Melbourne, We may punch above our weight when it comes to research, but we certainly fail to understand its business impact.
Australia likes to think of itself as punching above its weight when it comes to research.
According to our federal education minister, we produce three percent of the world's research despite having only 0.3 percent of the world's population. But our spending on research and development as a percentage of GDP has long been higher than the OECD average. is below.
According to the Treasury this reflects relatively low R&D spending by industry due to the structure of our industries, and the desire of industries to be early adopters rather than developers of innovation.The government is the main driving force for research and development spending in Australia, strongly supporting research in universities and other publicly funded research organisations. It should come as no surprise that Australian innovation is driven by your universities, and this Little of the innovation has industrial impact in Australia.
A journey through Australian innovation that I have been part of shows some of the key issues and hurdles involved in taking research from an idea to a full commercial product.
It all started with a start-up company, Rubicon Water, that was looking for a systems engineer to help manage some irrigation canals. They were trying to solve a local, critically important Australian problem. Were: Managing one of our most scarce resources, water.1996 had come to an end. At the time, several attempts to solve the problem involving both local and foreign water engineers were considered failures.
But then a former student of mine, who was working for the company, suggested that Hi Professor could help. The conversation that followed led to a collaboration between Rubico Water and the University of Melbourne, where I was working at the time. Was.
Several conditions came together that contributed to the success of the project.At that time I had nothing to lose, because I was already a full professor, I had funds available for research and even though this problem was very hard to solve, life was worth trying and failing. There are worse things than that, as every researcher knows. Crucially, if we were successful, the Australian problem represented only two percent of the world's problem, meaning there was also a significant overseas mark that we could Could have benefited. As any world water development report indicates, water management is a serious issue.
The collaboration was high risk. Both of us had come out of our comfort zone.Who will the industrial water engineers work with the university systems engineers? We don't speak the same language!
But equally it was a high reward opportunity. The problem had the pedigree of being difficult from an academic perspective, and modern practice, under competing interests, demonstrated how difficult channel management had become. Innovation would not be easy. The fact that there were multiple stakeholders did not make things easier.
With many obstacles to overcome, our collaboration bot was a champion in industry and university. We worked well together. We were prepared to go the extra mile while remaining focused on achieving tangible results for all parties and celebrating together.Government funding reduced the risks in the early research stage. The second tie funding to conduct a large-scale pilot test was obtained through a partnership between the government, end users and Rubicon Water making equal financial contributions. Following the successful pilot, commercial realities prevailed.
Even the weather conspired to help us, an unseasonal storm demonstrated the benefits of our automated systems and accelerated their acceptance among end users.
Through a series of research grants, government business funding, significant Rubicon Water investments and serious university research efforts, Australia now has a world-leading technology in open channel water management that I export around the world and use throughout the world. Support water sustainability.But that success came more from patience than design.
Universities in Australia were not conceived to commercialize innovation, nor are they rewarded, funded or equipped to take ideas to market. In fact, large universities exist to create a talent pipeline to ensure the future prosperity of society.
Clearly, the talent of the future must be innovative, challenge the status quo and this final research is of great value. However, this research has not achieved societal impact in helping shape innovative talent.The journey from an idea to a specific technology level of preparation that can be expected in a university, to a full commercial product that can be sustained in the market, is not trivial.
Market success requires much more money and much different talent than is required to demonstrate a solution inside a university, as the well-discussed Valley of Death concept in technology development suggests. Is.
Indeed, apart from a few unicorn successes, the path from a successful research idea to market impact requires industry investment and collaboration. Innovation in Australia is supported by industry involvement in setting national priorities for research funding and funding. It would be beneficial to be present at the table while taking related decisions.
What it takes to achieve market success in full competition with the rest of the world can be better understood by universities, and how many concerns are involved in maintaining useful co-operation with industry.Since 2022, Rubicon Water has been a listed company. It only took a quarter of a century.(360info.org) PYPY
Australia likes to think of itself as punching above its weight when it comes to research.
According to our federal education minister, we produce three percent of the world's research despite having only 0.3 percent of the world's population. But our spending on research and development as a percentage of GDP has long been higher than the OECD average. is below.
According to the Treasury this reflects relatively low R&D spending by industry due to the structure of our industries, and the desire of industries to be early adopters rather than developers of innovation.The government is the main driving force for research and development spending in Australia, strongly supporting research in universities and other publicly funded research organisations. It should come as no surprise that Australian innovation is driven by your universities, and this Little of the innovation has industrial impact in Australia.
A journey through Australian innovation that I have been part of shows some of the key issues and hurdles involved in taking research from an idea to a full commercial product.
It all started with a start-up company, Rubicon Water, that was looking for a systems engineer to help manage some irrigation canals. They were trying to solve a local, critically important Australian problem. Were: Managing one of our most scarce resources, water.1996 had come to an end. At the time, several attempts to solve the problem involving both local and foreign water engineers were considered failures.
But then a former student of mine, who was working for the company, suggested that Hi Professor could help. The conversation that followed led to a collaboration between Rubico Water and the University of Melbourne, where I was working at the time. Was.
Several conditions came together that contributed to the success of the project.At that time I had nothing to lose, because I was already a full professor, I had funds available for research and even though this problem was very hard to solve, life was worth trying and failing. There are worse things than that, as every researcher knows. Crucially, if we were successful, the Australian problem represented only two percent of the world's problem, meaning there was also a significant overseas mark that we could Could have benefited. As any world water development report indicates, water management is a serious issue.
The collaboration was high risk. Both of us had come out of our comfort zone.Who will the industrial water engineers work with the university systems engineers? We don't speak the same language!
But equally it was a high reward opportunity. The problem had the pedigree of being difficult from an academic perspective, and modern practice, under competing interests, demonstrated how difficult channel management had become. Innovation would not be easy. The fact that there were multiple stakeholders did not make things easier.
With many obstacles to overcome, our collaboration bot was a champion in industry and university. We worked well together. We were prepared to go the extra mile while remaining focused on achieving tangible results for all parties and celebrating together.Government funding reduced the risks in the early research stage. The second tie funding to conduct a large-scale pilot test was obtained through a partnership between the government, end users and Rubicon Water making equal financial contributions. Following the successful pilot, commercial realities prevailed.
Even the weather conspired to help us, an unseasonal storm demonstrated the benefits of our automated systems and accelerated their acceptance among end users.
Through a series of research grants, government business funding, significant Rubicon Water investments and serious university research efforts, Australia now has a world-leading technology in open channel water management that I export around the world and use throughout the world. Support water sustainability.But that success came more from patience than design.
Universities in Australia were not conceived to commercialize innovation, nor are they rewarded, funded or equipped to take ideas to market. In fact, large universities exist to create a talent pipeline to ensure the future prosperity of society.
Clearly, the talent of the future must be innovative, challenge the status quo and this final research is of great value. However, this research has not achieved societal impact in helping shape innovative talent.The journey from an idea to a specific technology level of preparation that can be expected in a university, to a full commercial product that can be sustained in the market, is not trivial.
Market success requires much more money and much different talent than is required to demonstrate a solution inside a university, as the well-discussed Valley of Death concept in technology development suggests. Is.
Indeed, apart from a few unicorn successes, the path from a successful research idea to market impact requires industry investment and collaboration. Innovation in Australia is supported by industry involvement in setting national priorities for research funding and funding. It would be beneficial to be present at the table while taking related decisions.
What it takes to achieve market success in full competition with the rest of the world can be better understood by universities, and how many concerns are involved in maintaining useful co-operation with industry.Since 2022, Rubicon Water has been a listed company. It only took a quarter of a century.(360info.org) PYPY
