Abstract

Recent work by Pellicano, Dinsmore, and Charman (2014) examined the allocation of autism research funding across research topics in the United Kingdom (UK), and found that the distribution of investment did not align with community priorities for research. Similar projects (Daniels et al., 2018) have examined autism research funding in the UK, United States, and Canada, and have consistently found disproportionate investment in biological discovery, while topics of priority to the autistic community (such as services and lifespan issues) receive comparatively little funding. In Australia, autism research has historically received funding primarily from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). However, in 2013, the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC) was founded as the world’s first national, cooperative research effort focused on autism. This study aimed to examine the distribution of autism research funding in Australia across research topics, using the questions and corresponding research areas outlined in the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Strategic Plan. Specifically, we aimed to determine whether the pattern of research funding in Australia is similar to (or different from) the pattern of funding found in other countries, and to identify whether the establishment of the Autism CRC is associated with a change in the pattern of autism research funding in Australia.

Citation

Den Houting, J., & Pellicano, L. (2019). Show me the money! A portfolio analysis of autism research funding in Australia from 2008 to 2017 [Poster]. International Society for Autism Research 2019 Annual Meeting, 1 May. International Society for Autism Research.

Project