Invest in unique scientific ideas: Chubb

Outgoing chief scientist Ian Chubb believes Australia must invest in unique scientific ideas to avoid missing out on larger technological advances.

Launching new analysis that found science contributes $330 billion annually to the economy, Mr Chubb urged investment in ideas that may seem "idiosyncratically unique" to a particular scientist.

He pointed to the smartphone, which contains 16 patents for technologies developed individually.

"They were independent and pulled together by a person with an idea," he told the report launch in Canberra on Friday.

"Probably none of the people who did the work behind the patents ever thought they would be carrying a thing in their pocket that had 200,000 times more computing speed than the lunar lander."

Friday's report, developed by the Australian Academy of Science and the Centre for International Economics, estimates the value of advances in biological sciences to the economy.

It builds on research released last year that found the value of physics, mathematics and chemistry to the economy was $292 billion.

The combined sciences directly contribute $185 billion each year, with $330 billion the estimated flow on value, the reports found.

"Ten per cent of total Australian employment is directly related to advances in the physical, mathematically and biological sciences," the report said.

That's around 1.17 million Australian jobs.

And real value of science could actually be higher, with Centre for International Economics director David Pearce saying the analysis didn't account for things like benefits of risk-based systems.

There was "clearly a lot of value" in a tsunami warning system that prevented bad things from happening, he said.

Prof Chubb believes it's overwhelmingly clear that without advances in science, technology, engineering and mathematics the economy would be smaller and jobs would be "greatly depleted".

"We would suffer and some of us would die from conditions we can diagnose and treat today," he said.

"We would not have the capacity to look at the future in the expectation it will be better than the past."

He believes for too long, Australians have taken science for granted.

The outgoing chief scientist took a swipe at potential critics of the report, pre-empting squabbling over dollar figures and personal insults.

"I say to them, wake up," he told AAP, adding he wasn't opposed to legitimate criticism of the report, merely the "building of a straw man" to burn down.

"Stop sitting on the sidelines and sniping and get in there and try to do something that's meaningful."

The report launch doubled as a send-off for Prof Chubb, who rounds out his five-year appointment on Friday to make way for engineer and entrepreneur Alan Finkel.