Dear Secretariat, This Submission to the Senate Inquiry Into Australia's
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Dear Secretariat, This submission to the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s innovation system represents the views of a broad cross-section of Australia’s bioinformatics community. Bioinformatics is about the management, analysis, interpretation and modeling of biological information, most commonly, information about DNA (the genetic instructions for living organisms) and related molecules. We are writing because bioinformatics is vital to the life sciences and the benefits they deliver in health, agriculture and the environment. However, because bioinformatics often plays a role “behind the scenes” its importance may be overlooked. Hence, we seek to raise awareness that it is a critical part of Australia’s life science capabilities, affecting our ability to adopt, develop and contribute to innovation. Our submission is set out in three parts: 1. Responses to the terms of reference for the Senate Enquiry 2. Additional detail and background on bioinformatics 3. The list of people who support this submission. This submission reflects our sincere desire to deliver benefit from Australian bioinformatics and our belief in its importance to Australia’s economic, social and environmental wellbeing. It also reflects broad support from across the Australian bioinformatics community. We thank you for this opportunity and hope that our submission will be useful to you. If you would like to find out more about bioinformatics in Australia, then the Australian Bioinformatics Network would be delighted to assist. Yours sincerely, Dr David Lovell Director, Australian Bioinformatics Network [email protected] Tel: +61 2 6216 7042 Australian Bioinformatics: Senate Innovation Inquiry submission 1. Responses to the terms of reference for the Senate Enquiry This section of our submission responds directly to each heading in the terms of reference On 18 March 2014, the following matter was referred to the Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by the first sitting day of July 2015: The challenges to Australian industries and jobs posed by increasing global competition in innovation, science, engineering, research and education, with particular reference to: (a) The need to attract new investment in innovation to secure high skill, high wage jobs and industries in Australia, as well as the role of public policy in nurturing a culture of innovation and a healthy innovation ecosystem; ● Bioscience underpins high skill, high wage jobs (e.g., in R&D) and industries (e.g., in health, agriculture) ○ As a recent example, US public dollar investment in the Human Genome Project has been estimated to deliver substantial returns to the US economy1 ○ Bioinformatics is fundamental to modern bioscience ● Innovation in bioscience depends on collaboration between diverse interests. ○ As a discipline devoted to the analysis interpretation and management of biological information, bioinformatics is critical in facilitating and driving this collaboration ○ Bioinformatics is at the heart of interdisciplinary, collaborative bioscience (b) The Australian Government’s approach to innovation, especially with respect to the funding of education and research, the allocation of investment in industries, and the maintenance of capabilities across the economy; ● It is important the Australian Government understands that bioinformatics ○ is an enabling discipline, an integral part of life science R&D. It is generally a means to delivering benefit, rather than an end benefit in itself ○ is changing rapidly, encompassing knowledge from many other disciplines in the biological and information sciences ○ is not generally a market-facing service or product. Change, diversity and the need for sound methods whose strengths and limitations can be openly assessed to ensure robust scientific insights mean that bioinformatics is not generally cast as a shrink-wrapped service or product 1 Economic return from Human Genome Project grows: Report finds genomics effort has added US$1 trillion to US economy. Meredith Wadman. Nature News. 12 June 2013 2 Australian Bioinformatics: Senate Innovation Inquiry submission ● With respect to funding of education and research, industry investment, and capability maintenance in bioinformatics, we propose four high-level objectives to guide investment: ○ Stability: Australia’s general demand for bioinformatics is growing at a rate to warrant long-term planning and investment. This investment stability is vital to attract, retain and develop bioinformaticians to enable high-impact science ○ Flexibility: to address the diversity and change in demand for bioinformatics, Australia’s investment needs to enable its bioinformatics capabilities to be flexibly applied. Bioinformatics is applied in different domains (e.g., medicine, pathology, agriculture, environment), and Australia’s interests are best served by enabling the flow of bioinformatics capability across application domains ○ Connectedness: Australia needs to be able to share bioinformatics expertise, resources and opportunities because (a) we cannot afford to duplicate scarce capabilities (b) no single team (let alone individual) could hope to field all the capabilities needed to tackle Australia’s variety of bioinformatics challenges. It is also vital for Australian bioinformatics (and science in general) to be well connected internationally2, in part, to ensure that advances made elsewhere are available and applied locally for Australia’s advantage ○ Capacity: Australia needs to invest in bioinformatics capacity sufficient to match its aspirations to deliver and to exploit benefit from the life sciences. The future of life science based industry and research depends on a vital and thriving bioinformatics community. Australia’s bioinformatics skills capacity is growing but is currently unable to meet demand; skills are being imported in the meantime. (c) The importance of translating research output into social and economic benefits for Australians, and mechanisms by which it can be promoted; ● Recipes for translating research findings into tangible benefits involve many ingredients ○ Essential among them is for the research findings to be based on sound science ○ Sound analysis and interpretation of biological information demands excellence in bioinformatics and other aspects of bioscience ○ Bioinformatics excellence is an essential ingredient for life science research to deliver valuable outcomes for health, agriculture and the environment ● We note that the NHMRC is currently developing principles for the translation of biomolecular tests from discovery to health care3 ○ Bioinformatics plays a critical role in bringing research findings into medical practice, particularly when it comes to reproducibility, one of the key principles in effective translation ● Scientific excellence is often thought of and assessed like sporting excellence—who is first to publish? What is your tally of first-author, top-tier journal publications? 2 The Royal Society (2011) Knowledge, Networks and Nations royalsociety.org/policy/projects/knowledge-networks-nations/ 3 NHMRC Draft Principles for the translation of ‘omics’-based tests from discovery to health care consultations.nhmrc.gov.au/public_consultations/omics-based-tests 3 Australian Bioinformatics: Senate Innovation Inquiry submission ○ However, the aim of science is to generate knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe ○ Australia needs mechanisms to promote this aim, mechanisms that encourage and reward science to be reproducible, robust and accurately qualified rather than just “first to publish” (d) The relationship between advanced manufacturing and a dynamic innovation culture; ● A dynamic innovation culture that is closely linked to production systems and design teams promotes advanced manufacturing capability ○ Biotechnology, which relies on new evidence and developments in science, is rewarded by close linkages with the research community ○ By having the multidisciplinary team of biologists and bioinformaticians (trained in computer science, biology, statistics, mathematics) closely linked to production systems allows rapid translation of ideas ○ Biomedical device production, a major sector of Australian manufacturing, draws on links between bioinformatics, bioscience and engineering ○ Combining these skills to work collectively continue to innovate because of the interchange of disparate ideas coming from different points of reference ○ Recognition that a solid innovation culture in the future of manufacturing in Australia will see the resurgence of that sector, but practices and recognition must be afforded to those that contribute to the sector ○ Close linkage between industry and research will need to be encouraged and rewarded through avenues such as the R&D Tax incentive scheme and a repeal of the employee share taxation laws. (e) Current policies, funding and procedures of Australia’s publicly-funded research agencies, universities, and other actors in the innovation system; ● Australia has made significant investments in its national bioscience capability through publicly-funded research agencies and universities, and through targeted schemes such as NCRIS and NeCTAR ○ The recent Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research in Australia4 (the McKeon Review) raised bioinformatics as a priority within this realm - particularly for policy, funding and procedures. ○ Strengthening Australia’s bioinformatics capabilities will enable Australia’s strategic investments in bioscience