Private-public R&D interaction 'hit and miss': report

If Australia is to keep up with the rest of the world, it will have to make more of its public research institutes. According to a report jointly compiled by Ernst & Young and RMIT University, Australia's R&D performance needs boosting -- and the best way is to increase cooperation between public and private bodies.

Alun Needham, principal of innovation and incentives at Ernst & Young and author of the report, asserted that there was a range of key areas that needed looking at to boost local R&D performance. He said that, measured on a global scale in terms of business investment in R&D and innovation, Australia rated lower than the industry would ideally want to see.

"There is an awareness and strong recognition... of the need for both industry and the public sector to increase their level of collaboration to boost Australia's R&D performance relative to the OECD," he said.

"Admittedly we did not look at and analyse every single issue there is, but the findings hold up. There should be more proactive activity in the industry, and there should be more use of networks to make connecting with other interested and capable bodies easier," he said.

The researchers conducted a series of interviews with organisations in the collaborative R&D space to explore the effectiveness of the current interface between industry and the public sector. They also looked at the strength of collaborative relationships already established, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the links.

Struggle to make contact

The report notes that even the most keen business applicant could struggle to make contact with the right person when looking to collaborate or utilise research capabilities.

"We found that even with the big corporations and the major universities, the ability to establish cooperative links was still very hit and miss," said Needham. "The universities are just not set up for outsiders to access. Simply finding your way into the web site can be extremely difficult if you are trying to track down a specific department," he added.

Needham noted that both business and research bodies needed to build solid, long-term relationships, adding that much research was simply done on a short-term or contract basis.

He also commented that despite the introduction of many good and well-directed government initiatives and assistance programs, many people in both industry and academe were simply not aware of them.

The report underlines the recommendations of a House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Science and Innovation report, 'Riding the Innovation Wave: The Case for Increasing Business Investment in R&D'. This report also noted the importance of collaboration between industry and public research institutes. "The consistency of our findings with... the committee's report is not surprising given the importance of developing an innovative economy with which to compete globally," agreed Needham. "It is paramount that industry continues to explore and develop strengthened relationships... between major contributors to our knowledge economy," he added.

Needham did warn of the image projected by many universities, however, noting that with the increasing internal commercialisation of research, many commercial organisations were understandably wary of committing their own IP to an organisation already working on parallel commercial projects.

"There is no doubt industry is not using the public sector as much as it possibly could, but there are some possible conflicts of interest with existing university commercialisation projects," he noted.

The report concluded by recommending the encouragement of public research institute involvement in more collaborative projects with industry, especially SMEs (small to medium enterprises), and the increase in financial incentives to encourage and increase mobility and flexibility between the sectors.

Other recommendations were to develop a better understanding of commercialisation and IP across both sectors, and to establish a single point of entry for public research institutes to make it easier for industry to communicate them.