Qld government moves to shore up R&D framework

Queensland's Cabinet has kicked off a sweeping effort to set in place a long-term R&D framework in place for emerging industries.

As a first step, the government has released on the web an issues paper outlining key R&D drivers and challenges and calling for feedback from stakeholders.

It is meant to trigger a state-wide consultative process involving pivotal R&D figures in Queensland industry and community representatives and government agencies, said Minister for Innovatiion and Information Economy Paul Lucas.

One early focus will be a workshop hosted by Premier Peter Beattie in Brisbane on May 21 to be attended by industry, science and technology leaders and innovators from all over Australia.

The Queensland R&D strategy will be developed over the course of this year with a final report due back to Cabinet in December.

Although the government believes its support for R&D out-performs most other states, it also believes Queensland has suffered from relatively small injections of business and Commonwealth R&D funding.

In terms of expenditures by State government, Queensland claims its $230 million annual R&D spend puts it in second place, just behind NSW ($250 million) but ahead of Victoria ($162 million). In overall terms, however, it lags behind because of the relatively small components of by R&D expenditure in the state by business and the Federal government.

The issues paper seeks to:

• Identify the economic, environmental and social challenges/drivers likely to affect the development of Queensland's R&D sectors over the next 10 years,
• Discuss the major capabilities, skills, infrastructure and other key components needed for Queensland to respond to these drivers, and
• Examine the role of the State government in promoting R&D to meet the state's economic, social and environmental policies, and propose key operating criteria for disbursement of state funds to R&D institutions.

Overseeing the strategy's development will be the Working Group of the Queensland government CEO R&D coordination committee, chaired by Lucas' Department of Innovation and Information Economy.