HIGH FLYERS THINK TANK

Research priorities nominations

8 August 2002

A healthy country
A healthy people
Creating new industries
Smart tools for industry and research
High flyers priorities workshop participants

A healthy country

1. Name and address

Contact

In setting these research priorities, we considered the following:

• the fragility of the Australian landscape, combined with the enormous diversity of plant life, climatic conditions and soil types
• the importance of improved agricultural systems (including plant crops and animals) and sustainable management of the environment to our nation
• the importance of understanding the effect of human habitation on delicate ecosystems such as our marine environment
• national goals of enhancing the economic and social wellbeing of Australians through increasing the knowledge base in pure and applied science
• the need to capitalise on our human resources and research strengths to develop innovative solutions suitable for Australia's unique environmental challenges.

2. Broad thematic area

A healthy country

The sustainable use of Australia's natural resources – A healthy country for the wealth and wellbeing of Australians

3. Priority goals

Create a healthy and sustainable country through:

• understanding change in the environment
• optimising Australia's agricultural industry
• creating sustainable and new opportunities in energy.

4. Key objectives

Understanding change in the environment

Optimising Australia's agricultural industry

Creating sustainable and new opportunities in energy

5. Selection criteria

Criterion 1

Why is a healthy country a priority?

As Australia is reliant on agricultural commodities, both to feed our population and to earn export dollars there is an economic imperative for the development of sustainable agricultural systems, including plants (crops) and animals (cattle, sheep versus kangaroo) and marine and freshwater produce (fish and crustacean aquaculture). There is already extensive expertise and infrastructure in these areas, but there is a need to continue to foster innovation and creativity to attract new scientists to this area, both from a national and international pool.

Past and current agricultural practices have led to land degradation; therefore the potential for research in this area to achieve significant improvement and impact is great.

The maintenance of our unique environments is crucial to the tourism industry.

As Australia is predominantly an urban society (about 80% of Australia's population lives within 50km of the coast), the impact of people on marine and estuarine environments is enormous. We are only beginning to grasp the damage that we have done (salinity, pollution, silting up of river mouths, damage to reefs, introduction of invasive species). Furthermore, we are damaging the environments and losing species before we even know what species we had. This is particularly the case for marine, estuarine and terrestrial invertebrates. Many of these species may have economic importance as potential biological controls or pharmaceutical agents.

Our terrestrial urban environments are also changing at an enormous rate. The majority of human impacts has been negative – reduction in natural habitats for native species, increased pollution – however, there have also been positive effects. For example, the increased concentration of flowering plants in residential gardens is attracting greater numbers of some native bird and reptile species (rosellas and lizards). Understanding both the positive and negative impacts on urban ecology is important in future urban planning.

As a responsible global citizen, Australia must reduce the generation of greenhouse gases by decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels through the development of renewable sources of energy.

Criterion 2

What is needed?

• more interdisciplinary research and collaboration between research organisations. Funding organizations need to facilitate, rather than block, cross organisation/cross discipline research
• flexibility of research funding – small to large scale
• acknowledgement of international linkages
• earth sciences – these underpin most of discussion on healthy environment
• social sciences – critical for the development of practices which will change our impact on the environment
• scientists taking responsibility for social impact of their research.
• secondary education – stimulating interest, improving infrastructure and offering better opportunities for science studies
• the identification of processes (genes) in plants that optimise water-use efficiency, growth, require less fertiliser or pesticide, and improve disease resistance.
• commercialisation strategies
• the means to facilitate creativity and blue sky research.

Criterion 3

The benefits

• a decline in the rate of land degradation
• more efficient and less damaging agriculture
• a reduction in the use of fossil fuels
• the creation of new products and services in agriculture, energy and natural resource management.

A healthy people

1. Name and address

Contact

2. Broad thematic priority

A healthy people

Finding new ways to improve the people's health and reduce the impact of disease

3. Priority goals

1. Develop new treatments and procedures to minimise the impact of disease
2. Establish cross-disciplinary research that could improve human health
3. Improve population health

4. Key objectives

1. Develop new treatments and procedures to minimise the impact of disease understand the fundamental basis of disease apply new technologies such as stem cells and genomics
2. Establish cross-disciplinary research that could improve human health apply new technologies to understanding development fight infection: drug resistance and drug discovery (bioprospecting) develop research into the synergies between plant and human responses to disease and deleterious environmental conditions, such as oxidative stress explore bioinformatics, such as deconvolution of complex systems
3. Improve population health allergy – the increase in allergies is disturbing. Progress in past decade shows promise obesity further research into the relative impacts of genetics and environment on human health

5. Selection criteria

Criterion 1

Without doubt improvements in human health and the quality of life are fundamental goals for any society. It is obvious that health research needs to be a priority and in this proposal we have focused on a few aspects where Australian scientists can make a contribution, there is a niche or there is a strong need. To this end, understanding the fundamental basis of disease is an essential platform for the development of new treatments.

An example of a biological niche where Australian science could make an impact is a study into the synergies in plant and human responses to disease and environmental stress. This is a niche where a significant contribution can be made by building interactions between plant and animal researchers. Australia has strong science in these fields. This is not just the study of basic cellular and metabolic biochemistry, where plant and animal mechanisms have a common evolutionary origin, but the way plants and animals defend themselves against disease. Plant and animal defences are quite different. Plants have no immune system, blood supply, lymphatic system or central nervous system; this changes how cells communicate and disease spreads. Yet there are genes that affect some diseases and cancers in humans that are also found in plants (Nature, 408: 796-815). However, plants do not have these diseases, nor do plants get cancer. Studying these genes in plants in collaboration with animal research may provide novel insights into the function of the genes and the treatment of these conditions.

Also, the same two antioxidant pigments that protect plants from excess light, lutein and zeaxanthin, have been implicated in the protection of the human eye from the leading cause of age-related blindness, macular generation. While there is an extensive literature on their function in plants, little is known about their role in the eye.

Criterion 2

Opportunities for research and development are more often found in the interface between disciplines. Bringing together mathematicians, statisticians and biologists will give opportunities to advance our understanding of the wealth of information available through the genome projects. It is the bringing together of computing scientists and engineers with biologists that will lead to the development of high-throughput instrumentation to advance genomic studies. Thus, building a resource and technology platform will enable synergistic research.

Criterion 3

The way that Australia would capture the benefits of this research would be the improved health of its citizens. Long term goals and performance measures: decreasing incidence or burden of disease, quality of life (QALYs), and infant mortality. Milestones: with respect to stem cells these could be the artificial growth of organs, or in terms of genomics the development of new gene therapies.

6. Implementation and monitoring

One way to implement this priority would be to establish a joint NHMRC/ARC fund. Knowledge and capacity building: how to measure an increase? Greater thought needs to be given to monitoring progress in terms of public good. Patents, publications and reviews play a role, but are not definitive measures of progress. Interim monitoring measures could be:

• student numbers, public profile and interest in the field
• publications, patents
• clinical trials.

Creating new industries

1. Name and address

Contact

National vision

Research priorities need to be set within a national vision. The nation will:

• educate our population to provide a high level of scientific and mathematical understanding
• use Australia's terrestrial and aquatic environments responsibly, and ameliorate past degradation, after establishing scientifically the limits to this use
• stabilise our greenhouse gas emissions to meet our global responsibilities, by implementing world's best practice in energy efficiency
• generate wealth from sustainable, high wage industries that embrace innovation and produce high value-added products and services which are globally competitive
• be highly networked with an efficient regional transport system and universal access to high quality telecommunications
• provide healthy lives and a long life expectancy for all Australians.

2. Broad thematic priority

Creating new industries

Creating innovative, sustainable industries producing high value-added products and services

3. Priority goals

Make a successful transition from a raw commodities-dependent economy to one which

• adds value to these commodities
• evolves other industries which are technologically based and globally competitive
• is sustainable with a small environmental footprint.

4. Key objectives

Australia has great capacity to produce raw commodities but, despite some low-grade manufacturing in Australia, most of the value has been added overseas. Also, the value of these commodities has generally declined in the last century. The fact that the commodities are produced here gives Australia an advantage in adding value to them. The more processed products would increase exports. Australia's strengths in invention and applied science – typified by CSIRO – also give the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage in adding value.

The research required to add value to commodities could incidentally spawn new industries, as scientists discover new ways of producing things and manipulating raw materials. The high value of these products and services offers the greatest opportunity for generating new wealth, in the forms of higher wages and increased profits.

Creating new industries and adding value to existing industries will mean that the same economic result can be produced with a smaller environmental footprint. It also provides the capital and technological base for further scientific and industrial development.

For example, if we use genetics and innovative agricultural techniques to grow better grapes with less impact on the environment, and use novel processing applications, we can produce more and better wine from these grapes and decrease land degradation. This adds value to the primary grape-growing industry, increases exports and increases the capacity to invest in more technological improvements.

5. Selection criteria

Criterion 1

The capacity to find new ways of transforming materials and processes exists in CSIRO, universities and other research organisations. However, the capacity in the enabling sciences will decline unless bright young scientists are encouraged into relevant fields with exciting research opportunities. In some cases, new products and methods may be just a matter of coordinating research in different places and across different disciplines.

There could be a scientific determination of the opportunity costs and environmental sustainability of existing industries. This would show which industries are being environmentally or economically subsidised. Removal of subsidies could save the country the cost of these industries.

Criterion 2

Australia's natural resources and agriculture are two of its strengths; research priorities should capitalise on these strengths. Everyone needs food, and as the world gets richer, people are spending more on higher value foods.

Australia's capacity in science and education is a strength (we produce 2.7% of the world's scientific publications). We need to sustain our research expertise and enhance scientific knowledge throughout the population. Innovation in environmental management needs to occur at the local level – farmers and miners need the skills to be able to devise solutions to the problems on their lands.

Criterion 3

Research in the following areas could have a significant positive economic or environmental impact, reducing the cost of recovering commodities or transforming them into products of greater value:

• geophysical prospecting
• remote sensing
• bioprospecting
• agricultural science
• natural resource management
• materials science
• pharmaceutical design
• high-technology manufacturing systems.

Flowing from this research, new industries could emerge in the following sectors:

• mineral processing
• recycling technologies, waste processing and industrial ecology (finding regional synergies between industries)
• sustainable development technologies
• new methods in telecommunications – photonics
• software and information technology
• niche biotechnology – food and drugs
• niche nanotechnology – not a major semiconductor plant
• smart materials (using rare earth metals as magnets with applications as catalysts, in biology, and in the automotive and computer industries).

Many of the products of these industries would be small and easy to transport.

Reducing the environmental damage caused by commodity production will be completely captured by Australia, saving our land, water and energy. Australia also has an advantage over other countries in capturing the benefits of methods that add value to Australian commodities, since the cost of transporting the commodities is lower. Capturing the benefits of new industries depends on continuing innovation in those industries to maintain an edge over competitors.

Milestones

• As the value of commodities declines, the transition from dependence on raw commodities to high value-added and new technology products and services becomes more urgent. Value adding should be prevalent within 10 years.
• Australia should be a net exporter rather than importer of software and other high technology products and services within 10 years.

Smart tools for industry and research

1. Name and address

Contact

2. Broad thematic priority

Smart tools for industry and research

Filling Australia's tool-box with the technology, techniques and working ideas to build new and emerging industries

3. Priority goals

1. Develop the capacity to translate knowledge and information into new innovations and technologies
2. Build the capacity to generate technologies and processes which form the basis of new industries
3. Enhance the enabling sciences and technologies (such as mathematics sciences including statistics, physics, chemistry, biotechnology, microarray technology) for developing smart, flexible tools and new research areas
4. Create partnerships between users of tools in industry and applied sciences and researchers who develop and deliver tools

4. Key objectives

Australia has a history of leading research in the enabling sciences, which has returned economic benefits well in excess of the investment. The catalytic benefits of developing new tools means that a small community such as Australia can have a substantial effect in this area. We must build on this strength to remain competitive in our traditional industries and to develop new industries and endeavours.

The tool-box needs to be refilled continually by building our capacity in enabling sciences.

Applied research delivers the benefits of past efforts in strategic and basic research but the true wealth creating breakthroughs will come from unforeseen applications of enabling sciences. Australia must be at the leading edge of developments in enabling sciences to identify these unforeseen applications before our competitors and to take advantage of developments elsewhere.

5. Selection criteria

Criterion 1

There is a perceived deficiency in critical mass of scientists working in the enabling technologies, and in some areas that mass is decreasing; for example there are 30% fewer mathematicians working in Australian universities than there were 7 years ago. Making these enabling sciences a priority would overcome this deficiency.

Australia has started the process of increased investment with 'Backing Australia's Ability' (although well below that of other OECD countries) because it has recognised that there is a great return on investment in enabling sciences; for example:

• Australia's investment in wheat research has returned many fold.
• CSIRO's investment in chemical physics lead to the invention of an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer which has had a major impact on research and is manufactured in Australia.
• Research in Earth Sciences at the ANU dating rocks in Western Australia led to the development of the 'SHRIMP instrument' which is an invaluable tool for the mining industry and has been sold internationally.
• The development of cochlear implants by Cochlear.
• Research into the process of virus resistance in plants has lead to the development of a new biotechnological tool, RNA inteference, with broad biotechnological applications.
• Mathematical optimisation tools can be used to improve efficiency in operations as diverse as open-pit mining, mass transport, wine-making and cancer radiation treatment and to improve design of structures ranging from telecommunications networks to hospitals to smelters. It is not unusual for such tools to yield savings of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars1.
• CSIRO's Fastflo, a computational fluid dynamics tool, can be used in both industry and research laboratories to better understand the behaviours as diverse as air flow around wind turbines and blood flow in the human heart, and to improve processes ranging from financial options pricing to photographic dispersion techniques to the design of ship hulls.
• Some of Australia's leading exports are in the field of mining and mineral processing; and in particular, 25% of the world's tin production is processed through just one type of machine, designed and manufactured in Australia. The work of an Australian applied mathematician (a winner of the Australian Mathematical Society Medal) was pivotal to the development of this equipment, which has brought many millions of dollars to this country.

Criterion 2

The examples of past and current smart tools came from scientific endeavour. Future successes are guaranteed only if there is sufficient investment to result in refilling the toolbox. The examples highlight the need for strategic technology development that defines a need as broadly as possible and then conducts appropriate research to achieve the goal. Future successes are guaranteed only if there is sufficient investment to refill the tool-box.

Criterion 3

Areas in which we must invest to enhance our capacity for future breakthroughs: Bioinformatics, mathematical, computing and statistics applications to biotechnology and health

Enabling instrumentation and processes for biotechnological and health research

Investment in physical sciences for areas such as telecommunications, photonics, quantum computing, nanotechnology

Investment in earth sciences to develop remote sensing and accurate models for predicting both the extent and effects of global change on Australia.

Investment in the mathematical sciences is vital. The pervasiveness and impact of mathematical tools in other disciplines, business and industry cannot be understated. As the US National Science Foundation observed when declaring the mathematical sciences to be one of its six priority areas for research funding, the mathematical sciences 'are closely intertwined with the discovery process in science, engineering and technology. The mathematical sciences are accelerating progress across the spectrum of science and engineering, even in traditionally descriptive sciences.' The scope for Australia to capture the benefits is substantial.

Australia has had a sound research base in mathematics on which to build, and the mathematical sciences are cost-effective2. However the mathematical sciences are in steep decline in Australia3, and substantial investment is needed in order to ensure these skills are retained and developed: the effects otherwise will be felt across the spectrum of science, engineering, finance and business.

The benefits of investment in smart tools will attract and retain skilled people enhancing the capacity for R & D. For example, the development of new mathematical and statistical algorithms for studying genomes is giving Australian biologists a competitive edge. This cross disciplinary collaboration provides benefits for both mathematicians and biologists.

Promotion of other cross-disciplinary interactions would foster areas where Australia has a perceived deficiency. For example, collaborative programs between materials research and biotechnology. This could link to existing strengths such as the proposed synchrotron facility which can be used for biological applications and micromanufacturing.

Endnotes:

1. The journal Interfaces provides numerous examples of mathematical tools applied in business and industry and requires that all articles quantify the resulting benefits.
2. These comments are extensively support by material presented in Mathematical Sciences: Adding to Australia, National Board of Employment Education and Training, ARC Discipline Research Strategies, published in 1996. In recent years, DEST produced data which showed that across the range science areas in Australia, mathematical sciences had the greatest international impact.
3. See for example the survey Mathematical Sciences: Looking for a Future, conducted by Jan Thomas, published as a FASTS occasional paper, updated 2002, or the submission to the DEST Review: Higher Education at the Crossroads from the Chair of the National Committee for Mathematics of the Australian Academy of Science.

High flyers priorities workshop participants