ELEANOR HALL: The Coalition says it's planning to crack down on what it calls the "increasingly ridiculous" research grants being allocated by the Australian Research Council.

It says that if it wins power on Saturday it will stop "wasting" taxpayer dollars on studies that do little, if anything, to advance Australia's research needs.

But the Government is warning that this signals a return to the "John Howard approach," where only politicians could decide what was worth studying.

In Canberra, Ashley Hall reports.

ASHLEY HALL: The Coalition says with the budget under pressure, the Government should be more careful about how it allocates research funding.

JAMIE BRIGGS: We want research with Australian taxpayers' money to be about the better future for our country, not about funding some interesting thought bubble that some academic sitting away in a university somewhere has come up with and think they might be interested in looking at.

ASHLEY HALL: Jamie Briggs is a Coalition spokesman. He spoke to ABC News 24.

JAMIE BRIGGS: We want a strong research culture in Australia, particularly in relation to medical research, but looking at the sexuality issues in Islamic Egypt, with an Australian Research Council grant, is extremely questionable at best.

ASHLEY HALL: In the Coalition's media statement, it gives four examples of projects it regards as a waste of taxpayer's money, including a study aimed at reaching a better understanding of the self, and one looking at how urban media art can best respond to climate change.

JAMIE BRIGGS: Ultimately it's up to the Australian people to decide what they think is waste or not. We think it is, we think it's an example of research which shouldn't be funded by the Australian taxpayer. Lyndal, we're in $300 billion of debt - I know the Labor Party don't think that matters, they don't respect taxpayers' money. We do, and we are, you know - this is, as you say, a subjective decision about what people think is waste or not.

We want research in Australia but we want it focused on things that really matter.

ASHLEY HALL: Mr Briggs says a Coalition government would give the Australian Research Council strict guidelines about how it should prioritise grants for research.

And that's a cause for concern, according to the Minister for Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr. He says, already, about 80 per cent of research grants go to science disciplines, with only about 10 percent allocated to the humanities.

KIM CARR: What we've got here is I have to have an understanding about how society works. Are you saying that philosophy is no longer important under Mr Abbott's world view? When he was a student, he used to say the political economy should be banned. We now know they have a view that climate change research is unacceptable, we're now hearing from them that philosophy, that history, that art - it has no value in their scheme of things.

ASHLEY HALL: Senator Carr says in six years as the Minister responsible for research grants, he's led the experts decide what's worth funding.

KIM CARR: Who is it to say that politicians pick good ideas or bad ideas, that there is a Mickey Mouse group of thought police that can work out what they think is acceptable rather than trying to leave it to people that actually know what they're talking about.

ASHLEY HALL: And he says today's announcement signals bad times ahead for the higher education sector.

KIM CARR: They want to return to the John Howard idea of the white picket fence and the suggestion that there are some good ideas and bad ideas as determined by politicians. So we know it's not just about climate change anymore, it's about philosophy, it's about the arts.

ASHLEY HALL: Belinda Robinson is the chief executive of Universities Australia. She says it's clear politicians need to make choices about where to spend money, but she says not all research can be expected to deliver immediate and obvious benefits.

BELINDA ROBINSON: Look there's always been an element of ministerial discretion that is able to be applied in Australia's research assessment system, and I think that gives a lot of people some concern as it is.

As I said to you, I don't want to be reading too much into what's been said today, and I do think it's important that we think carefully about how we allocate our precious research dollars, but you know, we do need to be very cautious that we don't inadvertently encourage more political intervention in assessing the value of research projects, when we know that that could lead us into a very, very unfortunate situation where we in fact lose opportunities for making very significant progress in scientific research and social research and humanities research and elsewhere.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Belinda Robinson, chief executive of Universities Australia, ending Ashley Hall's report.