SMaRT submission published for Govt's Strategic Examination of R&D

Outcomes

We’ve compiled key themes and feedback on the discussion paper for our strategic examination of Australia’s research and development (R&D) system.

• A cover note from the independent panel [67KB PDF] [150KB DOCX]
• Strategic Examination of R&D: discussion paper findings and analysis [966KB PDF] [677KB DOCX]

Foreword from the Panel

The panel for the Strategic Examination of R&D is grateful for the strong response to our discussion paper – we have received almost 500 submissions. 

We also thank the more than 600 stakeholders who participated in roundtables across Australia. We met a broad group of interested citizens including industry and research stakeholders, researchers, investors and state and territory representatives. The opportunity to define a more impactful R&D system for Australia is both an honour and a challenge. 

The panel is up for that challenge. As a nation, we must seize a once in a generation chance to create an R&D system that is a catalyst for economic growth and complexity, and a substantial improvement in our nation’s productivity. This is not just a matter for interested R&D stakeholders. It will ensure all Australians, including future generations, can enjoy a better standard of living than we enjoy today. 

And for that to be achieved, we must provide a framework of policies and incentives, skills and aspirations that can deliver what the country needs. 

The panel has listened, read and learnt:

• the proliferation of fragmented initiatives has led to frustration, as have excessive and cumbersome rules and regulations
• our progress as a nation is hindered by the barriers, silos and cultural divides across academia, business and the investment industry
• incentives need to be better directed
• we need public subsidies to be targeted to highest impact we can achieve through a focus on growth with the consequential benefits
• we need to shift from a focus on the inputs to the research and development system to the value we derive from our investments in innovation  R&D is a long-term endeavour that needs consistency of policy, and patient capital
• policies and ambition that endure will provide governments, industry and researchers with the opportunity and confidence to develop coherent strategies and implementation plans
• it is no longer enough to be good at research – we must create value from our research investments and pull knowledge through to impact. 

Despite the challenges we have learnt about, a common thread is evident: there is enormous potential for Australia to make its R&D system more efficient, effective and ambitious. Panel’s initial conclusions 

As we embark on the next phase of our work, the panel has identified the following key messages from its work so far. We welcome feedback on these conclusions. 

We need to focus on the whole pipeline – R&D for innovation Australia should set its goals around a research, development and innovation (RD&I) agenda that can be applied to our economic, social and cultural life. It should enable the entire innovation pipeline, from discovery to commercialisation - at scale.

Summary of SMaRT submission

Primary response

In our area of expertise, R&D is at the forefront of what of we do: researching and developing technologies that use waste as “new age resources and feedstock” for advanced manufacturing. We do this in conjunction with various industry, government and non- government partners, however the R&D system as a whole is fragmented and creates barriers rather than incentives for our various industry and potential commercial partners.

The UNSW SMaRT Centre recognises that Australia lags behind other countries in translating the excellent research in our universities into new industries which create new jobs and provide economic benefit to Australia.

Evidence from around the world shows that success in translation and commercialisation of research requires major long-term investment, both public and private. To address this issue, the UNSW SMaRT Centre supports that the Australian Government provide funding and incentives for greater university-industry-government collaboration to support commercialisation by:

• Establishing an Australia Research Translation Fund;
• Establishing Translational Research Partnerships.

Barriers to collaboration and commercialisation

There is a range of high-level barriers which prevent Australia from building on university expertise to drive economic activity, including:

• A collective failure to understand or celebrate the national asset that exists in our university research
• University research funding is heavily reliant on student revenue

To address these issues, we need a wholesale change in culture and mindset to recognise the importance of research and translation as a return-generating investment. A London Economics report commissioned by the Group of Eight found that for every $1 invested in research, around $10 came back in socio-economic benefits. We need to recognise that R&D expenditure is an income generating investment in jobs and potentially powerful new industries.

Carefully planned funding schemes are needed, designed to address and overcome the current impediments to university-industry collaboration.

Example

R&D is essential if we want to strive to develop a circular economy – or many localised circular economies – in which we keep materials in use for as long as possible via decentralised new green remanufacturing technologies and use these recovered materials to establish new business supply chains. Using “waste as a resource” to build the components and infrastructure needed to electrify our communities is really the only effective safe and sustainable solution for green metals opportunities for Australia. Such an approach would help to create new jobs, along with other economic, social and environmental benefits.

Some emerging technologies and capabilities are available to reform much of the valuable materials contained in many of the “hard to recycle” waste types not subject to traditional waste and recycling processes, such as electronic waste (e-waste), and battery and PV wastes, as well as recovering metals and polymers from millions of tyres, mattresses, appliances and auto waste, into new products and manufacturing feedstock needed to create a truly viable, long terms and sustainable clean energy industry.

But what is missing is the practical, implementation stage for R&D for industrial application, so that existing university-developed technologies can be industrialised and scaled. By successfully piloting and implementing such technologies means local SMEs using these emerging capabilities can become part of new supply chains and help develop ‘green manufacturing’ capability by adopting solutions like those developed by the UNSW SMaRT
Centre, such as our decentralised MICROfactorie^TM Technology solutions for creating value from waste, especially at sites where wastes are located.

This approach would drive local and regional solutions for hi-tech waste recycling and manufacturing, especially in capturing metals and other essential materials from waste, reforming them into high value materials to help obviate the need for mining, transportation and processing of natural resources which collectively create negative environmental, economic and social impacts.

Manufacturing of renewal energy technologies – and the significant amount of infrastructure and related components required to bring them online, operationalise and maintain them – are currently dependent almost entirely on finite natural resources that need to me mined, transported and processed. This environmental impact can be both mitigated and reduced by using waste materials as the manufacturing feedstock needed to build these technologies and related infrastructure and components. Greater R&D support would enable a much quicker uptake of these technologies to help Australia capitalise on our research strengths and subsequent, significant benefits.