News & Views item - May 2011

 

University of Western Australia's V-C Addresses Co-operative Research Centres' Conference. (May 20, 2011)

Professor Alan Robson is the vice-chancellor of the University of Western Australia as well as the current Hackett Professor of Agriculture. He is the immediate past president of the Group of Eight, and current deputy chair of Universities Australia.

 

Last Wednesday he gave the 2011 Ralph Slayter lecture at the Co-operative Research Centres' conference in Brisbane.

 

An extended summary of his lecture is available from The Australian online; here, some salient quotes:

 

 Science has a crucial role in identifying and analysing these challenges and must be considered in parallel with social, economic and political perspectives to find solutions.

 

In Australia, secondary students are becoming less interested in learning science and mathematics and the relative proficiency in science and mathematics is in decline. Not having scientifically literate leaders may stall our capacity to solve the major problems affecting Australia and the rest of the world.

 

Australia’s ability to generate strong productivity growth requires that we perform nationally important research and that we successfully adopt and adapt the 98 per cent of innovative ideas that are generated in the rest of the world.

 

A strong research capacity enables us to participate on the international stage in fields of global and national importance. And our ability to attract the highest calibre international minds will allow us to engage with and contribute to international research at a highly competitive level.

 

Today, more than 35 per cent of articles published in international journals are internationally collaborative, up from 25 per cent just 15 years ago... most importantly [because of] a desire to work with the best people, who may be based in increasingly divergent locations.

 

If we are to ensure a competitive economy, the Federal Government should set a goal of making Australia the pre-eminent location to attract the best researchers and be a preferred partner for international research institutions, businesses and national government.

 

[F]or Australia to enhance its capacity to engage internationally by both opening up current granting programs to international partners and participants and by increasing funding to specific programs in order to leverage investment.

 

[M]ost of the problems of the world are multi-disciplinary yet our research organisations are frequently organised along discipline lines. CSIRO and many universities have recognised this and attempted to address this issue by creating the Flagship Program (in the CSIRO) and Institutes which reach across disciplines (in our Universities).

 

Scale is also more important than ever and the development of collaborative partnerships between research institutions is essential.

 

We also face a serious run-down in the condition of university infrastructure. In Australia’s Group of Eight research universities, we estimate that we have a backlog of building and maintenance in excess of 1.5 billion dollars. But in this regard, I would add that I believe the Federal Government deserves praise for increasing indexation and increasing funding to meet the indirect costs of research.

 

Of great concern is the flat-lining of the number of students starting research degrees. We need to take urgent action...

 

To sustain economic competitiveness Australia cannot rely on a strategy of passive absorption of foreign technology. Free-riding on the rest of the world’s research is not a realistic option – because the links between researchers are personal and they are based on informal trading in ideas, techniques and devices. To benefit from the public good of world knowledge we have to be actively engaged in cutting-edge research... To achieve these aims, the resources and mechanisms for funding need to be reformed. Australia is falling behind developed and emerging economies in its commitment to research at universities, public research agencies and the many government and private bodies conducting public-funded research.

 

Australia is nowhere near to matching the scale of investment in research capability in the northern hemisphere, whether in North America, Europe, China, Korea or elsewhere. We are vulnerable to being passed-by, cut off and left behind in the advancement of knowledge. And if we allow that to happen we can say “goodbye” to an innovative Australia.

 

In summary, the priority is to enhance our capacity for research of high quality by international standards. That means greater investment in the development of intellectual talent, deeper immersion into international research networks, and full funding of research and infrastructure.
The innovation road sets us a long and challenging journey, but we should not be daunted by this challenge. Innovation is the business of our future.

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In 2009 John O'Sullivan was awarded the CSIRO Chairman's Medal and the Australian Prime Minister's Prize for Science. He led research on the application of Fourier transforms for analysis of radio astronomical data to detect predicted black hole Hawking Radiation. The work came up empty so far as its intended objective.

 

On the other hand it eventually resulted in the granting of the 1992 WLAN Australian patent to Dr O’Sullivan and his CSIRO research group and a 1996 US patent. So far that's earned Australia about $250 million.

 

According to Dr O'Sullivan in an interview given to ItNews for Australian Business: "I think we need to recognise that we need pure science; applied, directed science; and venture capital backing … to sustain a healthy technology ecosystem. The numbers speak for themselves; we’re not funding science and technology at the same levels as many other countries. Where is the Australian Cisco Systems?" And he went on to say his group later re-used the Fast Fourier Transforms technique in a separate project that aimed to reduce the interference experienced by wireless signals indoors. "It was before the World Wide Web. The internet was starting to be seen as quite important in the research environment … you could see where it was going. ...skills built up from radioastronomy research could be applied to commercial areas, such as medical imaging and mine safety. There are so many connections, [but] I don’t think you can say that things happen in radioastronomy and go to IT; it’s a two-way street. My experience is you don’t see these things ahead of time, but if you push yourself, you do come up with a lot of solutions for different applications. What today seems outlandish is tomorrow’s consumer device."