Review of the National Innovation System

An expert panel reviewing Australia's national innovation system. Senator Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, set a deadline for a Green Paper from the panel by July 2008, but set himself no deadline for the White Paper from Government in response.

... The Panel will identify gaps and weaknesses in the innovation system and develop proposals to address them. In particular, it will:

• Identify a set of principles to underpin the role and participation of the public sector in innovation.
  
• Develop a set of national innovation priorities to complement the national research priorities, ensuring the objectives of research programs and other innovation initiatives are complementary.
  
• Identify regulatory and other barriers to innovation and recommend ways to minimise these.
  
• Examine the scope for simplifying and reducing program duplication and ensuring that any support provided is well-targeted and easy to access.
  
• Consider the appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency of the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Concession Scheme in promoting innovation and make recommendations to improve innovation outcomes.
  
• Consider ways to improve the governance of the national innovation system to support higher expectations of government agencies and industry.
  
• Assess the appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency of the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program and make recommendations to improve innovation outcomes.

In conducting the review the Panel is to have regard to relevant reports and studies, including the Productivity Commission's Report on Public Support for Science and Innovation. ...

From: Terms of Reference, Review of the National Innovation System, Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, 2008

The panel is:

Dr Terry Cutler (Chair)	Principal of Cutler & Company
Dr Nicholas Gruen	CEO of Lateral Economics
Prof Mary O'Kane	Executive Chairman of Mary O’Kane & Associates Pty Ltd
Prof Steve Dowrick	Professor, School of Economics, the Australian National University
Ms Narelle Kennedy	Chief Executive of the Australian Business Foundation
Prof Glyn Davis (AC)	Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Melbourne
Ms Catherine Livingstone (AO)	Director – Future Directions International - Macquarie Group Ltd - WorleyParsons Ltd - Telstra Corporation Ltd - Macquarie Graduate School of Management Pty Ltd
Dr Megan Clark	Vice President Technology, BHP Billiton
Professor John Foster	Head of the School of Economics, University of Queensland
Dr Jim Peacock (ex-officio) (AC)	Chief Scientist
Ms Patricia Kelly (ex-officio)	Deputy Secretary of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research

The experts announced to help the panel are: Prof Alan Hughes, Prof Richard Lester, Prof Stan Metcalfe and Prof Keith Smith.

The web page for the review has a lot of useful links to materials. Really there are too many links on the page and it reminds me of a Chinese newspaper web site and could do with some rearrangement. ;-)

Here are some of the items:

1. Minister Carr's Speech - New Agenda for Prosperity, to the Australian/Melbourne Institute 2008 Economic and Social Outlook Conference.
2. Review Submission Process- Information on the process for providing submissions to the Review.
   
3. Consultation Presentation - The presentation made by Dr Terry Cutler at each of the stakeholder consultations is now available.
   
4. Video Presentations - An introduction to the Review from Minister Carr and Review Panel Chair Dr Terry Cutler
5. Letter from the Chair of the Expert Panel
6. Outcomes of Feb 21 Expert Panel Meeting
7. Working Group Membership
8. Chair's Speech to the Australian Industrial Research Group - the text of Dr Terry Cutler's speech on 25 February 2008.
   
10. Review Submission Process
11. Submissions Received - submissions will be made available here