Chemistry for a better life

• current and specific requirements that need to be
addressed to facilitate growth
Barriers to success
School education
• School students are forced to make uninformed career
choices because teachers, parents and students have
insufficient knowledge about the relevance and benefits of
chemistry to society and the career opportunities it presents.
• Many secondary school chemistry teachers and primary
school teachers do not have sufficient domain expertise
in chemistry to provide passionate teaching and facilitate
inspired learning.
• Students can deselect chemistry at school and yet still
enter science or chemistry undergraduate degrees,
meaning the higher education sector has to provide
bridging courses to students.
• There is often limited infrastructure and capacity to provide
practical chemistry experience in schools in disadvantaged,
remote and regional locations, which limits access to
chemistry education and the quality of teaching.
Higher education
• The number of students electing to do STEM subjects at
school, including chemistry, is declining.
• Alternative chemistry pathways through technical schools
and TAFE receive little funding.
• There are serious issues facing smaller regional universities
due to the ‘flight’ of good school leavers to the capital city
universities. This is resulting in a wide disparity in quality
of chemistry courses and graduates across Australia.
• There are no mandatory minimum entry requirements
for chemistry courses at universities.
• There is no agreed and uniform university curriculum. This
makes it difficult for current and future secondary school
teachers to lift the standard of school chemistry teaching.
• Staff to student ratios are becoming increasingly
unfavourable, leading to poorer teaching outcomes.
• Universities lack the resources and capabilities to
demonstrate the value of their research to industry.
• Chemistry departments have a poor track record of
translating their research into new products via start-ups
or industry collaboration.
• Chemistry researchers are not rewarded for interaction with
industry and believe such interactions actually penalise
their careers.
Government research
• Disenchantment within a large proportion of government
research organisations means highflyers leave for overseas
positions, reducing Australia’s innovation capability.
• There is poor delineation between basic research and
strategic research in government research agencies and
there is unnecessary competition with the academic sector
and duplication of effort across agencies and universities.
• Schedules for delivery of research to industry are ‘unviable’
because of the other management and administrative
workload responsibilities that fall to researchers.
• There is duplication of agencies for commercialisation and
funding, leading to reduced research efficiency.
National large research facilities
• There is concern within the chemistry research community
about future funding and upgrading of the main large
research facilities and related infrastructure.
• There is concern about the availability of funds to
undertake research at these facilities.
Australian chemical industry
• There is low awareness within the industry of the potential
of patentable innovations to drive industry competitiveness
in a global, carbon-constrained environment.
• There is poor understanding within the industry of the
capacities and capabilities of Australian research providers.
• Small industry companies are disadvantaged in their
interactions with R&D providers.
Academic research
• Due to the heavy reliance on ARC funding, the sector
focuses on ‘run of the mill’ research and does not embark
on more ambitious and higher risk research that could
be the basis for future high-end innovation in Australian
industry.
• Young researchers in the sector are disenchanted because
of poor career prospects.
• The focus on ARC research funding is a disadvantage for
women in the academic sector, and does not support
greater gender balance in higher level academic positions.
• The lack of funding options for chemistry outside the ARC,
the low chance of funding, and the substantial time burden
associated with applying for ARC grants lead to low
research efficiency and productivity in chemistry.
Industry competitiveness
• There is sub-optimal ‘value chain thinking’ among
chemistry stakeholders and limited awareness of the
various ways issues in one sector can negatively or
positively impact performance in other sectors.
• Although government is an essential contributor to the
chemistry sector, government does not recognise its
importance to the productivity of each sector and to
performance of the chemistry industry as a whole.
• Key stakeholders agree that translation of research
outcomes into products, processes and services is
inadequate and needs to be addressed as a matter of
priority on a much bigger scale than current government
policy envisages.
Executive summary
THE DECADAL PLAN FOR AUSTRALIAN CHEMISTRY 2016–25 5