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The Forum > Article Comments > The age of innovation > Comments

The age of innovation : Comments

By Andrew Leigh, published 7/7/2009

Understanding the lifecycle of innovators is a puzzle with major implications for how we fund researchers and artists.

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I don’t believe there is an Australian name in the list by the author, but I would suggest that the No1 factor for producing innovation occurs when one is hungry.

The fatter someone gets (literally also) the less innovation they generally become.

The best anyone in this country can do if they want to be innovative and produce something is to leave the country and go to another country. The likelihood that they can produce something innovative in Australia is “not likely”.

They are likely to not only receive minimal rewards for their innovative ideas, but there will be people who will attempt to shoot them down at every turn.

The No 1 culprit for producing a non-innovative mentality in this country is the education system. It imports almost everything, from sporting equipment to software, and this trains generations of students to think that Australian made items or even ideas developed in Australia are not worthwhile. Meanwhile the education system itself is totally flat and stagnant.

Incalculable harm has now been done by the education system to Australian industry and Australian society by the education system’s mad rush to import everything from elsewhere.
Posted by vanna, Tuesday, 7 July 2009 2:46:25 PM
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Too much emphasis is placed on "studies" on innovation and surprise surprise the studies always go to university types who decide the best way to fund innovation is to give money to universities.

Why is anyone surprised then that the situation never changes.

Universities suck up the money, redistribute it around the uni on various very well thought up ideas, but nothing ever comes out. The only way to get in on the act is to get into a CRC, Co operative Research Centre, but even then the universities tend to oversee what is spent and on whom, mates of course do well. CSIRO and DSTO are pretty well the same, guarding their own self interests through government oversight of grants to industry, which they assess then "nurture" to death.

We get lot's of research, but no development or innovation.

That's why innovators go overseas, stuff comes out the other end of the sausage machine, in Australia it just oscillates in the machine.

You can get all the studies you want but as long as the self interested are involved, nothing will change, it's a closed loop.

As we say in the engineering business of Australia, government funding is all R and no D.
Posted by rpg, Tuesday, 7 July 2009 5:02:45 PM
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What rot by the other posters, Australia is a very innovative country with many capable people( perhaps you have failed but don't drag the rest of us down). here is a link that clearly shows we continue to be awarded more patents than ever. http://www.uspto.gov/go/taf/cst_utl.htm

I will admit that funding innovation could be a lot better, I would concentrate on the science and leave the artist to their lot.
Posted by Kenny, Tuesday, 7 July 2009 6:30:57 PM
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Kenny, my point exactly, Patents are the result of research and universities and their ilk pour them out.

But so what? None of it ever goes anywhere and our research institutions are so incredibly difficult to deal with on IP issues, that nothing ever happens.

Australia has mountains of good ideas that no one can touch because once the fundamental research (patent generating research) everyone loses interest and they are tied up in legal red tape.

Government based funding gets soaked up by universities who count patents to win funding wars with other organizations - no one ever asks, what happens next?

The ideas get left on the shelves forever. Innovation goes beyond research to development, which is lost on the "science" crowd isn't it Kenny?

So how does that help Australia, we don't innovate products, we just have battles for research funding .. and no Development! That's the point!

These institutions then argue, well it's not our role to take it to market, that's up to industry (who cannot get any money). It's left up to the institutions where it goes, and they funnel it back into their own system. It is a corruption.

I have not failed, I took our money to the US and now produce there, we continue to develop our products in a market that rewards us. We tried for years to work with Australian institutions and the government who quite frankly had no interest aside of the junkets and self fulfilling gravy train.

You sir, sound like one of the University types, because that's exactly the attitude I see here, sneering at industry who "fail" to take their crappy off the wall patents to market.

Counting patents is good for getting grant money, but does not produce products.

This is the problem, you don't see that we have lots of patents but no development and a shrinking industry - head in sand! Typical of Australia, we're number one in patents yay. So why do we not produce anything?
Posted by rpg, Tuesday, 7 July 2009 8:21:01 PM
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Kenny,
A lot of companies don't even bother with patents anymore. To stay ahead of the pack, a new version has to be produced as quickly as possible, and by the time a patent has been approved, a new version has already been produced.

So patents have become a thing of the past for many companies.

Take a look around a university or school, and see how many "Made in Australia" stickers you can find.

After nearly 200 years of education, you would be lucky to find one "Made in Australia" sticker in a school or university.

That is the state of innovation in our schools and universities.
Posted by vanna, Tuesday, 7 July 2009 10:44:35 PM
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Who works with hands, head and heart is an artist who could also be a scientist.
There is little room for experimentation or inspiration when ‘innovative’ young people are force-fed on Ritalin because they do not fit into the glove of the education system or anywhere else for that matter!
By the time these little geniuses get to secondary education there self esteem is eroded to such a degree eventually resulting in mental illness. The ‘obsessive compulsiveness’ in many individuals is the very driving force necessary for ‘Innovative Creativity”
Posted by Eco Hatter, Tuesday, 7 July 2009 11:00:25 PM
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It's not just about finding, it's about creativity. The more we try to get everyone to conform to various 'norms', the less creativity we will get. Individuality is a precious thing that needs to be nurtured, not beaten out of people. Getting the balance right between science and arts is crucial to innovation. We don't want a nation of scientists who have no imagination or a nation of artists who have little science and technical knowhow. We need both.
Posted by Phil Matimein, Wednesday, 8 July 2009 10:58:45 AM
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rpg,

You are saying that there is plenty of money for research, but not for development, that public funding ends before ideas are commercially viable, even if they are good. How would you see a better system working?
Posted by Divergence, Monday, 13 July 2009 12:07:07 PM
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