Converting intellectual curiosity into national assets

A lack of true partnering between universities and private industry is standing in the way of improving Australia's GDP according to the Australasian head of telecommunications giant Alcatel.

While speaking at the fifth Zunz lecture hosted by the University of Technology, Sydney's Faculty of Engineering, CEO of Alcatel Australia and New Zealand, Ross Fowler, said Australia's conversion rate of research and development to commercial success is being hampered by the often "limited transactional relationships" between the stakeholders.

In "R&D in Australia: Converting Intellectual Curiosity into National Assets", Mr Fowler said that the conversion rate could be improved by the use of effective partnering frameworks.

"The need to focus on the commercialisation of R&D for economic benefit has long been realised and the debate to increase the conversion rate has been around for more than 5 years," Mr Fowler said. "The question remains; if the problem has been recognised for so long, why aren't we seeing a notable improvement in the situation?"

"On the contrary, today $830 million goes into private research while commercialisation receives only $200 million and the gap is growing according to the Item3 incubation group.

"Reasons cited for such a poor conversion rate include reduced industry investment in R&D, a lack of market focus, intellectual property (IP) policies, risk aversion, lack of willing investors and poor management skills.

"My experience shows me that these issues can be addressed by fully leveraging the diverse capabilities of universities and industry. However the obstacles of cultural misalignment, different performance indicators, IP ownership, confidentiality and reliability require the parties to be brought together under a deep partnering relationship.

"The challenge facing us as leaders of the stakeholder organisations is to understand each other's differences and find ways in which we can optimise each other's strengths for mutual benefit.

"The importance of such considerations as mutual benefit, full time relationship management, aligned expectations and performance indicators, are critical to an effective partnership.

"A recent example is our research project 'Architecture-Based Open Network Management Systems for Next Generation Networks' with the University of Technology, Sydney, based on collaboration, mutual benefit and openness," Mr Fowler said.

The Zunz lecture series is presented by the UTS Faculty of Engineering with the aim of exploring broad community subjects relating to the engineering profession.

Item provided courtesy of UTS