Australian government support for research collaboration with the PRC

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Ethan Pooley, Administrative Assistant, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney

James Laurenceson, Director, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney

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Introduction

When the 2022 round of the Australian Research Council (ARC)’s Discovery Projects[1] was announced, higher education watchers immediately identified what appeared to be a sharp decline in support for projects involving research collaboration with partners in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – from between 50 and 80 in previous years to 23.[2] This followed allegations that such collaboration served as a conduit for espionage, foreign interference and intellectual property theft, as well as supporting ends that were contrary to Australian values.[3] These allegations prompted a variety of government responses, including the establishment in 2019 of a University Foreign Interference Taskforce that formulated guidelines to address such challenges.[4] These guidelines were subject to, in the Australian government’s words, a ‘refresh’ in 2021.[5] There has since emerged some evidence that some researchers based in Australia, particularly those with a mainland Chinese-background, were becoming ‘overcautious’ or ‘hesitant to apply for government grants’, with others leaving Australia altogether.[6]

This analysis aims to provide a deeper understanding of developments in Australian government funding support for research collaboration involving the PRC, and how these changes have affected mainland Chinese-background researchers based in Australia to date. To do so, data from three ARC grant schemes between 2019 and 2023 have been collected and analysed. The schemes include the Discovery Projects scheme, the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme, and the Future Fellowship scheme. With a combined annual budget of roughly $400 million and an application success rate of just 19 percent, these three schemes are lucrative but extremely competitive.[7]

Key takeaways

- By examining three of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) grants schemes over the last five years, this analysis shows a sharp decline in funding support for collaboration with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) relative to other international partners. This is despite many of these other partners being less significant creators of knowledge globally.

- The decline in funding support is more pronounced in some Australian universities and fields of research than others. There is also evidence suggesting that mainland Chinese-background researchers based in Australia have maintained their presence on successful grant teams, even as less support is provided to collaborate with researchers based in the PRC.

- There are legitimate reasons to curtail collaboration with PRC-based researchers in specifically defined areas on national security and ethical grounds. Australia’s national interest is not served, however, by overstating the threats, nor by a climate of uncertainty which prompts researchers to pre-emptively shy away from potentially productive collaborations in order to secure already scarce grant funding.

Authors

Ethan Pooley, Administrative Assistant, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney

Professor James Laurenceson, Director, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney