HIGH FLYERS THINK TANK
Safeguarding Australia
4 April 2003
Safeguarding
Australia: A national research priority
by Dr Jim Peacock
In 2002 the Federal Government chose four national research priorities:
- an environmentally sustainable Australia
- promoting and maintaining good health
- frontier technologies for building and transforming Australian industries, and
- safeguarding Australia.
An Academy think tank prepared submissions on possible priorities which received serious consideration during the process of setting priorities.
The priority on safeguarding Australia has four goals:
- protecting critical infrastructure
- protecting Australia from invasive diseases and pests
- protecting Australia from terrorism and crime
- developing transformational defence technologies.
A fifth goal, suggested by social scientists, concerns global intelligence. The government is still interested in other suggestions.
The purpose of this think tank was to encourage connections between young scientists in Australia. We heard ideas for new applications of research to the problems of security and multidisciplinary ways of solving these problems.
This report outlines the ideas for the application of science and social science to the prevention of threats, their detection, responses to threats and recovery from them. It has been circulated to interested people and government agencies.
Threats cover a wide scope; they could be emerging or spreading diseases in plants, animals and humans; accidents or acts of nature; or inadvertent or deliberate human acts.
For more information on national research priorities, go to www.dest.gov.au/priorities.
