Here's something for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his Innovation Minister Christopher Pyne to ponder as they work on the innovation statement planned for later this year.
Study after study (admittedly many of them paid for by universities or other research institutions) find very high economic returns from investment in research. 
The latest study was commissioned from Deloitte Access Economics by the University of NSW (now known as UNSW Australia). It draws on many other studies in this area to estimate a "return to the economy of between $5 and $10 for each $1 invested in real per capita university research over a period of 35 years (in present value terms)".
This is equivalent to saying that the average annual dividend from university research is an extraordinary 60-100 per cent! Before we get too carried away by this result it's important to note some caveats. These are modelled estimates and inherently uncertain. They also depend very much on the quality of research knowledge and how well it is carried through to an industry use. 
We should also note that economists are not advocating wholesale bumping up of research funding at the expense of other investments. Still, the possible economic dividends from higher levels of research investment are clearly worth thinking about. And, even allowing for the uncertainties, the extraordinarily high estimates of returns from research can't be easily cast aside.

Engineering faculty could yield $95 million
The Deloitte report also looks more closely at specific research initiatives at UNSW. For example its highly regarded engineering faculty has done key research into photovoltaic cells, membrane filters and image compression software. The gross returns from the faculty's 2014 research activity could be between $85 million and $95 million, the report says.
UNSW vice-chancellor Ian Jacobs says he commissioned the report because he wasn't confident that politicians, lay people or business people had really appreciated the full contribution of universities to the country.
"Most people had thought the economic bit of the contribution was international students, which it is, but the contribution through driving research out into society and industry is massive and dwarfs any other contribution," he says.
For Jacobs, this report is part of his 10-year strategy to reinvigorate UNSW and lift it into the world's top 50 universities. He needs to find an extra $300 million a year to boost the university's current $1.6 billion annual budget.
Part of his approach is to prove the economic case for university research. UNSW research made a $15 billion economic contribution last year, he says. He's hoping Pyne and Turnbull are noticing.
UNSW vice-chancellor Ian Jacobs is a speaker at this week's Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit,   October 27-28, Swissotel, Sydney.