Funds for scientific research: Australia and Canada
To appreciate how our research funding compares with another country's, consider the following data on the situation in Canada:
Research Funding:
Canada has three research funding bodies. They are:
(1)	Medical Research Council (MRC). Funding for 98/99 is $267.6 Million. This will be increasd by $180 million over the next 4 years.
By comparison, our NHMRC received $185 million in 2000, which will increase by $ 30 million per year up 2005.
(The web site for MRC is www.mrc.gc.ca for these figures)
The Canadian dollar is currently (March 26 2001) worth 1.288 Australian dollars, so that, in $A, the funds in 2005 will be:
     In 2005:  Australia, $A335m.   In 2005:Canada, >$A576m.
(2)	National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
The funding for 2000 is $550 million compared with $104 million for our ARC.
(The web site for NSERC is www. Nserc.ca). The Australian figure will double over the next 5 years, after the Coalition government's decisions following the Batterham report. Here the comparison in $A gives:
Australia (in 2005):$A208m.   Canada (already in 2000). $A708m.

(3)	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council ( SSHRC)
The funding for 98/99 is $ 96.4 million, or $A124m. We don't have a similar body, but notice its budget exceeds that of the whole ARC ($A104)!
(Web site for SSHRC is www.sshrc.ca)

Finally, and most amazingly, Canada is to fund 2000 new Research Chairs across all universities plus a billion dollars of infrastructure money. At the moment there are 157 research chairs in Canada.
(My web site for this information is from Carleton University on
www.carleton.ca/duc/tic/99/octl8/articlel .html).
It should be noted that the provincial governments also have research funds for universities of the order of $20-30 million.
These figures show clearly how much we lag behind the funding available to Canadian universities, even after allowing for its greater population (at 30 million, it is only about half as much again as Australia's). 
  Dr. W. R. Webster