The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) says Australia is at a “critical crossroads” when it comes to R&D and decades of rhetoric have not delivered material change.
In its response to the Strategic Examination of Research and Development (SERD), the group said, “Businesses are facing unprecedented challenges, including slowing investment, restrictive workplace relations, an uncompetitive tax system, and ongoing skilled labour shortages.”
Ai Group CEO, Innes Willox, said all of these factors hamper productivity growth when it is most needed.
"Simply pouring more funding into a dysfunctional system won't enhance its effectiveness. Calls to increase research funding to 3% of GDP are divorced from economic reality if the commercialisation imperative is not addressed," Willox said.
He added a fundamentally new approach for how R&D translates into commercial outcomes and productivity gains had to occur. “The time for incremental change has passed,” he said.
"Our nation's productivity performance has stagnated for too long, limiting wage growth and economic prosperity. Effective R&D commercialisation is one of the most powerful levers we have to reverse this trend."
In its response, the group recommended establishing a ministerial council for Innovation Science and Technology, creating a national prototyping network, reforming the R&D Tax Incentive, and developing a national IP bank as a central repository for publicly funded intellectual property.
"With the converging challenges of decarbonisation, diversification, and digitalisation, rebuilding businesses' capacity to not only generate but also commercialise R&D is essential to our national prosperity, productivity and security," Willox said.
"We urge the panel to place commercialisation and productivity outcomes at the centre of any reform agenda for Australia's R&D system."
Further details and progress updates from SERD can be found here.
