Opening the debate

 On a broad level, there is growing recognition that Australia’s future prosperity relies upon a vibrant and robust innovation system. To this end, there have been a number of strategy priority settings and road mapping for innovation in general (for example the recent "Powering Ideas: An Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century") and more importantly, the need for state of the art research infrastructure. The development of key infrastructure priorities has been undertaken by the Australian Government though the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure (NCRIS) Strategy. The original document was released in 2006 and this roadmap was recently updated in the "Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure" document. The need to improve collaboration in the Australian innovation system has been acutely brought into focus with the release of recent OECD data that puts Australia last in the OECD for collaboration between research institutes and industry, whilst recent trends have demonstrated the advantages for Australian researchers to increase their international collaborations. The Australian Government’s National Innovation Agenda, Powering Ideas, notes that: "Australia has everything to gain from improving connections within the national innovation system and expanding its participation in international research and innovation networks".

The Australian Government has recently reconfirmed its commitment to developing renewable energy options. Through its Clean Energy Initiative, there is over $5.1 billion being invested in demonstration scale projects across a number of potential clean energy technologies. These include the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Flagships ($2.4 billion) and Solar Flagships ($1.6 billion) programs, the Australian Solar Institute ($100 million) and the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy ($560 million). These programs have been designed to drive commercialisation of clean energy technologies through the collaboration of universities, research institutes and industry partners. It is clear that the success of these large scale, risky ventures is only viable through such collaborations.

This presentation will give a brief outline of the current activities in Australia at the high level in terms of the general innovation system and in particular on the partnerships being undertaken in the development of demonstration scale projects to deliver clean energy.

Moderator: Silvia Rosa-Brusin

- Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph

- Gabriele Fioni

- John Womersley

- Steven Koonin

- Robin Batterham

- Torbjørn Digernes

- Thomas Barrett