Back to the future as SERD flags ‘mission’ innovation

The first issues paper from the Strategic Examination of R&D review has been published, bringing with it a Back to the Future vibe with its heavy emphasis on ‘mission’-led innovation.

It’s an interesting document that seeks to frame national coordination and governance structures that would enable a level of long-termism currently missing from the system.

The idea that our R&D and innovation systems should be coordinated in working toward a set of national missions is a familiar one and was one of the central themes in Bill Ferris’s national review of the innovation system in 2017.

But the governance structures in this issues paper are certainly interesting – in selecting what mission to target, and then how to steer its progress over the long term.

The paper makes plain its aim to consolidate and better target the government’s R&D spending, and its ambition to devote more resources to the ‘translation’ elements within the system.

The governance framework elevates the R&D policy conversation to Cabinet level, via boards of advisers and experts. It has mechanisms that seek to avoid duplication across different states and territories.

Definitely work a read. Consultations are open until the end of September. The suggested changes are quite dramatic, especially around the consolidation of funding.

There will be winners and there will be losers.

It is worth looking at Universities Australia chair Professor Carolyn Evans presentation to the National Press Club in relation to the R&D reforms, and some of her comments about precincts and place-based innovation.

Productivity Commissioner Stephen King sat down with the Commercial Disco podcast and said policymakers should be very careful about the kind of support measures they look at in relation to artificial intelligence and data centres.

Supporting a local industry with government money is a terrible idea, he says – just like supporting a local car industry for decades was a terrible idea. These are contested statements, but you will hear the Productivity Commission’s view here.

Meanwhile, quantum computing and quantum sensing companies in Australia are gathering momentum.

Silicon Quantum Computing sold one of its ‘Watermelon’ quantum processors to the Defence department. Capital Brief wrote the story here, or you can read the InnovationAus story here.

Sydney-based Q-CTRL announced that it had received $38 million in funding from DARPA, the US’ Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, to help pioneer its world leading quantum sensing tech.

The Australian Financial Review ran a story about a $439,000 Deloitte report commissioned by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations that contains a number of errors and made-up quotes. It looks like the errors of AI use.

And finally, the wash-up from the Treasurer’s Productivity Roundtable included a commitment to implement “tell us once” capability into the digital government services.

We have been told this many, many times before.

Stories we looked at this week:

Blast off: SERD proposes radical mission style innovation – InnovationAus [Subscriber]

Deloitte report suspected of containing AI invented quote – AFR [$]

Defence buys quantum processor from SQC – InnovationAus

ResetData spins up its first sovereign ‘AI factory’ – InnovationAus [Subscriber]

Q-CTRL secures $38m in DARPA funding – InnovationAus

‘Troubling’ investment settings blocking breakthroughs – InnovationAus [Subscriber]

Sydney’s new startup hub without an operator days from move – InnovationAus

The News Wrap podcast is produced weekly by InnovationAus.com and edited by Carl Freeman. 

Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.