Agricultural research and development investment in Australia - 2022-2023 update

Key findings

• Total Australian agricultural R&D funding in 2022-23 was $2.32 billion, largely unchanged from 2021-22 ($2.35 billion).
• The average annual growth rate in total Australian agricultural R&D funding was 2.01% from 2013-14 to 2022-23.
• The public sector (Australian and State governments) funded the majority of agricultural R&D investment in 2022-23: $1.32 billion was from public sector, $1.00 billion was from private sector.
• Private sector funding grew at an average annual rate of 1.78% over the 10 years to 2022-23, somewhat slower than the equivalent 2.17% annual growth rate of public sector investment.

*Note: University R&D funding is received from Australian and State and Territory Governments and is captured in the 'Universities' box ($420m). This amount is not included 'or double counted' in the 'Australian Government' or 'State and Territory Government' boxes'.

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What is in this report?

Research and development (R&D) investment is fundamental to the delivery of new technology and knowledge into the Australian agricultural system, and is therefore an important driver of productivity growth, competitiveness and the sustainability of Australian farms.

This report contains updated estimates of funding and expenditure on agricultural R&D to 2022 23 – where ‘funding’ is the dollar amount allocated or invested in R&D, and ‘expenditure’ is the dollar amount spent by those doing the R&D. Compared with previous estimates (to 2021-22) this report contains new data for various sources of R&D funding, and where data for 2022-23 are not yet available, imputed values have been used. More information is available in the ‘data notes’ section of this report.

While total R&D funding and expenditure estimates should in theory balance, differences in data availability, quality and timing mean they are not exactly the same. The flow of funding through the R&D system is also obscured by time taken for funding processes, as well as leveraging arrangements and collaborative partnerships among research funders and providers. Nevertheless, constructing both estimates provides a data quality check (i.e., total funding and expenditure should be broadly similar) and together they provide a comprehensive view of how the Australian agricultural R&D system has changed over time. For example, while the majority of Australian agricultural R&D continues to be public funded, the private sector has greatly increased its share of expenditure over the past few decades, from around 10% in 1992-93 to 42% in 2022-23. A mix of public and private expenditure supports an effective R&D system, because it drives delivery of both short term applied research and long term underlying research.

How are these estimates generated?

These updated estimates are generated following the method outlined in Chancellor (2023), available for download here.

ABARES has conducted several previous studies into the value of agricultural R&D investment and the returns this has generated. This report builds on these analyses and uses our latest approach for measuring Australian agricultural R&D. Previous research is available here and here.