Bill Ferris talks about the need for Australia to bring its ideas and inventions to market, and the way to tackle a business culture that fears failure.
We need researchers to collaborate with industry if we’re to be an innovation nation.
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An emphasis on innovation is great, but we need genuine reforms to universities and tax incentives if we’re to promote collaboration between research and industry.
To position itself as a leader in innovation, Australian business will have to be more diverse.
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The answer to Australia’s ailing innovation system does not lie with universities, which should stick to teaching and research, and aim to do both well.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull understands innovation, but the government still lacks a coherent innovation plan.
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When academics come up with a viable innovation, they need to figure out the best way to protect their intellectual property if they’re going to bring it to market. Patents aren’t always the answer.
Connecting researchers to industry and investment is a great idea.
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We value the boosted career and wealth outcomes for graduates and what that does for our economy, but university has more value than that.
Countries should make pledges to fund low-carbon research - such as developing solar technology - and development as part of global climate talks.
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Countries will take emissions reduction pledges to international climate talks in Paris at the end of this year. Those pledges should also include funds for low-carbon R&D.
Investing in more roads might help boost economic growth, but getting knowledge infrastructure right could take it to a new level.
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Commentators continue to call for new infrastructure to lift Australia’s flagging economic growth, yet there is a significant lack of awareness over what constitutes infrastructure. Infrastructure is not…
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane (right) wants universities to be more supportive of industry, but without significant funding into research and development, that’s a big ask.
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Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane let his discretion slip this week in a speech to the Queensland Media Club when foreshadowing an upcoming report on research funding and competition. Distancing himself…
What research needs in Australia is a plan for the future.
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After a few years of increased funding, Australian research has recently started to face cutbacks and job losses. This boom and bust cycle for science is nothing new but is it time to take a new approach…
CSIRO is contending with a A$111 million hit to its budget over four years.
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What happens to CSIRO when the federal government decides to strip away A$111 million over four years from its A$733 million annual contribution to the organisation’s budget? We are beginning to find out…
The chair of the Commission of Audit, Tony Shepherd, on the release of the report today.
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The message from the federal government’s Commission of Audit is loud and clear: science, research and education are expenses to be trimmed rather than investments to be nurtured. Yes, there are few big…
It wouldn’t normally be cause for celebration when something related to cancer goes viral, but the recent #nomakeupselfie trend has been great news for charity-funded cancer research. The campaign has…
Most innovations form in a network, with a mixture of local and global ingredients.
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From the days of the gold rushes, to the banking and mining booms of the last 15 years, Australians have long worried that most of the world’s innovation was happening somewhere else. Did our good fortune…
Peering into an already distant future?
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Innovation policy in the UK has taken on a medieval cast. No sooner do we have Catapult Centres, than there is a call for Arrow Projects. This is the headline recommendation of a report to government by…
The UK is investing less on research and development across both the public and private sectors and remains behind Europe on the proportion of its GDP spent on research, prompting leading academics to…
Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria