Australia’s research leaders have called for long-term investment in the national infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence, precision medicine and health data research, warning funding uncertainty beyond 2028-29 could undermine future healthcare innovation.
Government, university, industry and research infrastructure leaders were meeting at the NCRIS@20 symposium to mark the 20th anniversary of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
A jointly agreed statement released at the symposium said, “While NCRIS has received bipartisan support, there is no formal funding commitment to sustain NCRIS at its current levels beyond 2028-29. A clear, long-term plan is needed to secure this capability and ensure Australia’s research system can drive the knowledge and innovation required for future economic prosperity.”
The participants urged governments to recognise national research infrastructure as a long-term sovereign asset requiring stable, ongoing funding.
“As we celebrate twenty years of NCRIS, we should recognise that the challenges facing Australia and its scientific efforts are becoming more complex. Artificial intelligence is transforming discovery. Climate change demands unprecedented modelling and observational capability. Precision medicine is generating vast new datasets. National resilience increasingly depends on sovereign scientific capability across a range of domains.”
The statement notes the Commonwealth has invested $5.5 billion in NCRIS over the past 20 years, supporting more than 130,000 users annually, but says there is no formal funding commitment beyond 2028-29.
“The NCRIS network has driven real world outcomes in health, energy, agriculture, environment, defence, resources and advanced manufacturing. It has enabled 5,000 Australian startups and SMEs to be more innovative and develop new products and industries.”
For the health sector, NCRIS supports national research infrastructure including genomics, medical imaging, population health data, therapeutic innovation and secure research data platforms through a network of facilities that underpin much of Australia’s digital health and precision medicine research capability.
The statement is available HERE.
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