Australian Consulate-General, Guangzhou
Media Release PD01/08 24 January 2008
AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE AND INNOVATION – A KEY DRIVER TO GROWTH
Innovation was a key driver of Australia’s productivity and economic growth, with the new Australian Government set to establish the right policy framework in place and implement a range of initiatives to bridge the divide between industry and research; ensure that business has better access to new ideas and new technology; and increase innovation incentives across the economy.
The Australia Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, said that innovation would drive the creation of new businesses and sectors and revitalises existing industries.
Problem solving, creative ideas and new technologies were also vital to meeting the social and environmental challenges which Australia faced as a nation – from population ageing to climate change.
A key initiative, he said, would be the Government’s $200 million Enterprise Connect Network, aimed at linking businesses to new ideas and new technologies.
“This would include a national network of Manufacturing Centres, a Clean Energy Innovation Centre, a Creative Industries Innovation Centre and a Remote Enterprise Centre,” Senator Carr added.
In addition, the Enterprise Connect initiative will include an Innovative Regions Centre with funding of $20 million to provide hands-on support to small and medium sized companies, boost local economies and create new jobs in areas which were experiencing adjustment pressures. A $10 million boost for a Researchers in Business initiative, would help build strong research links and develop the commercial potential of news ideas.
Senator Carr said that the Government would also create the position of a full time Chief Scientist and also boost the role of the Commonwealth Scientific Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO). The CSIRO was Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world. Achieving World class acclaim for its performances, the agency’s Research Flagship’s R & D focussed on a wide range of disciplines, including: Agribusiness, IT, Manufacturing and Minerals, Sustainable Energy and Environment, Aeronautics, Pharmaceutics, and Farming and Food sectors.
In a move to revitalise Australia’s public research sector, the Government would also add value to the breadth of Australian research across the humanities, creative arts and social sciences, as well as building on scientific and technological disciplines. This would include doubling the number of Australian Postgraduate Awards for PhD and Masters by Research students, and creating 1,000 new four-year Future Fellowships to keep Australia’s best and brightest mid-career researchers in Australia.
To help address Australia’s chronic shortage of qualified mathematicians and scientists, the Government would halve higher education contribution scheme fees (HECS) for mathematic and science students, and cut by half their repayments if the graduates took up jobs in key fields, such as teaching.
In a clear commitment to early childhood education; the creation of 450,000 additional training places and a $2.5 billion investment over ten years would build trades and vocational training centres in Australia’s secondary schools.
The Government would also work with Australian industry to support innovation which addressed the climate change issues, through schemes such as Clean Business Australia involving investment of $240 million to support a Re-tooling for Climate Change grants program; Climate Ready support for R&D schemes and early stage commercialisation of environmentally-friendly products; and a Green Building Fund.
Other innovative strategies would include a $150 million Energy Innovation Fund; a $50 million geothermal initiative; a $15 million Clean Energy Export Strategy to help Australian businesses take a larger slice of the renewable energy market working alongside the Innovation Centre and a $500 million Green Car Innovation Fund to develop and build fuel efficient vehicles in Australia.
Senator Carr said that in the 21st century, innovation policy was industry policy. “The Government’s approach would be underpinned by bringing responsibility for innovation, industry, science and research into one government department to provide national leadership,” he said.
Industry Innovation Councils would also be created to foster ongoing partnerships across the value chain in key industry sectors and develop a long-term approach to boosting productivity.
One of the Minister’s first initiatives this month was to announce more than $8 million in grants for two renewable energy projects from the Australian Government’s Renewable Energy Development Initiative.
One of the projects would build prototypes in Tasmania to test wave and tidal energy technologies. The other project would locate deep geothermal energy resources in the earth's crust in South Australia.
For further information, please contact Ms Willow Li, Research Assistant (Tel: 020 3814 0186, E-mail: [email protected])