{"id":40049,"date":"2023-10-20T15:06:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/australia-spends-10-billion-a-year-on-research-and-development-but-wheres-all-the-innovation-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:06:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:06:00","slug":"australia-spends-10-billion-a-year-on-research-and-development-but-wheres-all-the-innovation-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/australia-spends-10-billion-a-year-on-research-and-development-but-wheres-all-the-innovation-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia spends $10 billion a year on research and development but where’s all the innovation? – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Blue
Blue Sky Venture Capital investment director Elaine Stead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Australian Government injects around $10 billion each year on research and development for science and innovation, according to Innovation and Science Australia (ISA).<\/p>\n

But much of this research is failing to see the light of day, says ISA chair Bill Ferris.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a nation we\u2019re good at creating knowledge but simply not good enough at transferring or applying,\u201d Ferris said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn both our number of researchers per capita and the proportion of highly-cited publications we produce, we sit in the top ten internationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are, however, performing relatively poorly in transferring that knowledge and ultimately applying it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is these activities that create the types of new goods and services that not only improve our lives\u2014think break-through medical technologies, environmentally friendly production techniques and new ways of growing and storing our food\u2014but also provide economic growth and sustainable jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

ISA\u2019s latest report<\/a>\u00a0predicts that for the 2016-17 financial year, 16 Australian government research agencies will receive more than $1.9 billion for research and development.<\/p>\n

More than 75% of this funding is expected to be directed to the CSIRO, the Defence Science and Technology group and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology organisation.<\/p>\n

\"Performance
Performance Review of the Australian Innovation, Science and Research System 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The report also reveals that under 5% of \u201cinnovation-active businesses\u201d in Australia collaborate with universities or higher education institutions.<\/p>\n

StartupSmart<\/em> spoke with members of Australia\u2019s startup sector to find out what they think about the report’s findings.<\/p>\n

R&D is all \u201cR\u201d in Australia<\/h3>\n

\u201cThe focus for too long has been on the \u2018R\u2019 side of R&D,\u201d StartupAus chief executive Alex McCauley tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be focusing a lot more on the \u2018D\u2019 side and commercialising the development for impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not good having really great researchers researching stuff that just sits on the shelf.”<\/p>\n

McCauley says startup founders have limited access to the research being developed in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trouble has been that Australia\u2019s setup is really lacking when it comes to connecting research with development \u2026 it is very difficult for entrepreneurs to access IP being developed in Australian universities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As a result, Australia is one of the worst performers of commercialisation among OECD countries, says McCauley.<\/p>\n

Failing to commercialise<\/h3>\n

\u201cAcademic institutions are failing to commercialise academic research and interact functionally with industry whether that be small (startups) or large industry, they make it very difficult,” says Dr Elaine Stead, managing director of Blue Sky Venture Capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I use to work with one of those academic institutions doing exactly that, so I can speak from experience \u2026 I think we need to honestly evaluate our performance in commercialising innovation, no matter where that derives.”<\/p>\n

That being said, Stead believes there is also a disconnect between the type of innovation that comes our of research institutions and that being developed by startups.<\/p>\n

\u201cI [also] think there should also be a honest acknowledgement that most \u2018startup\u2019 innovation is not (and never will be) academic research derived innovation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The cultural barrier<\/h3>\n

Girl Geek Academy chief executive Sarah Moran believes academic culture sits in contrast to startup culture.<\/p>\n

“Red tape, IP issues and non-disclosure agreements prevent most universities from innovating from within,” Moran tells\u00a0StartupSmart.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSome are doing great work, but often it’s tied up and siloed in a commercialisation arm of the uni, rather than a skunkworks attracting startups to come in and discover untapped business potential.”<\/p>\n

Considering these issues, how can startups and universities work together to solve Australia’s\u00a0$10 billion innovation problem? Find out in part two of this article. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Sky Venture Capital investment director Elaine Stead The Australian Government injects around $10 billion each year on research and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}