REPORT: The Importance of Advanced Physical and Mathematical Sciences to the Australian Economy

On 25 March 2015, the report The Importance of Advanced Physical and Mathematical Sciences to the Australian Economy was released.
To read or print the report, click here.
An infographic of key report findings is available here.
A joint media release by Professor Chubb and The Academy of Science can be read here.
The report was commissioned by the Office of the Chief Scientist and the Australian Academy of Science and produced by the Centre for International Economics (CIE).
The report combines the expertise of Australia’s scientific community with that of business and industry. The aim has been to produce an economic framework that can use the available statistics and economic modelling techniques to provide a timely reminder of how much of our national economic activity depends on the advanced physical and mathematical sciences (the APM sciences). The APM sciences comprise physics, chemistry, the earth sciences and the mathematical sciences, where ‘advanced’ means science undertaken and applied in the past 20 years. Biology and the life sciences were not covered in the report.
The direct contribution of the APM sciences is estimated to be 11% (or about $145 billion per year of the Australian economy). The contribution in additional and flow-on benefits equals another 11%, bringing the total benefits to 22% or around $292 billion per year. More...