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Argument, Think Autism Sydney 2025
Christina Chun said funders keep backing the people they already fund
In short
At Think Autism Sydney in May 2025, Christina Chun described a funding system that runs on social cues and rewards incumbents. A fellow panellist said the first barrier is the grant application itself.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Christina Chun did not claim to have the answer. When Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, asked her at Think Autism Sydney what risks autistic entrepreneurs face that incubators and current structures were not addressing, the Social Enterprise Australia leader said she had insights rather than a solution, and her insights began with the norms of the sector. In the social enterprise sector, she said, “there are professional cues and social norms that you normally have to follow”. She linked this to an earlier remark on the panel about eye contact, and said the funding system works the same way.
Her account of that system was blunt. There are people who traditionally receive funding, and people who set up the systems and the programs, and funders keep going in their direction. In her words, “even though it’s not the best suited, government and funders will continue to go down that direction.” In her telling, funders return out of inertia to the people and programs they already know, whether or not those are the best fit.
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Sources the story draws on
- Inequality in science funding (University of Amsterdam release on The Matthew Effect in Science Funding, PNAS) (opens in a new tab), University of Amsterdam
- National Autism Strategy, First Action Plan 2025 to 2026 (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Social Services
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