Innovation agents and innovation tracks: CSIRO research scientists and their peers.

SUMMARY

Ultimately it is people who innovate; these innovators are often scientists and technologists. This paper presents data from a 2003-4 study of careers followed by research scientists working in areas of traditional strength in Australia--agriculture, earth sciences, life sciences and medical sciences. Carried out via the web and targeted to scientists who were publishing in journals located in the Web of Science, the study received usable responses from 515 research scientists covering principally country of education, field of research, five major positions held and motivations for changing jobs, salaries, time spent on research as careers progressed. Respondents were working largely in the public sector, mostly in higher education but with a significant sub-sample working in Commonwealth agencies, notably the CSIRO. The paper presents the experience of the general population of respondents and compares it where possible with that of CSIRO.

KEY WORDS science and technology research careers; qualifications of science and technology personnel; HRST mobility; innovation personnel; innovation tracks; knowledge transfer

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Ultimately it is people who innovate; these innovators are often scientists and technologists. In Australia, the comparatively small size of the nation's innovation systems means that career options are limited and there are few chances for scientists to move across sectors, intensifying competition for the places available in any one. The structure and number of science positions available in the public sector are critical for science personnel trying to make a career in Australia. At the centre of the public sector is the CSIRO, the biggest employer of research scientists in the country and the only employer of large numbers of research-only personnel. The impact of monies for research on technological innovation levels in any country depends greatly on the willingness and capacity of scientific researchers to take risks with their career paths. Current science policies show little concern for the choices facing scientifically-trained personnel in Australia, whether in the public or private sectors.

Overall the proportion of funding for research spent by industry is lower in Australia than the OECD average. Low investment in R&D in business means that, while the stock of private sector researchers increased slowly and then faster over the decade and a half after 1990, the number of industry sectors undertaking research remains very limited, the scale of research activity is usually small and there are limited opportunities for scientific and technological personnel to make careers there. Even where research positions are available, current business structure trends suggest that researchers seldom reach senior management levels and have little say in strategic company decision-making (interviews with ex-industry scientists 2003-4). The Australian Industry Research Group (AIRG), which represents companies with research laboratories, has been losing members fast over the last few years, the number of organisations affiliated reducing by half, from 80 to less than 40, between 1999 and 2003.

The public sector thus remains central. In the university sector, low student numbers in science fields mean few new staff opportunities in teaching and research as these positions are largely based on student load. Full-time research jobs are almost always tied to grants or externally funded centres, especially at the more junior levels. Similarly, although the Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) create some places for young researchers to enter the system, opportunities for career progression there are limited (Garrett-Jones et al. 2005). These aspects of the public sector make the role, including the doctoral training role, of CSIRO in scientific careers especially important.

In recent years, the Australian government has increased funding for research and development, notably through the Australian Research Council and associated granting schemes, through two major packages of policies intended to 'Back Australia's Ability' (BAA1 and 2) which also included industry R&D incentive programs. The first BAA, however, offered no new funds to the CSIRO and hence ensured that scientific careers there would be affected by funding shortfalls and a major restructure. The second offered major new funding but especially targeted the 'Flagships' through creating the Flagships Collaboration scheme. CSIRO created the Flagships in date in areas seen as national priorities; by 2006 these absorbed around 20% of CSIRO's resources and will increase further as Flagships develop. The implementation of these packages saw a significant increase in R&D personnel in the higher education and business sectors but little or no growth in the government research sector, principally CSIRO. In addition, the global trend towards shifting recurrent funding in universities and government laboratories to externally funded tied grants is strengthening in Australia. This development may be changing the nature of research in some countries and it is clearly affecting scientific work (see, for example, Laudel 2006).

In Australia, many younger scientists face acutely difficult decisions about whether to remain in science when they have held several post-doctoral positions, a time when they may have married and started families and wish to buy a house. Many see the future in science as essentially insecure. In Australia, there is some evidence that many leave to take up non-science positions at this point (Marceau and Preston 1997). We argue that Australia provides too few secure and well-paid opportunities for both young and older researchers if it is to maintain capability in key areas and the creation of more secure career paths, as Minister Bishop recognised in mid-2006, visualising a future where selected post-docs would have secure positions and international research experience through CSIRO, and later providing some funding for this future. The dependence of many science researchers on the public sector means that personnel policies within CSIRO will be critical in the success of the human resources aspect of innovation in Australia.

In the public sector, the justification for science funding has always been related, more or less directly, to notions of serving the national interest. Recent decades have seen an overall drift towards funding more strategic and applied research and away from basic or discovery activities, with a stronger focus on contestability and user-pays and commercialisation of research results. Some areas, such as the biological sciences, have done well while others have declined, especially those with little expectation of commercial outcomes. CSIRO, and the scientific research opportunities it provides, has been greatly affected by these trends.

PHD QUALIFIED PERSONNEL IN AUSTRALIA: AN OVERALL VIEW

Until recently, science policy was made with little information about science and technology personnel and even less about their careers. The DEST report Mapping Australian Science & Innovation (2003a) provided information on overall numbers of science and technology personnel in the labour force and the more recent DEST Audit (2006) provided more but in little detail.

In 2001, 68,000 people held a PhD and were working in Australia as either specialist managers or professionals. (1) Of this group, 9000 worked in natural and physical scientific and technical positions (ABS 2003a). The largest group worked in education positions (15,000) followed by 12,000 working as health professionals. Only 1,000 of the professional group with PhDs worked as building or engineering professionals. Most in natural and physical science careers are men, especially in that crucial group, the 35-44 year olds (ABS 2003b:32, special data service), but also in the older groups, making up 63% of the population. The greater representation of women in the younger age cohorts is nonetheless striking.

Research funding

The distribution of research funds shows where career opportunities may be found. R&D expenditure is dominated by business in the economic areas of minerals and energy, manufacturing, construction, transport, IT and commercial services while expenditure in the higher education system focuses on the social areas of health, education and social development. State governments focus on plant and animal production and health and the Commonwealth on defence, environment and plant and animal production. Defence research is largely conducted by DSTO, leaving environmental management, plant and animal production and minerals and energy to the CSIRO.

Information on fields of research funded shows the domination of scientific expertise in each sector, with IT and engineering concentrated in the business sector, physical, life and health sciences in higher education, agriculture in State governments, and physical, earth and agricultural sciences in the Commonwealth government. Australia's public sector research science capability is thus primarily made up of expertise in the physical, earth and agricultural sciences and oriented toward environmental management, animal and plant production and minerals and energy, however measured.

Entry to research careers in science