Sydney

The Australian government has announced a A$5.3-billion (US$3.7-billion), seven-year investment package aimed at boosting science and innovation.

The plan, which was launched by John Howard, the prime minister, on 6 May at Parliament House in Canberra, includes extra funding for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the nation's largest research agency.

Howard called it “the biggest ever commitment by a government in the area of science and innovation”.

But the big bucks in the package — A$1 billion — go to a new entity that will try to nurture industrial innovation. Some scientists, together with members of the opposition Labor party, say that the research part of the package is inadequate.

The CSIRO will receive an increase of A$305 million dollars over seven years, on top of its existing annual budget of some A$570 million. “The increase will not keep up with the growth in the economy,” complains Snow Barlow, a plant biologist at the University of Melbourne and president of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies.

“At least it provides some planning continuity for agencies and programmes,” says Ken Baldwin, a physicist at the Australian National University in Canberra.

John Howard: the Australian prime minister earmarks funds for industrial innovation. Credit: AAP IMAGE/S. RICHTER

As part of the package, the Australian Research Council, which provides grants for basic research at universities, will complete a five-year plan to double its budget to about A$560 million by 2006, and keep it at that level until 2011. The proposal also includes A$540 million to aid research collaborations and A$200 million for independent medical institutions.