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Innovation: Are We Getting It Right?

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Innovation: Are We Getting It Right? AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING (ATSE) NUMBER 156 JUNE/JULY 2009 INNOVATION ARE WE GETTING IT RIGHT? Contributors discuss the Federal Budget impact on innovation and commercialisation, the focus on picking winners and how Australia can do it better MassMotion Limitless applications, definite answers Arup’s MassMotion modelling software brings 3-D models to life. The people in MassMotion models do more than add a sense of scale – they are intelligent and can retain information about their virtual environment, recognise congestion and consider alternate routes. Occupant flows can be identified, queuing effects measured and overall site efficiency gauged. Designers can optimise the safety and amenity of the built environment. Practical applications for MassMotion are limitless. For instance, Arup’s fire engineers improve evacuation design and safety by using MassMotion to predict crowd behaviour in emergencies. Arup’s software designers are using software engines and wireless controllers from computer gaming to create new ways to communicate complex designs to clients and contractors. To learn more, contact Paul Stanley: [email protected] / 03 9668 5598 We shape a better world | www.arup.com COntEnts 3 JUN/JUL 09 FOCUS 5 Commercialisation gets a Budget boost By Rowan Gilmore 7 NICTA’s Smart Transport and Roads (STaR) project – page 7. Innovation – have we got it right yet? 13 The march of (technological) progress By Ron Johnston 18 Budget energy and innovation initiatives welcome 19 Eight visionary Australian innovators honoured 23 STELR boosted by Federal funding 10 25 ESE: a great recipe for hands-on science Picking winners is government’s real task 26 We need a scientifically literate nation By Michael Vitale 30 ATSE helping develop tomorrow’s scientists and engineers 30 Energy White Paper: more strategic AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING (ATSE) NUMBER 156 JUNE/JULY 2009 technology planning needed 32 ATSE hosts Taiwan workshop on water and energy issues 32 Water and climate collaboration key to national benefit INNOVATION 39 ATSE in Focus ARE WE GETTING IT RIGHT? Contributors discuss the Federal Budget impact on innovation and commercialisation, the focus on picking winners and how Australia can do it better Front cover: Enduring image of innovation – the Sydney Opera House. Photo: Brad Collis, Coretext ATSE is an independent body of eminent Australian engineers and scientists established to promote the application of scientific and engineering knowledge to practical purposes. ATSE Focus is produced to serve this goal. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of ATSE. Material published in Focus may be reproduced provided appropriate acknowledgement is given to the author and the Academy. ATSE Focus is produced to stimulate discussion and CEO: Dr Margaret Hartley Editor: Bill Mackey public policy initiatives on key topics of interest to the Technical Consultant: Dr Vaughan Beck FTSE Academy and the nation. Many articles are contributed AUSTRALIAN AcaDEMY OF TecHNOLOGIcaL ScIENceS AND ENGINeeRINg (ATSE) by ATSE Fellows with expertise in these areas. Opinion Address: Level 1, 1 Bowen Crescent, Melbourne pieces on topics of national interest, particularly Postal Address: GPO Box 4055, Melbourne Victoria 3001 the Academy’s key interest areas – climate change, Telephone: 03 9864 0900 water, energy and education – will be considered for Facsimile: 03 9864 0930 publication. Items between 800 and 1500 words are Email: [email protected] preferred. Please address comments, suggested topics ACN 008 520 394 and article for publication to [email protected]. ABN 58 008 520 394 Print Post Publication No 341403/0025 Deadline for the receipt of copy for next edition of Focus is ISSN 1326-8708 31 July 2009 Design and production: Coretext 03 9670 1168 www.coretext.com.au TO JOIN THE TOP RESEARCHERS IN AUSTRALIA’S LEADING ECONOMY, LOOK WEST The University of Western Australia is a member of Australia’s Our attitude, staff and resources have produced Government Group of Eight research-intensive universities and ranks Ministers, Nobel Laureates, successful diplomats and business amongst the nation’s finest research institutions. Our focus and community leaders. continues to be on performing at international standards of For more details visit www.uwa.edu.au excellence and attracting and retaining the very finest teachers, researchers, students and strategic partners. If you would enjoy a world-class education and lifestyle experience that will enrich your social and professional life, consider UWA. CRICOS Provider No. 00126G BC&YUNWG340 innOVatiON 5 JUN/JUL 09 WWW.atsE.ORG.AU FOCUS Commercialisation gets a Budget boost The view that pumping more money into research does not automatically increase innovation within an economy seems finally to have become respectable thinking in politics By Rowan Gilmore [email protected] ne of the unexpected announcements in the Aus- ment risk, governments should not necessarily step in. The tralian Government’s 2009-10 Budget was the al- Commission argued that government intervention could location of nearly $200 million in seed funding to be justified only when there were costs that had to be borne establish the Commonwealth Commercialisation by a market leader that would benefit other followers (that OInstitute, and ongoing funding of $85 million per year. is, spillover effects), and when there was additionality (that With such a commitment, commercialisation, particularly is, the firm would not have invested in commercialisation of publicly funded research, looks set to accelerate once without government incentives). more. Of course, that was 2007 and the world view of the fi- As noted by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Sci- nance sector and some economists has since changed. In Pumping ence and Research, Senator Kim Carr, on Budget night, all sectors of the economy, we observe much more stimula- more money the challenge will be to leverage capital from industry, and tory activity on the demand side, rather than solely on the into research particularly the superannuation funds, to co-invest in tech- supply side. does not nological innovation and, through that, to help shape the What seems to be obvious to most of us involved with automatically Australian economy for the future. commercialisation – that pumping more money into re- increase However, with an Australian culture that prefers in- search does not automatically increase innovation within innovation. vestment in real estate and the occasional flutter on penny mining stocks, this could prove difficult. Indeed, most Australian venture capital funds investing in new knowledge-based industry have achieved historically poor returns. As measured by their cumulative per- formance since inception, such funds es- tablished between 1985 and 2007 had a pooled return at the end of June 2008 of –1.4 per cent, although that rises to 3.9 per cent measured over a five-year horizon. The return of the government to invest in pre-seed, seed and early-stage compa- nies is not only welcome – it is a brave de- cision as well. Even when confronted by the venture capital data above, many economists deny there is market failure with early-stage commercialisation. For example, in 2007 the Productivity Commission argued that just because the private sector would not take the invest- 6 innOVatiON JUN/JUL 09 FOCUS WWW.atsE.ORG.AU an economy – seems finally to have become respectable good track-records for picking winners, particularly with thinking in politics. Measures to stimulate the many new pre-revenue, early-stage companies. It is simply impossible value chains that could be created from this research are to know from the multiplicity of seeds that are sown which back in favour around the world. will become thriving plants. Furthermore, by helping early-stage companies com- What is critical is to ensure that the well-known suc- mercialise products and services, government has recog- cess factors for growth are in place, and to judiciously re- nised that, as well as yielding demonstrable economic duce both the technical and market risks as the firm pro- benefits by growing emerging industries, positive environ- gresses. Equally important is tolerance for the losers that mental and social outcomes result in many cases as well. wither, recognising that in cultures such as Silicon Valley, The infusion of government-funded stimulus into the it is by learning from their earlier mistakes that ‘losers’ be- clean-energy sector is a good example where the outcomes come ‘winners’ when they try again. will benefit the nation along multiple dimensions. Perhaps cognisant of this, the government will want to However, there are undoubtedly many who still believe ensure that it is not capital alone that it provides, but also that government should not co-invest in companies that the commercialisation expertise of organisations like the commercialise publicly funded research. Their first posi- AIC to provide additional skills in developing collabora- tion is to deny that market failure exists. tions, and in implementing commercialisation strategies. Yet the amount of venture capital invested in Austra- Although funding and resourcing might be the big- lia in genuine early-stage research is so low that markets gest challenges in commercialising research, establishing in early-stage IP or pre-revenue companies barely exist. the collaborations necessary to develop a new product or The evidence of the past 18 months in the biotech sector, service and delivering it into new markets are also essential. where the commercialisation chasm is well documented, is With the lowest collaboration rate between the uni- that private capital has essentially dried up totally. versity sector and industry in the developed world, this In 2008, only $10 million was committed in Austra- problem must be tackled on a number of levels.: lia specifically for seed-stage investment, compared with ¢researchers need to be motivated to collaborate more $6.3 billion for all private equity investment.
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