Science & Research
Victoria is a world-leader in scientific and medical research.
But scientific researchers work in a gig economy, spending weeks every year writing grants that, more often than not, are unsuccessful.
Politicians love to be photographed with researchers while consigning them to a hand-to-mouth existence.
The Greens want Victoria to do more to give researchers the careers and respect that they enjoy in many other countries.
Explore our plan for Science & Research
- Peer review should be funded
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Researchers spend many hours reviewing the work of others for free, often for the benefit of profit-taking multinational publishers.
The Victorian Greens want to see a national policy supporting local academics to review manuscripts.
This should be part of a broader federal review of Australian government and university spending on institutional journal subscriptions, open access publication fees and requirements to publish in open access journals.
The Greens want less funding spent propping up private publishing companies and more spent supporting local researchers and making sure their work is accessible in open access journals.
- Establish an Office of Research Integrity
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Misconduct in scientific research and publishing undermines the credibility of Australian science, threatening the implementation of findings and the funding of future research.
The Greens believe Victoria needs an Office of Research Integrity, to complement existing institutional processes.
It would have the power to review university and institutional investigations into misconduct and initiate its own where these are found to be inadequate. Ideally, this would be the forerunner of a national office.
- More support for early and mid-career researchers
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The Greens want more support for early and mid-career researchers, particularly women and those affected by interruptions to their careers.
- Help research institutes keep the lights on
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While research institutes can often get the grants they need for research, they struggle with the funding they need for basic operational expenses.
The Greens believe the government should increase funding for Operational Infrastructure Support so that medical research institutes can meet their basic running costs.
Without this increase, several medical research institutes are at risk of closing in the next few years.
- Get promised research funding released
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In 2015, the federal government created the Medical Research Future Fund, and promised that it would give out $1 billion in research funding every year once the fund grew to $20 billion (which it did in 2020).
But it has never given out that much, and isn’t planning to till 2030.
The Victorian Greens will urgently work with the federal government to release the promised funds in full, now.