Planning for impact: mapping and quantifying the benefits of public-sector geoscience

Geoscience Australia is increasingly looking to quantify the impact and value of the scientific work that it undertakes. Quantifying impact helps to demonstrate the return on investment from expenditure of government funds in applying geoscience to Australia's most important challenges. Recent analysis has quantified the economic and social benefits arising from precompetitive geoscience under Exploring for the Future, an Australian Government program led by Geoscience Australia that is dedicated to exploring Australia's resource potential and boosting investment. This analysis used the Impact Pathway approach to collect data and information that provides evidence of project and program impacts. The analysis demonstrates that Exploring for the Future is likely to return hundreds of dollars to the Australian economy for every dollar spent on the program. Additional modelling using REMPLAN online analytical tools helps to quantify economic and employment benefits in regional Australia. These approaches to impact assessment are also being adopted across Geoscience Australia in areas ranging from satellite Earth observation to earthquake and tsunami hazard and risk.