ISA presents its innovation roadmap for 2030

| January 30, 2018

Innovation and Science Australia has offered 30 recommendations to the federal government in its 2030 Strategic Plan to improve innovation in Australia.  The plan includes a target to ensure a third of government procurement is awarded to SMEs by 2022.

ISA is an independent body responsible for researching, planning, and advising the Government on all science, research and innovation.  It features leading figures from industry, science and research and its newly released plan outlines a roadmap for Australian innovation policy for the next 12 years.

“Looking towards 2030, innovation will be integral to the expansion of Australia’s economy, keeping its workforce strong, and addressing societal challenges,” ISA chairman Bill Ferris writes in the introduction.

“Australia will need to be competitive in a global innovation race by scaling up more high growth industries and companies; commercialising more high value products and services; fostering great talent; and daring to tackle global challenges.

“Yet just at the time when Australia needs to accelerate its innovation performance, we are falling behind our global peers, particularly in student performance in science and mathematics, and in business investment in research and development. This is more than a canary chirp in our economic mineshaft: it is a clarion call for national action.”

The 30 recommendations look to achieve five key goals in terms of education, industry, government, research and development, and culture and ambition.

Education

  1. Strengthen training for pre-service and in-service teachers by investing in quality teaching, set a nationally agreed minimum number of annual hours in discipline-specific training and monitor the entry standards for initial teacher education courses which include STEM teaching.
  2. Prepare high school students for post-school STEM occupations by encouraging participation in STEM subjects and strengthen relevant skills such as hypothesis-driven problem solving, systematic enquiry and logical thinking.
  3. Improve transparency and accountability across the system, including raising the national minimum standards in National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
  4. Review the Vocation Education and Training (VET) system and produce a strategy within a year to ensure it can respond to developments in innovation, automation and new technologies and improve Australia’s international competitiveness.
  5. Continue to expand and reform the VET system including linking VET student loan funding to employment outcomes, and encouraging industry employers and VET providers to identify skills shortages in high-growth sectors.

Industry

  1. Reverse the current decline in commercial R&D spending by improving government support and ensuring public support for science, research and innovation remains above its medium-term average of 0.63% of GDP.  Implement the recommendations of the 2016 Review of the R&D Tax Incentive.
  2. Support efforts to help new firms access export markets by increasing funding for Export Market Development Grants.
  3. Prioritise investment in artificial intelligence and machine learning in the medium- to long-term as outlined by the forthcoming Digital Economy Strategy.
  4. Establish protocols, including consumer data rights, to encourage competition in knowledge-intensive industries.
  5. Strengthen efforts to attract overseas talent through Austrade and encourage skilled migration.

Government

  1. Create a more flexible regulatory environment to fosters innovation and encourage collaboration between all levels of government.
  2. Encourage social innovation investment and improve financial returns through regulatory reforms.
  3. Improve the availability and use of open government information by developing the public sector’s capacity to deliver accessible, accurate and detailed public data.
  4. Increase government procurement from SMEs by a third by 2022, and ensure the Department of Innovation reports on progress towards this goal every year.
  5. Increase the use of innovative procurement strategies to drive innovation and develop contractual frameworks to empower procurement from startups and young firms.
  6. Maximise the spillover benefits of major government programs.  The Defence Science and Technology Group is engaging with companies to develop prototypes for example.
  7. Tell the Digital Transformation Agency to achieve half the projected 12% savings from digitising service delivery by 2022 and the balance by 2026.
  8. Review ways in which the Australian Public Service can play a greater role in innovation policy development, implementation and delivery.

Research and Development

  1. Introduce a tax offset of up to 20% to incentivise collaboration.
  2. Evaluate the benefits of research placement programs as part of higher university degrees.
  3. Evaluate the impact of schemes to encourage collaboration in 2022, including funding changes, the Review of Australia’s Researching Training System and easing career transitions between industry and academia.
  4. Increase the commercialisation capability of research organisations by establishing a new stream of funding for translational activities.
  5. Develop and release an Australian Innovation Precincts Statement to shape Australian Government support for local innovation eco-systems.
  6. Establish secure, long-term funding for national research infrastructure.

Culture and Ambition

  1. Maintain a long-term commitment to increase the number of women in STEM.
  2. ISA to monitor the availability of risk capital to high-growth businesses.
  3. Establish a “National Mission” to help make Australia the world’s healthiest nation.
  4. Adopt a framework to continue to identify and implement further “National Missions”.
  5. Develop a more effective framework to evaluate the performance of Australia’s innovation programs and dedicate 2% of every programme to fund evaluation of its outcomes.
  6. Develop metrics and methodologies to capture the economic, social and environmental benefits of innovation. The Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Innovation should review business, research and development data collections to ensure they are fit for purpose and commission an independent body to review existing innovation metrics.
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