Science down under

Your Grandpa Syd (who I hope won't mind my writing to you in this vein) mentioned that you were thinking about a career in Australia, now that your PhD is out of the way, so I'll give the low-down from an insider's point of view. I'll be quite frank, and what I have to tell you might bruise a few egos, so please try to keep it confidential. Of course there are good things about doing science in Australia. We have a very nice climate, a relaxed lifestyle, an excellent health system, and strong gun control laws. Our cricketers are the best in the world, and there are over five sheep per head of population. A PhD here only takes three years all up (in fact you have to apply for a special permission to extend it for another six months, and rumour has it that a certificate of similar value will soon be available in cereal packets – giving us the most highly educated population in the world). So much for the pluses. On the negative side, foremost is funding. Whereas the last National Institutes of Health budget in the US provided $18 billion for research, or $60 per head of population per year, the last Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) budget was for about $130 million, or less than $7 per capita. However, the Prime Minister has promised that, over the next six years, this budget will double. (Oh yes, and he'll still respect us in the morning.) Unlike in the US and the UK, where there is a tradition of the filthy rich dying and leaving their money to medical research, in Australia the well-to-do usually end up bankrupt, in jail, or in Majorca. In overall terms, Australia spends about 1.7% of its gross domestic product on research and development, well below the US (2.7%) and the OECD average (2.2%). The government has not yet made the connection between well-funded research and a strong economy. Our balance of trade is still based on " chop it down and sell it, dig it up and sell it ". In spite of this, the general perception here is that Australian scientists are leading the world, especially in the life sciences. After all, we are only 0.3% of the world's population, yet we produce 2.5% of the world's publications. Never mind that most of the world's population …