MILLIONS of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants for obscure research projects - such as the role of public art in climate change - will be scrapped or redirected to find cures for dementia and other diseases as part of a Coalition crackdown on government waste.

And a further $1.1 billion is expected to be returned to the budget bottom line from the scrapping of the carbon tax, under the Coalition election promises costings to be released today.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that as part of the Coalition's budget savings measures, a dedicated team will be formed under its proposed Commission of Audit to re-prioritise about $900 million in annual Australian Research Council grants.

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While the overall ARC grant pool - which help fund vital research - would not be cut, a razor would be put to projects that are deemed "wasteful".

media_camera Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has vowed to strip funds from grants for obscure research projects and redirect them to projects such as dementia research. Picture: Gary Ramage.

And the funds released from the projects to be axed will be put into new medical research programs for dementia, diabetes and tropical disease.

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey will today release the Coalition's election budget savings and policy costings, which will boast a plan to shave $6 billion off the budget bottom line over the next four years.

It would also reveal that there would be no cuts to health or education but is expected to include cuts to the foreign aid program.

Mr Hockey is also expected to reveal that the Coalition would start clawing back government debt - now estimated at about $270 billion - by $12 billion over the four-year forward estimates.

The long-awaited release of the Coalition's spend and savings plan follows weeks of pressure from the government to come clean on how it will pay for its policies and where it would cut from the budget.

media_camera Scott Emerson MP, Theresa Gambaro, Julie Bishop and Australian Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott tour Brisbane Metroplitan Transport Management Centre. Picture: Getty Images

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that a list of the types of grants that would no longer be funded under new and more stringent guidelines for the ARC included an RMIT project on Spatial Dialogues: Public Art and Climate Change which sought to explore how people could adapt to climate change through public art.

Coalition sources also cited as waste several grants worth more than $1 million into philosophical studies including the meaning of "I" through a retrospective study of 18th and 19th century German existentialists.

It also suggested that programs such as the $160,000 given to Macquarie University to examine "sexuality in Islamic interpretations of reproductive health technologies in Egypt" would no longer receive taxpayer-funded assistance.

The ARC grants are independently assessed under strict guidelines but Coalition sources said they believed that there was "waste" in the grants process and funding of projects that didn't meet the Coalition's priorities.

Sources claimed that Mr Hockey's costing of its election promises would not be an "alternative budget".

media_camera Scott Emerson MP, Theresa Gambaro, Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott tour Brisbane Metroplitan Transport Management Centre today. Picture: Getty Images

The Parliamentary Budget Office is believed to have costed the Coalition's policy of axing the carbon tax and revealed a $1.1 billion cash dividend to the budget bottom line - although this would not be included in the Coalition's figures.

"This is a package that focuses on improving productivity, investing in infrastructure and reducing waste," said a senior Coalition source.

The government, after relentless attacks on the Coalition for delaying their release until two days before the election, released its own costings document only yesterday

showing $1.65 billion in cuts it was planning to pay for other promises not included in the May budget.

In an apparent about-face on its threat to take over TAFE from the states so they would be funded properly, the document revealed cuts of $111 million from TAFE colleges.

Treasury, however, had yet to sign off on 36 of 66 submitted policies.

Treasurer Chris Bowen accused Opposition leader Tony Abbott of going to "extraordinary lengths" to avoid scrutiny.

"We need to see a clear impact of their policies and, importantly, what are the cuts they will make?" he said.

"We already know some of the cuts but we don't know all of them."

Originally published as Abbott vows to cut futile research