In a movement to help drive Australia’s innovation agenda, the NSW Business Chamber has established the Industry Research Collaboration Advisory Alliance.
The NSW Business Chamber Chief Executive, Stephen Cartwright, said that a number of representatives across the innovation ecosystem have been brought together to develop practical steps to make industry research collaboration and easier and more attractive for growing businesses.
In an inaugural meeting on Tuesday, the Industry Research Collaboration Advisory Alliance discussed key recommendations in the NSW Business Chamber’s report, Thinking Business: Industry-Research Collaboration.
Some of the recommendations include:
- Increasing meaningful engagement between industry and universities through internships and organised forums for businesspeople to meet researchers;
- Linking funding for research organisations and individual researchers to the demonstration of social and commercial outcomes;
- Getting researchers ‘business ready’ and businesses ‘research ready’;
- A simplified approach to intellectual property transfer for short term collaboration;
- ‘Good Practice forums’ for university corporate engagement and collaboration; and
- The creation and facilitation of a ‘marketplace’ for research expertise.
“There is a clear consensus among our Industry Research Collaboration Advisory Alliance members that the Federal Government can do more to foster innovation,” Mr Cartwright said.
“The Federal Government has an important role to play by funding research institutions, more effectively measuring their performance, incentivising business-research relationships, and making finance available to those whose collaborative innovation will drive the economy forward.”
Mr Cartwright also said that while there are thousands of university students who would benefit from practical experience in an innovative business, there are also thousands of innovative businesses that would benefit from the ideas and energy of researchers and students.
