Research money has been re-jigged in the latest federal budget.

The National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) has received a $150 million funding injection, meaning the 27 research facilities across the country can continue for at least a year.

$13 million has been provided for the Australian Synchrotron – Australia’s biggest single piece of research infrastructure, and an international flagship in its field.

But these boosts come at the expense of block funding grants.

The funding to support the scientists actually working in NCRIS facilities has been cut by $262.5 million.

The Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) programme – central to government’s stated aim of encouraging links between science and industry – has had its funding cut by $29.8 million (almost 20 per cent of the overall CRC budget).

Additionally, there is no mention in the budget of the Future Fellowships program for mid-career researchers, which insiders say remains tied to savings measures in the Higher Education Reform Bill.

The deregulation of university fees is back.

“From 1 January 2016, the Government will fully deregulate higher education,” budget papers state.

The Government says it will remove “fee caps and [expand] the demand-driven system to bachelor and sub-bachelor courses at all approved higher education providers”.

“In addition, from 1 January 2016, the Government will rebalance student and Commonwealth contributions towards a new student’s course fees by reducing subsidies for Commonwealth-supported places by 20 per cent on average.”

On a more positive note; the budget papers allocate an additional $9.4 million for Antarctic research and $15.3 million for research into tropical diseases.

Overall, the Federal Government appears to be treading water on research funding, with forecast increases being outweighed by forecast cuts.

There were no significant announcements for the Australian Research Council or the National Health and Medical Research Council, but the commitment to establish the Medical Research Future Fund appears to remain.

The Government plans to save more than $250 million over five years by reducing the amount it pays for certain drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Some of the funds are set to be redirected into the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

Budget papers claim the first $10 million of the medical research fund will now be awarded to scientific research, part of $400 million to be spent from the MRFF over the next four years.

However, it is unclear how this will happen, given that the legislation for the fund has not been introduced yet into Federal Parliament.