Australian science hasn't been doing so well lately as the science minister position was eliminated and folded into the industry portfolio and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization budget has been slashed about 16 percent, forcing it to close a number of research facilities.
However, chief scientist Ian Chubb says he has a strategy, ScienceInsider notes. Namely, he calls for the establishment of an Australian Innovation Board to identify research priorities, the addition of more qualified science teachers, more skilled STEM workforce, long-term and targeted research funding, and international engagement. He discusses these ideas and more in this report.
"It troubles me that Australia remains the only country among the members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) without a science or technology strategy," Chubb wrote in a recent editorial in Science. "The consequences are and will be felt in our performance, in a world more reliant than ever before on science and science-trained people."
But, Chubb notes he doesn't know whether the advice he is offering in his report will be taken. "I'll make my views known and I don't know whether that would carry any particular weight or not, but part of my job is, I think, to express those views when there is a need," Chubb tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.