cost of $176 million to ensure that Australia continues to play a leading part in these key technologies. With strong industry participation, these centres will undertake cutting-edge R&D, focussing on commercialisation and encouraging spin-off companies.

In respect to encouraging biotechnology more generally, $20 million has been earmarked to double the Biotechnology Innovation Fund.

The Government will introduce incentives to stimulate increased business investment in R&D. Initiatives include new tax concessions to encourage companies to increase R&D efforts, a rebate to assist small companies to undertake R&D and continued direct grant assistance.