The Travels of the
Techno-Freedom-Fighter

I started working for research and development(R&D) company that is based in Canberra in April this year. Up until the time I was working at the Department of defence as a help desk team leader. When you start working in the research and development field you can't understand that it is quite a competitive game. It is surprising the amount of really good products that we develop here in Australia that are manufactured overseas law the further research and development is done overseas due to the lack of investment here in Australia.

You would expect that Australia like many other countries, the government would actually spent some time and effort in putting Australian industries ahead of the world in whatever way it could do without breaching international treaty obligations. However it seems to me that many of the opportunities that we have in research and development are often overlooked because of other concerns.

Current funding is increasingly skewed towards commercialisation and shorter-term research. The problem with this is that it runs down the basic discovery and public good research that government is best placed to fund and that also feeds the next generation of ideas.

I believe that Government should re-focus on the basic and public good research that the commercial sector will not fund. I would offer a significant boost to basic research by funding infrastructure, providing longer-term grants that also allocate adequate funds for the costs that come with starting up a new research project (general support costs), and providing greater support for early-career researchers.

I would reform Government support for commercialisation and applied innovation. The Government's focus on 'market failure' - plugging perceived gaps in the system - has led to the creation of a wide array of programs that can be confusing for applicants, constitute a patchwork of support that cuts off before companies are self-sustaining, and duplicates program administration. We would rationalise and simplify this suite of programs.

I believe that funding for applied science and innovation should be focused on three broad streams: generous funding for addressing specific national challenges; business planning, venture financing and support for intermediary programs that link business with research and allow Australian innovation to be applied by industry; and long-term support for basic R&D.