Inside the innovation agenda

Yesterday was a massive day for the Turnbull government, with the Prime Minister announcing his $1.1 billion agenda to promote research, development and innovation. But just what was covered by the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA), and how did Australia’s scientists react?

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced the agenda by highlighting the need to address Australia’s falling rankings in terms of commercialisation and collaboration, appetite for risk and participation in high school science, maths and computing. This was followed by the announcement of over 20 initiatives to boost our innovation, with highlights including:

• $106 million in tax incentives for investors looking to support early-stage entrepreneurs
• $75 million to the CSIRO’s data research arm, Data61
• $36 million over five years for a Global Innovation Strategy to improve Australia’s international innovation and science collaboration
• $30 million for a Cyber Security Growth Centre
• $15 million over four years towards a $200m CSIRO Innovation Fund
• $10 million over four years towards a $250 million Biomedical Translation Fund to develop and commercialise promising outcomes from Australia’s research
• $13 million to support gender equity initiatives, including the Australian Academy of Science SAGE program
• $48 million to inspire all Australians on the wonders and uses of STEM in society
• $51 million to better equip students to embrace the digital age
• $1.5 billion locked in for research infrastructure under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), with $520 million set aside for the Australian Synchrotron, for the next 10 years
• The creation of an Innovation and Science Committee of federal cabinet, to be chaired by the Prime Minister

The Australian Research Council (ARC) will assist in measures to boost the commercial returns of publicly funded research, such as the introduction of an impact and engagement assessment of Australian university research. These measures have been welcomed by the council’s CEO, Professor Aidan Byrne, who said the assessment will “run alongside Australia’s internationally renowned system for measuring research quality — Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)”.

According to Professor Byrne, the introduction of the assessment will “ensure there are strong incentives for researchers to produce high-quality and impactful research with real-world benefits”. He said the ARC will undertake consultation and development of the assessment in 2016, conduct a pilot assessment in 2017 and hold the first full assessment in 2018.

The agenda has received mostly positive feedback, with the president of Science & Technology Australia (STA), Emeritus Professor Jim Piper, saying, “The government is to be warmly congratulated on a forward-looking agenda that delivers on our calls for a long-term, sustainable plan for science, technology, engineering and maths.”

STA CEO Catriona Jackson added her support, noting that the funding not only secures the future of the NCRIS but also places it in the context of “a carefully thought out strategy that spans the whole of government”. Jackson also described the creation of an Innovation and Science Committee of federal cabinet as “a very important move” which elevates science and innovation to the very highest levels of government.

Jackson did note that the agenda does not include details of where the funding will come from; these will be released in the coming weeks. She also encourages the government to make ongoing adjustments to the R&D tax concession to ensure it supports the innovation initiatives.

The Australian Academy of Science has welcomed the measures, with secretary for science policy Professor Les Field saying the agenda represents “a turning point”. He was particularly favourable towards the Global Innovation Strategy, saying it will “enable Australian scientists and science to be a part of the excellent science and innovation being done around the world”, the commitment to improving gender equity in science, and the restoration of funding to the CSIRO and Data61.

The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) has similarly added its support, with ATSE President (and Australia’s next Chief Scientist) Dr Alan Finkel AO saying, “This long-term and thoughtful set of policies that substantially improves the research and innovation ecosystem will be well received.”

Dr Finkel said ATSE has previously promoted better research engagement with industry, so the academy is pleased that its efforts have borne fruit. “We congratulate the government for taking a balanced approach in which both research excellence and end-user engagement contribute to the block grant funding formula, providing a balanced pair of metrics in which the new ATSE engagement metric will sit alongside the ERA measure,” he said.

The academy noted that a key factor to the success of the agenda, and Australia’s long-term prosperity, will be the scale and stability of the measures outlined. The academy equally welcomed the Opposition’s commitment to innovation and hopes that all political parties will work together constructively to ensure support for the concept of Australia as an ‘innovation nation’.

Finally, the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCAL) welcomes the agenda for its focus on venture capital investment. AVCAL Chief Executive Yasser El-Ansary said Australia “needs a cohesive policy framework so that high-value, innovative businesses can access funding from a competitive market at every stage”; as such, AVCAL welcomes the government’s reforms to the Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP) framework to unlock greater early-stage investment.

“This, together with other measures such as the new $200 million CSIRO Innovation Fund and $250 million Biomedical Translation Fund, will go a long way towards plugging the current capital and commercialisation gap between our research investment and entrepreneurial potential, with the task of bringing these ideas and products to the market,” El-Ansary said.

“However,” he added, “better policies to improve STEM education, research and start-up investment need to be supplemented by better policies to improve the availability of later-stage expansion capital as well. The Innovation Statement has not addressed this in any substantial way.

“It should be well understood that it is later-stage capital that directly supports the beginning significant expansion in new jobs, opportunities and sustained growth in a start-up.”

Overall, industry has been mostly (and unsurprisingly) united in its praise of an agenda for innovation. In fact, the announcement of NISA follows the Opposition’s launch of its own innovation policy, and sees both major parties now committed to many policies in common. Will this be the start of a new golden age for Australia’s innovators? Only time will tell.

Image credit: ©Sergey Nivens/Dollar Photo Club