The Australian federal government's announcement last month of a ten-year investment programme for research and development (R&D) should please biotech developers. The package includes more than A$1 billion (US$700 million) over the next seven years to help bring Australian research discoveries to market. This will merge and supersede several existing programmes, creating a ‘one-stop shop’ for developers and investors alike to commercialize Australian research discoveries.

The initiative follows a tendency in recent years for the nation's researchers to focus their attention on areas deemed to be of national priority, an agenda set by the government in 2002 (see Nature 420, 591; 2002). The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) — Australia's largest research body — led the movement, redirecting a third of its budget into six priority areas.

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