The Head of UQ’s School of Economics, Professor John Foster, has been appointed to the Federal Government’s review of Australia’s national innovation system.
Professor Foster is an expert in innovation theory and evolutionary economics and was appointed to the review last week by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr.
The expert review panel is chaired by renowned innovation expert Dr Terry Cutler and will aim to indentify gaps and weaknesses in the current innovation system and develop proposals to address them.
Professor Foster said the current innovation policy was a mess and the review would articulate a way in which Australia could develop a consistent, well-funded national policy, involving subsidies, tax breaks and other forms of government support that targeted priority areas.
Professor Foster said the biggest hurdle currently facing innovation in Australia was the ability of the national economy to generate sufficient surpluses to invest in major innovation projects.
“Typically, medium-sized firms in Australia do not invest much in research and development,” he said.
“The result of this is that major, publicly-funded inventions in universities often lead to profitable innovations in other countries by large multinational firms.”
Professor Foster said that without significantly more and better innovation, Australia would encounter serious economic difficulties and that innovation was crucial to Australia’s future for two reasons.
“First, it is necessary to innovate in areas where we have specialist expertise in order to be able to maintain and expand our exports of goods and services into the international economy,” he said.
“Second, we have to adapt foreign technologies and products so that they are suitable and effective in Australia.”
As part of the review, the panel will also consider all aspects of the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program. It will examine the overall strategic direction of CRCs, looking at the full range of issues, including governance and program design matters, the level and length of funding needed to support the program’s objectives, as well as its overall scope and effectiveness.
The review panel is to consult nationally and provide a “Green Paper” to the Government detailing policy options by July 31, 2008. The Green Paper will be released for public comment and used as the basis for the development of a Government “White Paper”.
Media: Professor Foster (07 3365 6780) or Sam Ferguson at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law (07 3365 6662).
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