A research institute for coral reefs has been turned down for future funding by the Australian Research Council (ARC), leaving international environmental scientists confused and disappointed.
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, based at James Cook University in Queensland, will lose 37% of its current annual budget after the decision comes into effect in 2021.
The centre is a collaborative research partnership between James Cook University, The Australian National University, The University of Queensland, and The University of Western Australia, as well as marine science organisations.
The research that the centre produces is influential in marine and environmental science: Researchers from Coral Reef Studies produced 373 publications in 2017, which were cited nearly 40,000 times throughout the year.
The centre will also lose its title as an ARC Centre of Excellence, but it can apply to keep the title for up to three years after funding ends.
The ARC is the body that advises the government on research matters and allocates grants to research and development.
Professor Garry Peterson, a sustainability scientist from the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, is dismayed that the ARC’s funding will be discontinued.
“It is deeply stupid for Australia not to fund (or even consider funding) its world-leading coral reef research, when the centre has an excellent track record and a strong proposal,” Peterson told Nature.
Peterson told BuzzFeed News that in “normal times” it would be acceptable for another organisation or field to be given the opportunity by the ARC to carry out their research.
However, Peterson believes that in light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and “given that the world’s coral reefs are in severe crisis, now is the time to fund coral reef science”.
The IPCC report was created to outline the difference between a 1.5-degree Celsius and a 2-degree Celsius rise in global surface temperatures. The report stated that if global temperatures are allowed to rise to 2 degrees Celsius, “virtually all” coral reefs will be lost.
Peterson is particularly concerned about funding priorities in light of a federal government decision to give a small nine-person organisation nearly half a billion dollars in funding earlier this year.
“This is especially stupid when the Australian Government is giving over $400 million to the inexperienced Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF),” said Peterson.
The Great Barrier Reef Foundation was given $444 million earlier this year after a single meeting with then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and then-environment minister Josh Frydenberg.
The chair’s panel of the GBRF includes executives from mining and oil companies such as Boral, BHP, Rio Tinto, Orica, ExxonMobil, and Peabody Energy.
Prime minister Scott Morrison, who was treasurer at the time of the decision, has taken responsibility for this allocation of funds and a Senate inquiry about the GBRF’s government grant has been launched, as there was no opportunity given to expert agencies to apply for the money.
Bill Hare, a physicist and chief executive of Climate Analytics in Berlin, told Nature that a “different government with a different outlook would have found a way to support that [Coral Reef Studies] centre”.
The Coral Reef Studies centre submitted an expression of interest to the ARC for a new centre of excellence this year and a representative of the centre told BuzzFeed News they had received one “extremely positive review” but were then subsequently told that they had not been short-listed for research grants.
The centre wasn't given any feedback about the decision from the ARC.
The ARC currently funds the bulk of the Coral Reef Studies centre.
A spokesperson from James Cook University told BuzzFeed News that the university “remains committed to delivering world-class coral reef research,” but it had declined to comment specifically about the ARC’s rejection of funding for the Coral Reef Studies centre.
The centre has received two rounds of ARC funding – the first round was in 2005 when the centre was established. In 2014, it was granted $28 million by the ARC for seven years; the ARC’s chief executive officer at the time, professor Aidan Byrne, said that “It is vital that we protect the reefs we have today to ensure they are here for our future generations”.
After October 2021, the centre will lose all ARC funding.
ARC chief executive Sue Thomas said that the decision was based on competitive standards and there was no government intervention. In October, it came to light that former education minister Simon Birmingham had blocked $4.2 million in research grants to various universities.
The ARC told BuzzFeed News that all grant schemes, including expressions of interest for their Centres of Excellence are “highly competitive” and at the end of the Coral Reef Studies centre’s grant period, the ARC will work with the associated universities to “provide advice on appropriate wind down processes”.
CORRECTION
An earlier version of this article misstated that the bulk of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies' funding comes from James Cook University.