Europe Strategy Days 2008

Melbourne

Tuesday 18^th March, 8:30am–2:00pm
Melbourne Town Hall

Sydney

Wednesday 19^th March, 8:45am–2:00pm
The University of Sydney

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Research and innovation are increasingly international in nature. Much innovation takes place within multi-national corporations. This feature impacts upon how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) position themselves with regard to technological capability in these globe-spanning “food chains”. Similarly, cutting-edge academic research is both defined by excellence at a global, not national, context and increasingly conducted in a trans-national manner. Europe is a major player in this global research and innovation game — and is seeking to create a strong global reach in its research and innovation collaborations.

The aim of these free workshops is to expose businesses and academic researchers to the opportunities that are emerging to intensify research and innovation cooperation with Europe. The sessions will be led by experts and officials from Europe backed up by Australian researchers with experience of engagement with Europe and industry-academic research cooperation. The workshop deliberations will also inform the preparation of a FEAST submission to the Australian Government’s Review of the National Innovation System.

Speakers include: Dr Martin Grabert, Head of the COST Office in Brussels and a director of the European Science Foundation; Dr Bernardus Tubbing, Project Officer at the European Research Council; Prof Geoffrey Brooks, Professor of Engineering at Swinburne University of Technology; Dr Bruce Lee, Director of the Food Future Flagship at CSIRO; Prof Tony Weiss, Founding Director of the Molecular Biotechnology Program at The University of Sydney, and; Ms Jessie Borthwick (Head of the Science and Research Division) and Ms Mary Finlay (General Manager of the International Science Branch) from the Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

Relevance to businesses

The issue of science and technology cooperation between Europe and Australia has tended to focus on academic research. Comparatively little attention has been paid to research and innovation cooperation between Australian businesses and European businesses/academic researchers. Increased awareness of these potential advantages reduces the risk of missed opportunities.

The growing importance of multi-national cooperative research programmes addressing global challenges (such as greenhouse gas emission reductions) creates a new imperative for businesses to participate in collective international R&D projects. This requires that commercial sensitivities are balanced against the advantages of sharing and the benefits of scale and scope in R&D that this gives access to. Innovation is not just an “upside” consideration for businesses, it is also increasingly a critical method for mitigating “downside” risks to corporate net worth — risks that can be handled by collective international actions.

These workshops will provide an opportunity for Australian businesses to obtain insights into how best to participate in, and learn from, Europe-centred collective R&D efforts — such as the large-scale European Technology Platforms.

The workshops will also provide an opportunity to consider the role of industry-academic R&D partnerships as mechanisms for intensified cooperation with Europe (and elsewhere) — something that Australia’s R&D Tax Concession can facilitate. They will also expose business to comparative lessons from Europe and Australia on how progress in research informs the evolution of public policy — in turn impacting upon business’ regulatory environment.

As such, these free workshops are a must for those involved in strategic planning relating to research, innovation and government relations.

Relevance to academics

Many Australian academics are well-versed in engaging in research cooperation with Europe (both at the level of the European Union and individual Member States).

This means that the academic community as a whole can learn from these experiences (as captured in FEAST’s consultations over best practices in research cooperation). It also means that it is timely for researchers already cooperating with Europe to undertake a “stock-take” of the current state of play and to consider new opportunities for intensified research cooperation.

These new opportunities stem from the European Research Council (ERC) — tasked with funding cutting-edge basic research to be performed in Europe independently of nationality, and also from the potential importance of using industry-academic partnerships to further intensify Australian-European S&T cooperation.

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