Funding options for research: facing the market as well as government

Parasitology is a challenge. At one level, the structural and genetic complexities of parasites provide ample technical challenges in regard to an understanding of parasite variability and adaptability, epidemiological diversity, drug resistance, etc. The intricacies of host–parasite relationships including the immunology of parasitism will continually surprise yet frustrate the vaccine developer and keep the bravest immunoparasitologist busy and creative for decades. As if the technical considerations were not challenging enough, we see difficulties arising in sustaining a research endeavour and preserving a critical mass of researchers through the generation of high-level, long-term funding support. Contributing to this situation is the fact that most parasitic diseases of major impact in humans are largely centred around the rural poor in tropical, less industrially-developed countries and therefore of little or of fickle interest to the strictly commercially oriented. Moreover, the focus in the rural industries has moved away from aspects of on-farm production with lower priority given to studies on even the `economically-important' parasites of livestock. It is contended that this may change again with pressures and clear marketing advantages to preserving a `clean and green' image for Australia's primary industries. Overall, the extraordinary technical and conceptual advances in recent times have been tempered by uncertainties in research funding and severe cuts from some traditional sources for both fundamental and strategic/applied research in Parasitology. Several have highlighted the fact that deliverables in terms of new methods of disease control have been sparse and some claims made in the past have certainly been exaggerated. Yet the prospects and achievements at the front end of the long R&D pathway have never been brighter. In this article we examine the merits of a `portfolio approach' to generating research funds in Parasitology and Science and Technology in Australia more generally, with an emphasis on strategies that, through welding good science with clear, medium-term product objectives, increase research funding opportunities.