News

Clusters are a hotbed for high-growth companies

It is a longstanding observation that complex businesses that are located close to their competitors are more productive than their more sparsely located counterparts. This theory was shaped by...

Do we need a national startup concierge service?

Australia has a problem. An innovation problem. But not the problem most people imagine. It isn’t that we lack highly-educated individuals who are good at research – we have...

Research council Linkage Projects get $29m in grant funding

Low-cost solar cells, gumtree management, space access and crocodile vaccines are among 61 projects to share in $29 million in federal research grants announced on Wednesday, two months later...

IBM trousers $39m ServicesAus mainframe upgrade

American tech giant IBM will be paid more than $39 million over the next five years to upgrade the mainframe environment serving federal government programs like Centrelink and Medicare....

In the room: Tim Ayres’ heavy industry skills roundtable

Seventeen representatives from Australia’s heavy industries gathered in Canberra on Tuesday to discuss jobs and skills issues ahead of next week’s national summit. Those in the room reported a...

ANU spin outs offer commercialisation insights

The leaders of three companies spun out of the Australian National University gathered last Wednesday to offer advice on issues of commercialisation, collaborating with universities, and early-stage recruitment. Organised...

Absence of progress as the NBN strikes out again

The NBN Company has released a discussion paper on its Special Access Undertaking variation and commenced a new round of talks with the competition regulator, service providers and consumer...

Here is an innovation taxonomy for success

The story of success of early-stage technological invention is not pretty. Studies from the US, Europe, Israel and Australia all say technological inventions are mostly unsuccessful. One local study...

Creating a national network for commercial innovation

We complicate innovation. Essentially it just takes four resources to produce: talent, capital, technology, and demand.  We tend to treat these resources as separate inputs rather than as an...

Manufacturing grants review costing jobs: Sussan Ley

The Labor government review of its predecessor’s $1.3 billion manufacturing grants program has put “tens of thousands of jobs at risk” and undermined business certainty, deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley...

Amy Brown steps away from Investment NSW role

Amy Brown has stepped down from her role leading Investment NSW after being criticised for her part in the controversial appointment of John Barilaro to a plum trade role....

Australia lags OECD on AI and data productivity

The federal Productivity Commission says Australian businesses lag other developed economies in the adoption of productivity boosting data analytics and AI tools despite a relatively high uptake of cloud...

Review of critical tech list seeks new balance: Husic

Industry minister Ed Husic says the federal government’s review of the nascent critical technologies list will seek to find a new “middle path” between economic opportunity and national security...