Region. International collaboration is vital

Collaboration with international scientific organisations is vital to the success of Australian research, according to Professor Andrew Cheetam, pro vice-chancellor, research, at the University of Western Sydney. “But it is not clear to me [that governments] fully understand its importance and consequently do not fund such collaboration and participation at a high enough level. There are schemes available but in reality they are quite small in scale and scope,” he said in an article in the latest About the House magazine published by the Department of the House of Representatives. The article, Knowledge Networks, noted the value of international collaboration leading to important scientific breakthroughs.