campusreview . com . au industry & research new clusters of research excellence . [ Before then ] medical and scientific centres of research excellence were typically located in Sydney and Melbourne . Brisbane was much more of an outlier .
Beattie came to office looking for an area in which Queensland could gain some economic leverage or advantage and also a means of diversifying the economy , which was stagnating , much like most states were in the mid to late ’ 90s . He came in with a clear agenda of building the facilities required to attract leading researchers .
He had some strong advocates in the university and scientific research fields in Queensland advising him . He [ installed ] the state ’ s first ever chief science officer , professor Peter Andrews , to keep him abreast of what was needed to maintain momentum for building up research capacity and how much government involvement was required . But also [ to inform him of ] what could be done to foster better links between government , researchers and industry to embed all those research gains and see them sustainably funded and supported in the future .
[ At the same time , in Victoria ] the government of Steve Bracks – which came into being in ’ 99 just shortly after Beattie came into office – followed suit with similar investments and an initiative to support science , technology and innovation . Famously , out of that came the state ’ s investment in the Synchrotron , which is one of the largest and most impressive pieces of research infrastructure in the country now .
Those two states in particular sort of led the field . They encouraged other states and other state leaders to join forces in this push for advanced research , developing new industry sectors and more highly skilled manufacturing . It played into those typical state government-led domains of jobs and industry and building up skills and expertise in new , diverse areas that would perhaps better cushion the states in advance of shocks like … the global financial crisis .
What exactly does state support in the area of research look like at the moment and what policies would need to be implemented in order to broaden and strengthen the states ’ roles in research and innovation ? There is a different environment at the moment and that came partly from the shock of the global financial crisis . I think that forced governments to reassess their priorities . [ In many cases ] even governments that had been strong supporters of science and research scaled back involvement , perhaps hoping private interests might take up some of the slack .
In several places , and especially here in Queensland , we saw the election of a new government of a different political stripe that quite obviously and deliberately set about establishing new priorities and focusing on different industry sectors and ways of bolstering local economies . That didn ’ t always mean the continued obvious support and promotion of science and research that the sector had enjoyed in previous years . [ There was less support in Queensland ] I think there are similar cases elsewhere around the country .
There is a different financial set of circumstances around federal and state governments now than a half dozen years ago . There ’ s a real question now around where both the government interest and the funding initiatives are going to emerge . The federal government seems to be making it clear it is scaling back investment in all sorts of areas of the economy . The research sector , and for that matter the higher education sector , are just a couple of areas where the [ government is ] quite deliberately looking to cut back .
This is perhaps opening the door for the states to resume some of that earlier supportive role and take more of a lead in bolstering [ initiatives ] that are now under threat of ceasing and losing all that momentum .
Besides filling a funding void left by continued federal cuts , what other benefits would come out of stronger involvement by the states ? I think better links and relationships between governments , researchers and industry . That definitely came out of the earlier government involvement – here in Queensland and presumably in other states . Just better relations between the business sector , private interests and government , which would make it easier and more natural for the government and external private sectors to invest in science and research .
State involvement can also help stop a potential brain drain , which echoes a point federal chief scientist Ian Chubb made recently . Governments at federal and state levels like to raise at times the idea that cuts to funding for science , research and advanced skills , training and education can often lead to a brain drain .
This kind of increased involvement by states would presumably help either turn the brain drain around or stop it from becoming a problem , like it certainly was in Queensland a couple of decades ago or more . n
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