New forecasts show spending is on track to be 0.49 per cent of GDP in 2022/23, having never dropped below 0.5 per cent since records began in 1978.
Universities Australia chief Catriona Jackson will tell the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association's annual conference in Hobart on Friday the federal budget is an opportunity fix the nation's research problem.
"In tough fiscal circumstances, we recognise government can't fund everything," she will say.
"Tough decisions must be made at a time that calls for less public spending.
"But we know that research makes the nation stronger and wealthier."
Australia has about 81,000 researchers working in universities, undertaking 45 per cent of all applied research and 87 per cent of basic research.
Universities are increasingly reliant on international student fees to pay for research activities, which the sector argues is vulnerable to shocks such as when the borders closed due to COVID.
"It's unfathomable that our ability to continue performing fundamentally important research for the good of the nation hinges on people choosing to study in Australia," Ms Jackson says.
"No other nation funds their research effort quite like this."
The sector estimates every dollar invested in research returns $5 to the economy.
"A one per cent lift in spending on research would expand the economy by $24 billion over a decade," Ms Jackson says.
Australian researchers were behind the development of wi-fi, the bionic ear, penicillin and printable solar cell technology.
21°C