Abbott vows to cut futile research

[nero_bolt]

GOOD hope they cut all the useless grants.... 

MILLIONS of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants for obscure research projects - such as the role of public art in climate change - will be scrapped or redirected to find cures for dementia and other diseases as part of a Coalition crackdown on government waste.

And a further $1.1 billion is expected to be returned to the budget bottom line from the scrapping of the carbon tax, under the Coalition election promises costings to be released today.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that as part of the Coalition's budget savings measures, a dedicated team will be formed under its proposed Commission of Audit to re-prioritise about $900 million in annual Australian Research Council grants.

While the overall ARC grant pool - which help fund vital research - would not be cut, a razor would be put to projects that are deemed "wasteful".

And the funds released from the projects to be axed will be put into new medical research programs for dementia, diabetes and tropical disease.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that a list of the types of grants that would no longer be funded under new and more stringent guidelines for the ARC included an RMIT project on Spatial Dialogues: Public Art and Climate Change which sought to explore how people could adapt to climate change through public art.

Coalition sources also cited as waste several grants worth more than $1 million into philosophical studies including the meaning of "I" through a retrospective study of 18th and 19th century German existentialists.

It also suggested that programs such as the $160,000 given to Macquarie University to examine "sexuality in Islamic interpretations of reproductive health technologies in Egypt" would no longer receive taxpayer-funded assistance.

The ARC grants are independently assessed under strict guidelines but Coalition sources said they believed that there was "waste" in the grants process and funding of projects that didn't meet the Coalition's priorities.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/abbott-vows-to-cut-futile-research/story-fni0cx12-12267109...

[lakeland27]

that is in fact not accurate. he's really re-directing the money into hair and balding research in the hope of a cure.

[lakeland27]

''GOOD hope they cut all the useless grants....

unfortunately they cut all of the neccesary and useful grants as well as education and health funding.  

[spotweldersfriend]

Ashley & Martin.

[the_great_she_elephant]

Who is he going to put in charge of deciding what is or isn't futile - Rupert Murdoch?

[***super_nova***]

There is no such a thing as "futile research"; some of the most important discoveries came as an accident.  Thank to cuts to funding researchers will go o/s and the important developments will take place o/s.  

[donnashuggy]

He only vows such things because facts aren't his strong point, another mostly false statement

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/fact-checker/is-tony-abbotts-350-carbon-claim-hot-air-2013...

[izabsmiling]

it's brilliant tactic  isn't it ..?   play up waste and the budget deficit ....promise a surplus by such and such a time ....now it's a 'getting to surplus'  promise (trust him ) .

Does TA not realise that some of us see what he is and isn't saying ?

He is playing up the waste and the importance of medical research and as usual having a go at the Government and what they have done .....without putting our money where his mouth is.

Will he get medical grant funding up to the recommended 3-4% (for OECD Countries) as the greens are saying ?

or equal Labor's extra grants for medical research of $250 million .

[pct001wine]

Abbott playing populist politics, appealing to the hoi-polloi with a couple of examples of (what he considers to be) wasteful research grants.   Oh yes, let's all have a laugh at the grant for managing climate change through public art (or whatever it was) and applaud him for transferring these funds to something rooly, rooly important like diabetes or dementia.   While you're at it Tony, might as well remove funding for all that namby-pamby feel-good stuff (museums, art galleries, libraries, public entertainment, whatever) and put it into the important things in life.   What a bland little man you are.

[i-need-a-martini]

Yeah. Let's take pennies away from academic research. Real smart Tony.

Go through a list. Pick things that don't make sense to you. Have a laugh at how stupid they are even though you have no idea what the background or the context is. And then announce that you are going to cut funding because you think the studies are 'futile.'

Ignore the fact that organisations like ARC only fund projects after they have gone through an unbelievably impossible selection criteria that usually follows the strict approval process by a university or research body first. Ignore the fact that it has probably taken years and perhaps decades for the academic to research his topic to a point where it is finally at a stage where it is credible enough to apply for funding. Ignore the fact that the breifing for the funding was approved because experts in the field and independent assessors were covinced that the study was worthwhile.

No wonder Keating called him an "intellectual nobody".