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The Australian Geoscience Council believes research is
fundamental to the long-term wellbeing of the geosciences in Australia, and
therefore to the future of the resource industry, the environment and
sustainable development. Australian geoscience research, which is globally
recognised for its high standards, is driven in large part by the importance of
geosciences to the Australian economy in a wide range of applications which
include mineral and petroleum exploration and resource extraction, land
degradation studies and groundwater assessment. In particular, the Australian
Geoscience Council supports:
 | encouragement for geoscience research by Federal and State governments,
industry and the tertiary sector to the extent that Australia's
international standing in geoscience research is maintained and enhanced;
| promotion of per capita funding of Australian R & D to levels matching
those of other OECD countries as a basis for helping to ensure that
Australian geoscience research is funded at a level commensurate with the
role that the geosciences play in the Australian economy;
| encouragement of continued commitment to applied research within industry;
| promotion in Governments of pure research, the socioeconomic benefits of
which are likely to be on a longer time scale than for which industry can
provide support;
| adoption across agencies and institutions responsible for geoscience
research of a reasonable balance between the shorter-term needs of applied
research and the longer-term opportunities of pure research;
| facilitation of links between governments, industry, the tertiary sector
and professional societies in order to foster geoscience research; and
| encouragement of Governments, their agencies and the tertiary education
sector to offer suitably remunerative research careers in Australia thereby
enabling our excellent geoscience researchers to progress in their
professions that will enable them to undertake research careers in
Australia, without the need to dilute their efforts in management roles to
obtain proper remuneration.
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The Australian Geoscience Council also supports the encouragement of
innovative behaviour, a better appreciation of new technologies and the value of
intellectual property. The Council, in particular, supports:
| greater opportunities to enhance information dissemination and awareness
about key technologies, which are recognised as having or likely to have a
significant impact in the minerals and energy resource industry in the
medium term;
| the cultivation of creative thinking to encourage geoscientists to
perceive technology as a means of determining a novel use for an existing
product or a new solution to an old problem;
| advancement of strategies for geoscientists that maximise the value of
their intellectual property as a commercial commodity in a rapidly changing
global environment;
| encouragement of geoscientists to broaden their technical (and commercial)
skills and their understanding of key technologies beyond their own
particular specialisations and to establish productive relationships with
professionals from other disciplines and in other organisations;
| the fostering of the development of individual networks and linkages among
geoscientists (based on an interest in key technologies) within both their
own organisations and into other sectors of industry – where appropriate,
geoscientists should be encouraged to coordinate, and chair,
multi-specialist groups;
| encouragement of geoscientists to share information on the application of
key technologies in the minerals and energy industry;
| promotion within the minerals and energy industry of the need for an
innovative culture and a clearer understanding of the relationship between
the development of new technologies and the communal benefits acquired by
their application to the workplace, and
| encouragement of geoscientists employed in industry and in related
research and development organisations to undertake post-graduate courses in
technology management, with particular emphasis on such continuing education
becoming an essential requirement for professional registration.
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