University of Wollongong researchers say applied research is becoming more prominent as spending returns to pre-COVID-19 levels.
According to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, spending on research and development has seen a $2.034 billion increase from 2022 to 2024.
Health science research saw the greatest per cent increase over the two years at 37 per cent, hitting $2.1 billion nationally in 2024 following the widespread drop during the height of COVID-19.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Source: NSW Department of Education
UOW Associate Head of School for Nutrition Science and Dietetics Kelly Lambert said the growing expenditure has coincided with a deliberate shift toward patient-centred research in the health science field.
“The environment has changed a lot since 2020,” Prof. Lambert said.
“I think the broader research environment in Australia and globally is much more focused on doing research that is generated and done in partnership with people that suffer from the relevant condition.”
Prof. Lambert said COVID-19 may have had an impact on the values of research, but the trend of patient-centred research was already in effect.
“It was something that started around 2025, but really started to snowball around 2019, 2020, and then COVID came and it became even more of an accelerating process,” Prof Lambert said.
“I think perhaps COVID accelerated that, because we had to understand ‘what are some of the barriers to why people aren’t taking up COVID vaccines?”
UOW research spending across all fields has been on a consistent upward trend since 1992, dipping at the height of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020/21.
Source: NSW Department of Education
UOW Professor of Surf Engineering and Science Marc in het Panhaus said engineering research at Innovation Campus was particularly affected in 2020.
“COVID hit the Innovation Campus particularly hard because it’s a research focussed campus,” Prof. in het Panhaus said.
“[COVID] put a stop to it because a lot of it involved international collaborations in the US and in Europe.”
Prof. in het Panhaus said since then he has experienced a similar uptick in applied research in the engineering field.
“I’m doing more consumer focused research now, I’ve been fortunate enough to get two large projects funded currently,” Prof in het Panhaus said.
“I’ve always been very much focused on industry relative research, and I’ve certainly seen an increase in that.”
UOW researchers have continued to receive major engineering funding in 2025 and 2026, including from external sources like the New South Wales Mineral Council and NATO.
