Professor Tanya Monro is six and half years into her role as chief defence scientist and says the growing sense of urgency in the work within the Defence Science and Technology Group is the biggest change over that time.
The mission has continued to evolve with the geostrategic context, and has driven the pace of research and technology development of DSTG to have an accelerated influence on Defence decision-making.
But Professor Monro says that urgency is also applied to the Defence chief scientist’s role in corralling technology partners in the odd ecosystem of universities, dual-tech startups and SMEs.
While conceding that Defence can be a mesmerisingly large and complex organisation for smaller companies to deal with, changes made in recent years have made a positive difference.
In this interview, Professor Monro talks about the evolving structure of Defence’s technology and innovation infrastructure and gives a practical tutorial on the best ways that entrepreneurs and SMEs with specific technology can engage.
Professor Monro is a co-Patron at the 2025 InnovationAus Awards for Excellence and has built strong relationships into the tech and innovation community as an partner in the Defence mission.
One of the ways that Defence has accelerated its engagement with SMEs is that the DSTG has now introduced a steady cadence of classified briefings to entrepreneurs and smaller companies.
This has enabled tech entrepreneurs with a bigger risk appetite to explore specific Defence problems and to propose solutions.
“The National Defence Strategy gave us six key areas, and of course, I can talk about them at an open, unclassified level today in this podcast,” Professor Monro said.
These are areas highlighted in the defence strategy like trusted autonomy across all domains, hypersonic technology, long-range weaponry and the like.
“But if as an SME, you want to focus your development on something that the ADF can acquire, you need richer context than that,” she said. “You need threat informed context, and you need to know what the operators require. You can now get that through classified briefings.”
It’s not straight forward, and the SME and entrepreneurs need appropriate security accreditation. But these classified briefings are a key instrument in Defence’ efforts to engage more readily with the bigger risk appetite of the private sector.
In addition to outlining paths to engagement at Defence, in this podcast Professor Monro also gives examples of the companies that have taken different routes into building capability for the defence force.
The most stunning example, probably, is the passive radar startup Silentium that produces world leading technology. The company was a spinout from the DSTG, taking IP with it and developing commercial, dual-use tech that is suitable for both commercial and defence applications – and re-engaging with Defence as a technology developer and supplier.
She also points to the Ghost Shark project undertaken with Anduril Industries as a good example of moving fast. The Ghost Shark is the Extra Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle currently at prototype stage.
“It is a great example of taking a different mindset to this type of development, where industry co-invested in the development of a prototype,” Professor Monro said. “I would argue that that is quite a different model from the traditional, Commonwealth pays all [model for platform development].
“It incentivises the industry to take risk,” she said. “We have still got some further development to go, but I do think increasingly we need to activate the risk-taking appetite of the private sector better.”
The InnovationAus Awards for Excellence 2025 are a six-month program of activity that culminates in a black-tie gala dinner ceremony at the Sydney Town Hall on Thursday November 27.
The Awards dinner is attended by 550 entrepreneurs, political leaders, VCs and business executives from across all industries – Australia’s innovation ecosystem.
You can reserve your seat at this event here (or book a table!)
And a reminder – there are still two leadership categories open for nomination until August 15, the Paul Shetler Disrupter of the Year category and the Innovation Leadership category. You can find details on the awards site or click directly through to the nominations system here.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.