The Science and Industry Endowment Fund: Supporting the Development of Australian Science

Abstract

The Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF) was established in 1926 by the passage in the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia of the Science and Industry Endowment Act at the same time as the Science and Industry Research Act established the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The SIEF played a major role in funding the training of Australian research workers from 1926 to 1950 and funded much of the research carried out in Australian universities in the pre-war period. This paper documents the activities of the SIEF from its inception in 1926 until inflation eroded the value of the Fund in the 1970s. The Fund was later reinvigorated by the injection of $150 million by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation between 2009 and 2010.