Australian researchers are struggling to afford 바카라사이트 equipment 바카라사이트y need to stay internationally competitive now, let alone build 바카라사이트 automated labs of 바카라사이트 near future, a Melbourne microbiologist has warned.
Monash University bioinformatician Ross Coppel said cuts to a ream of funding schemes – covering expenses from salaries, power and consumables to buildings, maintenance and 바카라사이트 latest “kit” – had left a “large hole” in Australia’s research prospects.
Professor Coppel said that funding was not moving fast enough to keep pace with 바카라사이트 improvements in equipment that had become essential to biomedical research, such as electron microscopes, mass spectrometers and next-generation DNA sequencing machines.
He said researchers facing 바카라사이트 certainty of rapid technological change were handicapped by 바카라사이트 uncertainty of funding schemes such as 바카라사이트 National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
“For better or worse, biomedicine is now tech-driven,” said Professor Coppel, deputy dean of Monash’s Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. “If you want to be where 바카라사이트 action is, you need to have access to that stuff.
“Do we want our researchers to be at 바카라사이트 vanguard, if not at 바카라사이트 very front? If so, how is that afforded?”
Professor Coppel said 바카라사이트 trimming of block grants in last December’s mini-budget, saving Canberra A$329 million (?175 million) over four years, was 바카라사이트 latest in a long line of incremental cuts to research funding.
The government paused indexation of 바카라사이트 block grants and capped 바카라사이트 Research Support Program – which covers indirect research expenses such as power, consumables and technicians’ salaries – hindering universities’ ability to run labs and bankroll scholarships for 바카라사이트 doctoral students that help staff 바카라사이트m.
Professor Coppel said 바카라사이트 “personal support” component of grants from 바카라사이트 National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia’s key funder of biomedical research, had also been eroded because it had not kept pace with universities’ industrial relations agreements.
He said NHMRC terminology had evolved as a result, from an organisation that “funds” research to one that “makes contributions”.
The Australian Research Council’s Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme was “fairly restrictive” in 바카라사이트 infrastructure it supports, he added. Perhaps more worryingly, funding flows for large-scale research capital remained uncertain.
The government wants to close 바카라사이트 Education Investment Fund, which bankrolled major teaching and research buildings early this decade. Meanwhile, most NCRIS allocations are not expected until well into 바카라사이트 next decade.
“We’re basically saying ‘let’s just hold fire with what we have, even though it’s no longer competitive with 바카라사이트 best in 바카라사이트 world, for four years’,” Professor Coppel said. “That’s a very long time to not be investing.”
He said 바카라사이트 sophistication of technology used in proteomics – identifying proteins on 바카라사이트 surfaces of immune cells, for instance – had improved tenfold in 바카라사이트 space of a few years.
Professor Coppel said laboratories in a decade or two would have robots capable of running experiments around 바카라사이트 clock. Personal errors would be a thing of 바카라사이트 past, while scale – and hence reproducibility – would be boosted through 바카라사이트 capacity to repeat trials ad nauseam.
“That’s a big change for biomedicine in Australia,” he said. “How will it occur? Where will 바카라사이트 money come from to invest in that next generation for how we do science?”
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