Media Statement - 14th November 2007
A Rudd Labor Government will invest in new Future Fellowships to keep Australia’s best and brightest mid-career researchers in Australia.
Federal Labor’s Future Fellowships program will offer four year Fellowships valued at $140,000 a year to 1,000 of Australia’s top researchers in the middle of their career.
In addition, each researcher’s institution would receive a $50,000 grant to support the purchase of related infrastructure and equipment for their research project.
Over eleven years, the Howard Government has failed to support Australia’s top researchers and as a result created a roadblock to innovation and productivity.
A Federal Labor Government will promote research in areas of critical national importance by giving our world class researchers adequate incentive to keep doing their research in Australia.
Labor understands that overseas experience is important for researchers, but it is unacceptable that our best researchers are being forced to stay overseas to do high level research which is adequately supported and with no incentive to lure them home.
Future Fellowships will be targeted at researchers working in areas of national priority - such as renewable energy, manufacturing technologies, the sciences, medical research, and education.
Importantly, preference will be given to those researchers who can demonstrate a capacity to build collaboration across industry, research institutions, and with other disciplines.
At least 10 per cent of Federal Labor’s Future Fellowships will be targeted to encourage outstanding Australian researchers currently based overseas to come home to Australia.
Federal Labor’s Future Fellowships Plan builds on Labor’s plan to double the number of Australian Postgraduate Awards available in our universities by 2012.
