[LINK] Ten Australian Industry Innovation Precincts Proposed

[Tom Worthington]

The Australian government has proposed up to ten Industry Innovation 
Precincts at a cost of $500M to being research and business together: 
http://www.aussiejobs.innovation.gov.au/industry-and-innovation-statement/Pages/

Many local, regional and national governments have tried to reproduce 
"Silicon Valley", with limited success. In 1996 I visited Cambridge 
(England) to see how the technology companies around the university 
developed. Later I suggested this could be emulated in Australia: 
http://www.tomw.net.au/nt/arcadia.html

In Canberra an "Innovation ANU" program was set up to teach university 
students how to turn a scientific discovery into a business. This was 
later was was broadened to "Innovation ACT" for students at all 
Canberra's universities. I suggest that program could be broadened again 
and delivered on-line to students at all the ten new Innovation 
Precincts, and elsewhere. This could offer participants a formal 
university qualification: 
http://www.innovationact.org/about/history-of-innovationact/

The new policy mentions CSIRO, but curiously does not mention NICTA, 
which Australian governments have so far invested $1B in, to foster 
innovation in the ICT industry. The investment of $50M per precinct 
proposed in the new government policy is minimal compared to the cost of 
initiatives such as NICTA and CSIRO. However, this would be useful in 
making linkages between research and industry, if used to accelerate 
already emerging precincts. An example is "City West, with the ANU 
Exchange development, to the west of the Canberra CBD, where the ANU 
campus is blending with government and private enterprises, related to 
education and research: https://facilities.anu.edu.au/?pid=116

More in my blog at: 
http://blog.tomw.net.au/2013/02/australian-industry-innovation.html



-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/