A research institute for coral reefs has been turned down for future funding by the Australian Research Council (ARC), leaving international environmental scientists confused and disappointed.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, based at James Cook University in Queensland, will lose 37% of its current annual budget after the decision comes into effect in 2021.

The centre is a collaborative research partnership between James Cook University, The Australian National University, The University of Queensland, and The University of Western Australia, as well as marine science organisations.

The research that the centre produces is influential in marine and environmental science: Researchers from Coral Reef Studies produced 373 publications in 2017, which were cited nearly 40,000 times throughout the year.

The centre will also lose its title as an ARC Centre of Excellence, but it can apply to keep the title for up to three years after funding ends.

The ARC is the body that advises the government on research matters and allocates grants to research and development.

Professor Garry Peterson, a sustainability scientist from the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, is dismayed that the ARC’s funding will be discontinued.

“It is deeply stupid for Australia not to fund (or even consider funding) its world-leading coral reef research, when the centre has an excellent track record and a strong proposal,” Peterson told Nature.

Peterson told BuzzFeed News that in “normal times” it would be acceptable for another organisation or field to be given the opportunity by the ARC to carry out their research.

However, Peterson believes that in light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and “given that the world’s coral reefs are in severe crisis, now is the time to fund coral reef science”.

The IPCC report was created to outline the difference between a 1.5-degree Celsius and a 2-degree Celsius rise in global surface temperatures. The report stated that if global temperatures are allowed to rise to 2 degrees Celsius, “virtually all” coral reefs will be lost.

Peterson is particularly concerned about funding priorities in light of a federal government decision to give a small nine-person organisation nearly half a billion dollars in funding earlier this year.

“This is especially stupid when the Australian Government is giving over $400 million to the inexperienced Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF),” said Peterson.