Lead Story
Issue No. 6 - July/September 2002
South Australia's Innovation Industry
by Professor Richard Blandy
In issue 4 of In Business South Australia I used Australian Bureau of Statistics data to paint a picture of Research and Development (R&D) activity in SA.
To summarise, South Australia punches well above its Australian economic weight in terms of Gross Expenditure on R&D.
Expenditure on R&D in South Australia is 1.93 per cent of South Australian Gross State Product, making us Australia’s leading State in terms of relative R&D effort. The main reason for this leading performance is the very large State R&D effort in the government and higher education sectors. In fact, South Australia makes a bigger R&D effort in these two sectors (relative to the size of the South Australian economy) than any country in the world.
By contrast, the share of Business R&D in South Australia relative to South Australia’s economy is slightly below the share of Business R&D in Australia as a whole relative to the Australian economy, and well down in comparison with world benchmark countries like the United States, Germany, the UK and the Scandinavians.
Clearly, a major opportunity exists to put in place processes that will build a larger State business R&D and innovation effort (“commercialisation”) on the back of the phenomenal R&D asset that already exists in the State’s public sector and universities. The Premier’s new Science and Research Council will make this objective a principal focus of its advice to the South Australian Government by strengthening industry partnerships, and collaboration between the relevant R&D players and business.
A framework of vital and active innovation and commercialisation bodies already exists in South Australia, providing a starting base for this strategic effort: Adelaide University Research Park, Flinders Technologies, ITEK, Technology Park, SARDI, BioInnovationSA, Playford Capital, Twoeyes, FTAdelaide, Adelaide City Business, and South Australian Business Vision 2010’s Sou...
