Published on the 11/01/2016 | Written by Beverley Head
The Federal Government is planning to unveil a campaign that will telegraph to ordinary Australians the importance of innovation to the nation’s future…
The publicity drive will highlight the Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda announced in December that brought together $1.1 billion of investment and 24 initiatives intended to help Australia transform from a resources focused nation to an innovation economy.
Now it wants the average Australian to understand why that’s necessary, well in advance of the May budget which is expected to deliver cuts to other areas in order to tackle a ballooning deficit.
According to innovation minister Christopher Pyne who announced the education campaign this month; “Research carried out for my department shows that less than 5 per cent of Australians think we are global leaders in innovation despite home-grown developments like the Cochlear Implant and WiFi that have reshaped our world.
“The research shows businesses in general can identify more reasons to not innovate than to innovate. The campaign will encourage businesses to overcome this natural resistance.”
The as-yet-unseen campaign is also intended to telegraph to parents and schoolchildren the career opportunities in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) fields right at the beginning of the school year.
Late last year, and just a couple of days before the Christmas break, the Government telegraphed much more quietly the new guidelines for the Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) programme. With the new funding round opening in February, applicants have relatively little time to get their heads around the changes.
Now facing strategic oversight by Innovation Australia, led by venture capitalist veteran, Bill Ferris, the CRC scheme has been split into two; CRC and CRC-P (CRC-Projects). The latter is intended to encourage small and medium enterprises to engage with the scheme, as at least one SME is required to be part of any CRC-P makeup.
Pyne said traditional CRCs would support medium to long-term industry-led research (lasting up to ten years) while CRC-Ps focused on shorter term activity (maximum three years) with a focus on involving SMEs. Funding will be prioritised to those CRCs and CRC-Ps that are aligned with the five industry growth centres and the nine science and research priorities.
To be eligible to apply for a grant CRCs and CRC-Ps must be led by an industry (rather than research entity) partner with preference given to those groups able to wrangle private sector cash (rather than in-kind) contributions. The government clearly wants to see industry willing to invest skin in the game.
While there are no formal funding ceilings for the CRC programme, a $3 million limit has been introduced for CRC-P applications.
