Call for increased research-business collaboration

The chair of Innovation Australia, Bill Ferris AC, has told Australia’s university leaders that increasing collaboration for commercialisation of research is both desirable and achievable.

Speaking at the Universities Australia Higher Education Conference yesterday, Ferris stated that Australia is currently “dead last in the OECD rankings of academia and business collaboration for innovation” — something he desperately wants to change.

“Our alarming collaboration ranking is a direct contributor to our poor performance at commercialising our discoveries, and this cannot continue,” Ferris said. “The good news is improving collaboration between research and industry is the low-hanging fruit for quick wins when it comes to driving innovation.”

Ferris said the government has recently announced changes to criteria for the allocation of research funding to universities which will reward engagement with industry. He said the new arrangements will “simplify research block grants into two streams and seek to give universities an incentive to achieve greater industry and other end-user engagement, in addition to providing grants on the basis of traditional tests of research excellence”.

While Ferris said he understood the need for Australia to excel in fundamental research, he noted that “research excellence and clever commercialisation are [not] mutually exclusive”.

“Improving the research funding mix is welcome because it will encourage more and more researchers to reach out,” he said.

Ferris added that businesses should be encouraged to reach out to universities. He revealed that he is currently working with Dr Alan Finkel, Australia’s Chief Scientist, and John Fraser, Secretary of the Treasury, on a review of the R&D Tax Incentive program.

“That review is considering options to better reward businesses that engage with universities and other publicly funded research organisations,” he said.