After a year when a national report on corporate support for the not-for-profit sector showed business community giving grew by 4%, and when a sector such as medical research has an established federal grant system, why do corporations continue to be called upon for support?
Partly because most of the 2022 growth in corporate philanthropy was attributed to contributions to disaster relief, particularly floods on the east coast, but the main reasons lie in disturbing trends in Australia’s investment in science.
Nationally, medical research is experiencing a mass exodus of Early and Mid-Career Researchers (EMCRs) to other countries and sectors.
It is also experiencing a chronic underfunding of the full costs of research.
In relation to the exodus of our young EMRC scientists, this is a critical issue. Who else will tackle our future pandemics, make the next discoveries in cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or Alzheimer’s?
They are the future of research. They are the engine room of laboratories and the innovators.
Typically, each has had 10-15 years intensive post-secondary education and training, averaging an investment of $500,000.
Yet they are the group with the least opportunity to secure funding and they often find themselves in the tragic position of having to give up their research career due to a lack of job security.
Data from the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) showed that in 2022, fewer than 40 grants across Australia were given to EMCRs by the federal government’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant Program which is designed to be the primary source of funding for EMCRs.
AAMRI President Professor Kathryn North AC asks, “with less than 40 grants given to early to mid-career researchers, how can we expect Australia to maintain its place as a world leader in medical research in 10 or 20 years’ time? Where will the next generation of researchers come from?”
AAMRI’s modelling indicates the need for an additional 241 grants specifically for EMCRs to ensure the viability of our health and medical research sector.
All researchers, not just EMCRs, spend many months each year writing grant applications, yet in 2022 only 11% of all applications submitted to the Ideas Grant Program were funded, despite the Ideas Grant scheme being the second largest scheme in the NHMRC’s grant program.
It is utterly unsustainable for scientific discoveries with the real potential for commercialisation to be cut off at the knees by the current challenges of Australia’s grant funding system.
It is a tragedy for Australia that many EMCRs are leaving the industry because of a lack of career stability.
If we don’t do something at a national level to nurture this cohort, I fear we will lose the next generation of scientific pioneers.
Here at WA’s Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research we have called on business and corporate support, as well as individuals, to bolster a new program we designed to specifically support our EMCRs.
It is our attempt to counter, in a small way, a quirk the system, which is that grant success is heavily influenced by a researcher’s track record, but how do you build a track record if you’re not funded. It is a terrible Catch 22.
The Harry Perkins Institute’s new program is called Safe Harbour. The first grant covering three years, was awarded last year to neuroscientist Dr Olivier Clement who researches the molecular mechanisms that regulate memory.
Dr Clement focuses on understanding the fine molecular processes regulating memory which are critical for the development of diagnoses and treatments for the myriad of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders that result in impaired memory function.
Dr Clement is an outstanding young scientist who missed out by less than 0.04 points in obtaining a NHMRC investigator grant.
He obtained a Master of Science in molecular and cellular biology from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Lyon and the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (France).
He relocated to Australia and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in 2016 and in 2018 joined the laboratory of the 2020 joint WA Scientist of the Year Professor Ryan Lister.
Keeping the flow of brilliant young scientists like Dr Clement coming into the country, not leaving it, is what we want.
However, with little likelihood of change in the federal funding budget for health and medical research, our business and corporate sectors are going to continue to be called upon to help out.
