Australia’s science and technology diplomacy fund looks set to be narrowed by the Albanese government after already being cut in last year’s Budget, with its key grants stream sitting in limbo since 2022.
Science minister Ed Husic hinted at the changes last week while addressing regional leaders but then held back the news. He’s now expected to make an announcement in coming weeks.
The changes are understood to be a narrowing of which international partners will be eligible for joint research project grants from the Global Science and Technology Diplomacy Fund, as the government focuses on closer regional ties.
It would mean projects with European, US and South American researchers will no longer be eligible, despite being identified as important partners in strategically important areas like quantum, AI, RNA and hydrogen less than two years ago.
Announced in 2021 as a $54 million global science diplomacy push by the former government, the fund was actually a consolidation of other international science programs, saving the government $6.6 million.
The initiative spent $19.6 million in its first year under the Coalition, mostly funding collaborative research efforts between Australian and Indian or Chinese researchers.
Peak science and technology groups were brought in in 2022 to administer the fund’s other component, a ‘strategic’ grant stream.
The stream was slated to support international collaboration in advanced manufacturing, AI and quantum computing, hydrogen production, and RNA with partners from around the world, not just the region.
But no grants from the strategic stream have ever been allocated, while other spending from the fund declined well below forecasts.
Allocations over the forward estimates were slashed by around $25 million last year, disappointing the science sector.
The groups brought in to help administer the grants, the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, declined to comment about changes or reasons for an apparent delay, but are understood to still be involved in the fund.
When addressing the ASEAN summit in Melbourne last Monday, Science minister Ed Husic told the delegates he would announce changes to “refocus” the Global Science and Technology Fund toward “regional neighbours” the following day.
That announcement never came and is understood to have been pushed back to later this month.
A further reduction or tightening of the fund would limit Australia’s science and tech diplomacy push and add to increasing scrutiny of who researchers are working with.
Last year, it was revealed that Australian university researchers supported by a different program had their pay frozen and were banned from applying for future grants because of foreign interference and national security concerns held by government agencies.
Mr Husic’s office declined to comment when approached on Wednesday.
