Research

During 2020–21, an estimated $6.9 billion was spent on health and medical research. Of this:

  • the Australian Government contributed $5.5 billion (80.1%)
  • state and territory governments $0.9 billion (13.3%)
  • non-government sector $0.5 billion (6.6%) (Figure 30).

In real terms, spending on research increased by $0.1 billion (1.2%) between 2019–20 and 2020–21. This was lower than the decade average annual real growth rate of 3.0%.

Figure 30: Research spending, by source of funds, constant prices(a), 2010–11 to 2020–21

The line graph shows that Australian Government spending on research was much higher than spending on research by the state and territory governments, which in turn was higher than non-government spending on research over the decade to 2020–21. Australian Government spending fluctuated over the decade, but nonetheless increased from $4.3 billion in 2010–11 to $5.5 billion in 2020–21. State and territory government spending on research increased steadily to $0.6 billion in 2018–19, then peaked to $1.0 billion in 2019–20 and $0.9 billion in 2020–21. Non-government spending was relatively flat across the decade, at about $0.4 billion in 2020–21.

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