ON CAMPUS
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Lifeline for science
How industry can help the
research sector survive and
thrive in these uncertain times.
By John Carroll
Recently, many medical researchers
returned to their labs, after having
packed up and left at the start of the
COVID-19 isolation back in March. Many
scientists turned their attention to studying
the virus, and these labs stayed operating,
but now it’s time to return to the business
of researching other diseases like cancer,
obesity and cardiovascular disease.
At a time when being a university
researcher has never been more perilous
– with reduced funding, widely reported
job losses on the horizon, no access
to JobKeeper and no sign of a bailout
– there’s never been a better time for
researchers with translatable discoveries to
work with innovative industry partners. Not
only will this shore up the survival of our
scientific base, it will also help to accelerate
economic recovery.
Apart from the issues of restarting a
laboratory, researchers were faced with
the findings of a recent report that the
COVID-19 pandemic will likely cause the
loss of jobs for 16,000 researchers, with
7000 being lost at universities.
The study, led by the Australian Academy
of Technology and Engineering, also
predicts that this cut to the research
workforce will have a major impact on
industry, as universities perform 43 per cent
of Australia’s applied research work.
This, combined with the decimation
of income that has been experienced
by universities nationally due in part to
significantly reduced student numbers,
means that being a university researcher at
the moment is full of uncertainty.
For academics, it has been compounded
by needing to convert lectures, workshops
and practicals to online formats.
These increased workloads, financial
crises and historically low funding rates for
research grants all make for a difficult time
ahead for the research sector.
And yet, apart from our frontline health
workers, has there been a sector more
devoted to dealing with the COVID-19
pandemic? More committed to finding
answers that will limit the virus’s impact?
As soon as the first inklings of the
potential damage of the new coronavirus
became apparent, and long before
the disease impacted our lives in this
country, Australian biomedical and clinical
researchers, and many others, were
adapting their research to tackle what
was looking to be the most dangerous
epidemic in living memory.
And it is this flexibility, passion and
success that will likely attract funding from
another source – industry.
Over the past decade, we at the Monash
Biomedicine Discovery Institute have
focused on developing strong links with
the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors,
and have partnered with companies
such as Janssen, J&J, Roche, GSK, Pfizer
and Takeda.
We have close to 20 potential future
therapies in the pipeline. Our researchers
have also developed startups, all of which
have partnered with industry or attracted
venture capital support. Our integrated
platform technologies such as the Centre
for Drug Candidate Optimisation attract
local small and medium enterprises, such
as Trajan and MiniFab and international
corporations like CSL, Tecan, MedImmune
and others. It is our world class researchers
working in the best environment possible
that attracts the most innovative industry
partners to help drive discoveries to
the clinic.
This is not an altruistic act on behalf of
industry aimed at benefiting humankind.
It’s also a bottom-line decision. Last year,
Universities Australia commissioned a
report showing that when companies
tap into the expertise of universities and
their researchers, it boosts not only the
firm’s own bottom line, but also that of
national economies. The report found that
formal collaborations between Australian
businesses and universities generate
$10.6 billion a year in revenue directly for
the firms who partner with universities.
By the time that flows through the
economy, these collaborations are
contributing $19.4 billion a year to
Australia’s income, creating an estimated
extra 30,000 full-time Australian jobs
across the country, in addition to the
120,000 jobs directly supported by our
university sector.
Now it would be naive to assume that
COVID-19 has not also impacted the
global pharmaceutical and biotechnology
industries, but a common foe and hard
times will drive the best people together
to find strength and opportunity in
collaborative partnership.
Industry and VC-funded research is
essential to bring fundamental discoveries
to market. Bringing purpose and impact
to government-funded discovery research
creates jobs, increases critical mass and
drives the economy. This is good for
everyone – and it may just help some of
our incredibly talented researchers get
through a very challenging time. ■
Professor John Carroll is director of the
Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute
at Monash University.
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