Australian Innovation System Report 2012 Compendium of Program Updates

AUSTRALIAN WORKFORCE AND PRODUCTIVITY AGENCY

The National Workforce Development Fund (NWDF)

The National Workforce Development Fund (NWDF) is a new approach to skills training that places business at the heart of the training effort.

In a fast-moving economy, more and more Australian businesses are recognising the importance of investing in their people to meet their current and future workforce needs.

The NWDF is an innovative, industry-driven model that enables businesses to co-invest with the Government to train, reskill and upskill workers in areas of skills need.

Announced by the Australian Government in the 2011–12 Budget, the NWDF has the strong backing of industry and is already proving to be successful in meeting the workforce training needs of businesses across the country.

The Government is investing $700 million through the NWDF over five years and has to date allocated $174 million for a range of training projects jointly funded with businesses across the nation.

Industry Skills Councils are working with industry to identify projects that will deliver skills in areas of demand. These projects cover all sectors, including construction, logistics, aged care, manufacturing and hospitality. They also support a range of qualifications — from Diploma in Management and Counselling to Certificate III in Forest Management and Disability Care.

The NWDF operates on a sliding scale, with large enterprises contributing up to 66 percent of costs, medium businesses 50 percent and small businesses 33 percent.

With $100 million in co-investment from industry, 498 projects are now underway. This will see more than 52,000 Australians increase their skills base, with businesses getting specific and targeted training for their workers.

Investing in skills and training through industry-driven initiatives like the NWDF is vital in helping businesses to meet the challenges of a transitioning economy. It will also ensure Australia is able to maintain its global competitiveness in the 21st century.

Websites for further information:

www.deewr.gov.au/Skills/Programs/SkillTraining/nwdf/Pages/default.aspx

www.awpa.gov.au/national-workforce-development-fund/national-workforce-development-fund.html

COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANISATION (CSIRO)

Flagship Collaboration Fund

Collaboration is a key principle of the CSIRO National Research Flagships Program. The Australian Government originally provided $114M for the Flagship Collaboration Fund to facilitate the involvement of the wider Australian research community including Australian universities and other publicly funded research agencies. Funding is spent on external parties and to date, over $110M has been committed, with ongoing support from CSIRO. The key objective of the Fund is to support the Flagships in achieving their goals by providing funding to engage external capability that solves specific Flagship science problems, develops expertise for CSIRO and its partners and builds collaborative partnerships for the benefit of Australia.

The Fund supports four kinds of collaborative research activity:

1. 
   Flagship Clusters are significant three-year partnerships between Flagships, universities and other publicly-funded research agencies including CRCs.
   
2. 
   Clusters receive $1 million per annum in cash, with at least matching co-investment from partners.
   
3. 
   Flagship Projects are shorter-term, more focused collaborations between Flagships and universities. The Fund provides approximately $100,000 per annum.
   
4. 
   Flagship Visiting Fellowships are available for distinguished academics from Australian and overseas universities to work closely with a Flagship. The Fund provides approximately $100,000 for six months full-time or a longer period part-time.
   
5. 
   Flagship Postgraduate Scholarships are available for PhD students whose research is relevant to Flagships. Top-up and full scholarships are available and international students may apply if they are enrolled in an Australian university. Students are co-supervised by university and CSIRO researchers.
   

Performance and progress of the Fund has included:

• 
  Engagement with over 70 different external institutions.
  
• 
  Twenty seven clusters have been supported, engaging over 38 Australian and international universities and representing over $80M investment from the Fund and $140M from partners. Total value of $224 research activity.
  
• 
  Collaborations with international research institutions (Clusters) have increased from 0 percent to 30 percent since the guidelines were broadened in 2008.
  
• 
  Over 120 Projects have been supported between CSIRO and Australian and international universities worth over $11M.
  
• 
  More than 35 Visiting Fellows have been engaged worth over $2.5M.
  
• 
  Over 170 scholarships have been awarded with generous operating and travel allowances.
  

Website for further information:

www.csiro.au/flagships

CSIRO science outreach

CSIRO conducts a range of science education programs for primary and secondary school students and their teachers and the public, and hosts the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra. There was a small increase in the number of visitors to CSIRO’s Science Education Centres and Science by Email continued to increase its readership. In 2010, the Maths by Email program was launched, with the number of subscribers reaching 9,255 by December 2010. The Scientists in Schools program reached 1,850 teacher-scientist partnerships and the number of Mathematicians in Schools partnerships reached 163.

CSIRO operates CSIRO PUBLISHING as an independent science and technology publisher with a global reputation for quality products and services covering a wide range of scientific disciplines, including agriculture, chemistry, the plant and animal sciences, and environmental management.

CSIRO also runs an honours and postgraduate scholarship program which provides opportunities in science and engineering for outstanding graduates who enrol at Australian tertiary institutions as full-time postgraduate students for research leading to the award of a higher degree by research. Research students at CSIRO are co-supervised by a university, allowing students to maintain and develop their university connections while being exposed to research in a working environment. As at May 2011 CSIRO co-supervised 791 higher degree research students including 655 PhD students.

Websites for further information:

CSIRO Education:

www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Education.aspx

Postgraduate Scholarships:

www.csiro.au/Portals/Careers/Work-experience-and-scholarships/Postgraduate-scholarships.aspx

CSIRO Publishing:

www.publish.csiro.au/

Small to Medium Enterprise – Engagement Centre

The CSIRO Small and Medium Enterprise-Engagement Centre (SME-EC) is a team of business and technically qualified managers that work across all parts of CSIRO. SME-EC works with partner organisations in government and private sector to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) effectively navigate and engage with CSIRO and others in the National Innovation System (NIS).

SMEs often find it difficult to find and apply the most appropriate science and technology to grow their business because of the scale of CSIRO and the Australian National Innovation System (NIS). The SME-EC was established to assist SMEs to get the best possible result from engagement with this diverse and powerful system.

The objectives of the SME-EC are to:

• 
  increase the number of Australian SMEs that grow their business through the application or use of scientific research and technical services, and
  
• 
  assist CSIRO research programs, especially Flagships, to generate impact from scientific research by making it easier to connect with Australian Industry.
  

Website for further information:

www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Partner/SMEEngagement.aspx

Australian Growth Partnerships

The Australian Growth Partnerships (AGP) program is a competitive, merit-based pilot funding program managed by CSIRO. CSIRO has allocated funds to provide investment funding through the AGP Program to high potential, technology-receptive small and medium enterprises (SMEs) so they can access CSIRO research and development (R&D) capability and intellectual property.

The AGP Program is designed to assist SMEs to overcome existing technical issues, therefore providing them with an opportunity to significantly accelerate their growth in high impact industries that are aligned with the capabilities of CSIRO’s National Research Flagships Program. This program encompasses the following Flagships:

• 
  Climate Adaptation
  
• 
  Energy Transformed
  
• 
  Food Futures
  
• 
  Future Manufacturing
  
• 
  Minerals Down Under
  
• 
  Preventative Health
  
• 
  Water for a Healthy Country
  
• 
  Wealth from Oceans.
  

In exchange for providing this funding, CSIRO, through the AGP Program, will seek to secure a return on its investment.

Website for further information:

www.csiro.au/Portals/Partner/Collaborate/AGP.aspx

Precincts

The increasing globalisation of science and technology encourages research communities in small countries like Australia to work more closely together. While virtual collaboration is critical, there is also emerging evidence that co-locating expertise - where researchers operate across organisational boundaries - creates a talent pool with the capacity to resolve complex challenges. These co-locations create multiplier benefits in the ability to both attract researchers and further collaborators.

CSIRO has identified six research precincts in Australia with the potential to achieve global standing and scale that build on, and amplify, the strengths of Australia’s national innovation system. These will be located as follows:

• 
  Canberra Precinct: Natural and Environmental Sciences;
  
• 
  Dutton Park Precinct, Brisbane: Ecosciences;
  
• 
  Kensington Precinct, Perth: Resource Sciences;
  
• 
  Clayton Precinct, Melbourne: Manufacturing and Materials Sciences;
  
• 
  Sydney Precinct: Digital Sciences; and
  
• 
  Parkville Precinct, Melbourne: Human Life Sciences.
  

Global Precincts will expand and deepen Australia’s national and global partnerships involving universities, State and Federal governments and industry. When realised, these Global Precincts will support the unleashing of Australia’s innovation potential, improve Australia’s international R&D competitiveness, and position our national innovation system to address the nation’s and world’s emerging complex challenges.

CSIRO Chile Centre of Excellence

A new centre of excellence – formed from a partnership between CSIRO and Chile – will tackle key challenges facing the Australian and Chilean mining industries. The Centre will develop cutting-edge technologies that will reduce the environmental impact of mining and increase its productivity. The Centre will be a major international education and training facility that will build the services and manufacturing industries in both countries through partnership with industry. It will also tackle the mining sector's global skills shortage.

Chile's Minister for Mines, the Honourable Hernán de Solminihac, officially opened the new CSIRO Chile International Centre of Excellence in Mining and Mineral Processing in Santiago Chile, in December 2011.

Chief Executive Megan Clark said Australia and Chile have much to learn from one another in the mining sector. ‘This Centre will allow our countries to work in a learning partnership with shared benefits, benefits which will contribute to a global knowledge base and to improved practices and understanding around the world', Megan said.

The CSIRO Chile Centre of Excellence is co-funded by CORFO (The Chilean Economic Development Agency) and supported by the Universities of Antofagasta and Chile, Cicitem and major industry partners Anglo American North S.A. and South S.A., Antofagasta Minerals S.A., BHP Chile Inc, Codelco, Xstrata Copper Chile.

Website for further information:

www.csiro.au/Outcomes/Mineral-Resources/Chile-Centre-of-Excellence.aspx

Human Services Delivery Research Alliance

CSIRO and the Department of Human Services (DHS) have formed a research alliance to harness the power of science and improve service delivery to more than six million Australians each year.

The Human Services portfolio has begun a transformation that will dramatically improve its flexibility and effectiveness to deliver services to the Australian community. Every day, millions of Australians interact with agencies across the Human Services portfolio, including Centrelink, Medicare Australia and the Child Support Agency. The portfolio delivers more than A$100 billion in payments and more than 200 different services. Human services must keep up with the changing demographics and needs of the Australian community. Australians expect a service that is focused on them, and targeted to their needs and circumstances. This involves access to efficient, high-quality services in an easy and coordinated way.

The A$20 million five-year Human Services Delivery Research Alliance (HSDRA) is addressing the research challenges and questions arising from, and in support of, the Service Delivery reform agenda. The Research Alliance is working in support of a national service delivery system that is evidence-based, sustainable, people-centric and harmonised across government and public human service delivery dimensions. It is using innovative technologies and practices to increase the efficiency of government services, create options for future service delivery and improve the capacity for government to build better relationships with its customers.

HSDRA is leveraging DHS' depth of experience in human services delivery with CSIRO’s strengths in services research to deliver a more efficient and effective national service delivery system.

Website for further information:

www.csiro.au/Outcomes/ICT-and-Services/People-and-businesses/HSDRA.aspx