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AUSTRALIA will set up a network of 50 research centres to link research
work done in universities, private industry, and government organisations
such as CSIRO, Australia’s national research organisation. Plans for the
new centres were announced this week by the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke.

The Hawke government faces an election on 24 March, but the centres
have strong support within government departments and are likely to be established
regardless of the outcome. The centres, designed to employ 1000 scientists,
are an attempt to woo expatriate scientists back to Australia and to coordinate
the country’s research effort.

Meanwhile, the Australian science minister, Barry Jones, has been criticised
for describing the entrants to science teaching as ‘the runts of the litter’.
Jones was referring to the low entry requirements needed to teach science.
‘It seems to me to be a desperately serious problem,’ he said.