Australian AEA Applicants Mid-Application - Funding Cut Reaction

I know it's a week on, but it took me a while to edit out all the colourful expletives. The 2026-27 federal budget axed $1.5 billion in R&D funding — including the Australian Economic Accelerator, mid-application cycle, with no warning and no plan for what comes next. It also had some genuine wins for science. And that's actually what makes it so maddening. Because you cannot announce a council to implement a reform blueprint and simultaneously gut one of the programmes it was built to support. You cannot say you want a Future Made in Australia while cutting the research commercialisation programme designed to make that future. You cannot tell researchers their work matters and then pull the rug mid-application. I wrote the full breakdown — wins, losses, and what I think the sector needs to do next — over on Substack. Link in the comments. If you were mid-application when the AEA was cut, or you're watching this from outside the sector trying to make sense of it: I'd genuinely love to hear from you. #AustralianResearch #SciencePolicy #ResearchFunding #AEA #AmbitiousAustralia