Home » News » InnovationAus Analysis of Public Funding for R&D in USA Compared with Australia
August 29th, 2022
A recent article by Dr John Howard on InnovationAus has highlighted a comparison between Public Funding for R&D in USA (following passage of a new act) against Australia.
The article highlights that:
- The Chips for America Fund (US$52.7 billion) and recently enacted CHIPS and Science Act will authorise a five-year US$169.9 billion (A$245 billion) Research and Innovation Initiative – a US$82.5 billion increase over the current baseline. This is the biggest five-year investment in public R&D in United States history.
- Comparing with Australia, our Government’s $12 billion Australian public R&D investment is distributed across six action areas:
- Research and Development Tax Incentive: $2.9 billion (26 per cent of the total)
- Department of Education Programs, including the Research Training Program, the Research Support Program, and NCRIS: $2.5 billion (22.1 per cent of the total)
- Department of Industry Programs, including AusIndustry, CRCs, Geoscience Australia: $0.7 billion (6.1 per cent of the tota;)
- The Research Investment Councils (ARC, NHMRC, government contribution to RDCs) for nationally competitive research grants: $2.0 billion (18.0 per cent of total)
- Publicly Funded Research organisations (CSIRO, DST, ANSTO): $1.6 billion (14.7 per cent of total)
- Statutory Funding, including the MRFF, ARENA, and ACIAR: $1.3 billion (11.4 per cent of total)
- If Australia were to increase their public R&D investment it would increase the cost from $12 billion to $18 billion over five years.
Check out our website for more information regarding the R&D Tax Incentive, or get in touch with our office if you would like to speak to someone about a potential R&D claim.