Australia Yearbook - 2001

876 Year Book Australia 2001
system of universities and colleges of advanced
education and replace it with fewer institutions in
a unified national system. The colleges were not
funded for research, so that the formation of
38 universities in the unified system required a
substantial increase in funding for research and
research training. There was some increase in
resources for research infrastructure in the new
universities, but not a commensurate increase in
funding for the Australian Research Grants
Committee. There was concern that the quality of
basic research in the universities could suffer
through a dilution of effort.
Focus on research
collaboration in the 1990s
By the 1990s it was realised that there was scope
to strengthen Australian science and innovation
by building larger research groups of critical mass
through improved collaboration between the
universities, CSIRO and other government
research agencies and industry. In 1990 the
Government launched the Cooperative Research
Centre Scheme with the aims to build centres of
research concentration, to capture the benefits of
research, and to improve postgraduate research
training through the active involvement of
researchers from outside the higher education
system. There was a requirement that a centre
must include at least one higher education
institution. Commonwealth funding provided
under the CRC program was limited to 50% of the
cost of establishing and operating a centre.
The first selection round was held in 1990 when
20 CRCs were established with Commonwealth
funding for 5–7 years. There are now 63 centres
covering areas of manufacturing technology,
information and communication technology,
mining and energy, environment, and medical
science and technology. As well as universities,
participation in the CRC program includes CSIRO
and other Commonwealth research agencies,
State government departments and agencies,
companies and Rural R&D corporations. Some
CRCs are incorporated bodies, but the majority
are unincorporated. Commonwealth funding
under the CRC program is about 30% of the
overall resources. Each CRC has a governing
Board with an independent Chair.
Reviews of the CRC program conducted in
1995 and 1999 were very supportive. The
program is fulfilling its objectives of
strengthening the links between research
organisations and bridging the gap between
public researchers and companies or other
users of the research. It has played a major
role in changing the research culture within
Australia to include an appreciation in the
universities of the importance of research
outcomes and their commercialisation or
utilisation for economic benefit or public
good. Postgraduate students have benefited
from interaction with supervisors from
outside their universities.
The changes outlined above in the
organisation and orientation of science, the
improved interaction between public sector
research and the private sector, the initiatives
of Government to stimulate industrial R&D,
and the radical reshaping of the tertiary
education system, illustrate the very
significant changes which have occurred in
Australian Science and Technology over the
last two decades. These have been in
response to an increasing realisation of the
need for Australia to develop a more diverse
and internationally competitive economy and
the crucial importance of science and
innovation to its achievement.
Significant Australian
inventions
Some of the earlier Australian inventions
have been mentioned already: the
development of disease resistant wheat
varieties at the turn of the century by William
Farrer, the flotation of minerals, cobalt as the
cure for coast disease of sheep and cattle,
improved diagnostic tests and a vaccine for
cattle pleuropneumonia, and the control of
prickly pear. These discoveries were directed
at Australian problems, although minerals
flotation is widely used for mineral ore
treatment around the world.
Another significant invention in the 1920s
was the development by G. K. Williams at
Port Pirie of the first continuous refining
process for lead. The control of rabbit
populations by the introduction of
myxomatosis in 1950 had a major impact on
wool and meat production.
Basic research at the chemical physics
laboratory of CSIRO by Alan Walsh led to the
development of atomic absorption
spectroscopy in 1953 as a revolutionary and