Science Policy and the needs of Mathematical Sciences

If you have initiated an ARC Linkage project and seen it grow to fruition in the mathematical sciences, then you are very lucky. In the 2015 round, one single Linkage project out of 252 was funded in this field of research code [2, Table 6]. In this context, it is useful to reflect on industry connections in the mathematical sciences and where our needs lie in the context of science policy and advocacy. I welcome your reflections on this nexus. Since the National Committee for Mathematical Sciences is a committee of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), I will limit my column to issues of advo-cacy on which the AAS has been active. This is captured by submissions that are available on the AAS website www.science.org.au under ‘Science Policy’. The latest submission concerns the government review of research policy and fund-ing arrangements [1]. This was made in response to the Australian Government’s review of university research funding and policy (announced on 07 July 2015) as part of its Boosting the Commercial Returns from Research strategy [3]. The submission addresses a number of issues. Let me focus on the following