Mathematical Research Institute MATRIX

Name (Individual/Organisation)

Mathematical Research Institute MATRIX

Responses

Q1. How could the purpose in the ARC Act be revised to reflect the current and future role of the ARC?

For example, should the ARC Act be amended to specify in legislation:
(a) the scope of research funding supported by the ARC
(b) the balance of Discovery and Linkage research programs
(c) the role of the ARC in actively shaping the research landscape in Australia
(d) any other functions?

If so, what scope, functions and role?

If not, please suggest alternative ways to clarify and define these functions.

By way of introduction, MATRIX refers to the background in the joint submission made by the Australian Mathematical Society, the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute and the Statistical Society of Australia, and supports all of its recommendations.

MATRIX emphasises that the role of a national funding agency such as the ARC is precisely to strongly support discovery-driven research because individual entities in the public and private sector cannot warrant the high risk nor guarantee whole-of-society benefit associated to such research. The ARC is the only significant source of funding for fundamental research in Australia. The fruits of such publicly supported research can often be realised in applications through private investment and partnerships with industry, but initial stages of discovery-driven research are not attractive to profit-focussed private-sector investment and must be realised via public investment.

Moreover, while university expenditure on research in the period 2012-2020 has increased substantially through growth in operational revenue, fundamental research has benefited little from the increased income. University research expenditure heavily favours applied research: the proportion of HERD expenditure to strategic and basic fundamental research declined from 50% in 2008 to 37% in 2020.

Internationally, government funded agencies with a similar purpose to the ARC, such as the NSF, EPSRC and European funding organisations deliberately provide substantial support for discovery research. Such support is particularly pertinent for the mathematical sciences which underpin and validate numerous scientific, technical and social advances that improve health and raise living standards. We refer to The Era of Mathematics: An Independent Review of Knowledge Exchange in the Mathematical Sciences by Professor Philip Bond for a comprehensive description in the UK context.

A key element currently lacking in the ARC schemes but present in programs of funding agencies of many developed nations is appropriate support for mathematical sciences research infrastructure. All areas of science require infrastructure investment. In the bench sciences, this is typically an expensive piece of equipment. However, research in the mathematical sciences is primarily conducted through face-to-face interactions in residential research facilities, which comprise essential mathematical research infrastructure. Such infrastructure needed for the mathematical sciences is not currently recognised nor supported in Australia through government funding.

Successful existing initiatives in Australia such as MATRIX have not secured long-term funding from any source. Support exists abundantly in other parts of the world, including the Asia-Pacific, to the detriment of Australia’s capacity to build links with the international community building and to its overall research reputation. MATRIX research programs enhance collaborations with other disciplines as well as with business, industry and government. Along with continued investment in fundamental research, this stimulates innovation and preparedness by creating capability and capacity to capitalise on new opportunities, strengthening and maintaining Australia’s overall research pipeline.

The well-funded Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, for example, is a leading international research institute serving the whole UK community and funded by the EPSRC, among others. It hosts events across all areas of the mathematical sciences as well as interdisciplinary topics, including long-term scientific programmes, workshops, satellite meetings, ‘open for business’ events, scoping meetings and follow-up activities. Its impact-acceleration arm is the Turing Gateway to Mathematics (TGM), which acts as a vehicle for knowledge exchange between the mathematical sciences and potential users of mathematics from industry, commerce, government including regulators and policy makers, business and other academic disciplines. INI and TGM collectively host over 2500 visitors per annum.

In a breakthrough development in 2022, MATRIX was awarded a relatively small LIEF grant. Due to ambiguity and eligibility hurdles in the funding rules this has been the only LIEF grant with a primary FoR code in mathematics ever awarded. It is timely therefore that the gap and/or ambiguity in the definition of research infrastructure, which largely excludes forms of big research infrastructure needed in the mathematical sciences, such as dedicated facilities for intensive collaborative research, is addressed.

Recommendations:

1. The inclusion of a provision in the ARC Act to specify discovery research as an explicit and substantial part of the ARC’s scope.

2. The removal of the gap and/or ambiguity in the funding of mathematical sciences research infrastructure – including by reviewing definitions of research infrastructure, which exclude forms of big research infrastructure suited to and necessary for internationally competitive mathematical sciences research.

Q5. Please provide suggestions on how the ARC, researchers and universities can better preserve and strengthen the social licence for public funding of research?

A pervasive misconception that dominates the Australian debate about the social license for public funding of research is that this is strengthened through increased accountability, monitoring and administrative processes. Such an approach creates an unwelcoming culture for creativity and innovation and an adversarial relationship between funding agencies and researchers. This is highly damaging to Australia’s long term economic prosperity and reputation as a research leader.

Together with Governments, Industry and Universities, the ARC should be a leader in strong and unapologetic advocating discovery research, potentially through the provision of funding for science communication. Such leadership, in all sectors, requires expert leaders with disciplinary depth and PhDs.

1. The ARC should advocate for strong expert leadership in national decision making processes, and be an unapologetic ambassador for discovery research.

MATRIX also endorses the AustMS/AMSI/SSA recommendation:

2. Strengthening the social licence requires better expression of the societal benefits of research in general and the encouragement of a culture that appreciates this. The ARC, in collaboration with universities and academia, should play a role in communicating the value of research, post-award, from fundamental to more applied activities.

Submission received

13 December 2022

Publishing statement

Yes, I would like my submission to be published and my name and/or the name of the organisation to be published alongside the submission. Your submission will need to meet government accessibility requirements.