2016 Series

Brisbane

Sydney

Perth

Melbourne

2015 Series

Brisbane

Sydney

Perth

Melbourne

Brisbane -

• Funding, partnering, scenario planning, identifying trends
• Small barriers, such as not enough funding
• Not enough IP protection, not enough money for setting up the correct structure
• Online website not enough education
• Loss of control, automation, value of university degree
• Major obstacles - lack of support, fear of failure, lack of funding, lack of culture of commercialising certain types of IP
• Barriers to engagement - competitive instead of collaborative culture; established process, structure, institutions that are rigid and hard to change; divide/disconnect between university culture and training or work environment
• Difference between organisations that commercialise and those that do not
• Risk taking attitude
• Commitment to process
• Including changing process and taking risks
• Fostering a culture/having the vision
• Using the right technology
• The role that government plays. What they should do.
• Reducing the red tape to access grants
• Tax breaks to risk taker, rewards for taking these risks
• Lead by example, increase funding
• Not be involved but be the enabler
• Government grants not fostering collaborative development of IP
• Chang procurements of ideas, sharing of issues
• Change way of managing risk, face to face, instead of RFIs and paperwork, reduce the complexity
• Core competencies of universities are not aligned with the need of commercial environment
• Is their a framework that startups can use to avoid constraints of business pressures?
• Universities are not teaching ‘real world issues’
• Too much red tape
• Aren't teaching what is needed
• No real world experience
• Support for flexible working environment, encourage study through work
• Federal government need to engage more with the real world, unite, entrepreneurs etc
• ‘Innovation’ is  thrown around a lot → what are people referring to?
• Barriers to engagement include fear of failure, risk aversion, timing, culture, lack of communication and competition
• Major differences include a willingness to fail, validation, long term vision, data points, creating a need, agile team.
• Government needs to provide more education on how to access grants and funding etc.
• Major obstacles include low appetite for risk, protecting your IP, education, lack of support for inventors, lack of capital, market conditions, competitor and changing government programs. .
• Business engaged with univerity, fighting against the academics, being less risk averse
• Lack of guidance on commercialisation path and access to innovation hubs
• Customer centricity
• Connect to entire market (global), commercialisation plan
• Government needs to work with manufacturers even more than inventors
• Improve access to innovation support
• IP protection
• R&D grant funding quarterly not annually
• R&D Tax Concessions increase not decrease
• Facilitated crowd funding/ capital funding/private limitations
• Government supporting new technology rather than dead industries
• Changing perspectives from sport-centric celebration to innovation thought leader celebration
• Simplifying R&D, grant and funding process and red tape
• Communication between private sector industries and consumers
• Engaging with the end user to ask them what their solution is rather than assume
• Commercialising research
• Communicate their findings better and more freely
• Structural thinking about how employees collaborate/communicate
• Opportunities for different departments to communicate
• Create structural collaboration
• Diversity is the seed of creativity
• Not everyone is an innovator, hire specific people for this
• Hackathons from all different industries; use disruptive thinking in problem solving
• Provide an environment that is encouraging and rewarding → don’t play by the rules.
• Cultural changes are happening in government as well, government must move faster to what is happening in the field.
• Reforms are occurring in govern to encourage involvement in community events
• Capital givers wants fast returns, raising capital laws in Australia need to be changed.
• Incentives for startups but not scale ups
• Hire differents kind of people to collaborate with others → making it someone's job to find collaborations

Sydney

• Reduce risk consequences through legislation
• Foster commercialisation in university and connection with industry/business
• Culture change in universities
• IP ownership issues in university/business relationships
• Look to scale ups not just startups for support and ideas
• Tax incentives are vital
• Longer term mindset required across industry, business and government
• Obstacles include funding and capital, risk aversion, regulation, global integration and interaction globally
•  Lack of knowledge about actually hot to go about successfully commercialized products
• Lack of knowledge with respect to value (or potential value) of the SMEs intangible assets. The cost of commercializing products/services etc. The future value of a company's IP.
• Lack of knowledge about hot and what to do to commercialise eg a checklist of things to do/action/consider etc in order to commercialise
• Very risk adverse in Australia
• Successful companies need to patent/trademark etc in order to enhance their ability to raise funds/capital (especially venture capital funds).
• Access to capital → costs of patenting, universities focus on literature ie publish or perish, not knowing who to collaborate with, universities expectations from inventors ie want $10 million for their idea.
• Need a US patent, reinvest 10% of revenue into R&D, understanding of the IP landscape
• Know who to partner with, eg which university to part with and why ie certain universities may be better resources/experienced with respect to a company's particular R&D requirements or needs
• Difficulties (bureaucratic hurdles) when engaging or partnering with universities regarding research.
• An associated issue is ownership of any IP generate - in particular, universities tending to keep any resulting IP and then doing nothing with it and not proceeding to commercialise.
• Risk for universities (with respect to government funding) if they focus on commercialising  (compared to current focus on publishing research papers)
• What are the metrics by which universities and therefore government funding, are assessed?
• More ‘hackathons’ being run (and, what level of involvement universities vs corporates have).
• Education within universities - need to teach uni students the importance of IP (also of the practical, business focused skills, not just the theory of whatever courses the students are undertaking
• The world is full of highly educated, unsuccessful people ie how do we encourage and facilitate well educated people to be more innovation and less risk averse, what incentives (financial or otherwise) are there or should there be in this regard.

Perth

• Private sector needs to engage better with universities
• Small/mid business relationship development with universities (transparency).
• Undergraduate degrees in science, lack courses on teaching about business, legal structures and raising funds, we are too focused on single disciplines.
• How to commercialise products
• Need to ensure robustness of product eg new technology ensuring security
• Lack of commitment to innovation, requires a medium to long term investment in R&D before profitable product is available.
• Smaller Companies/individuals do not have support available to them ike larger corporates to obtain financial supports
• Innovative technologies that help assess whether ideas/innovation opportunities can be successful. Brings groups and innovators together.
• Governments working better with companies that have business plans that aim to support innovation and create partnerships with capital funding
• Impact of technology and advancement of technology → what can technology replace (new technology replacing need for human involvement).
• Governments adopt a more structured approach to simplify and support innovation and entrepreneurs → commerce can assist government with this ie ROI focus, investment techniques/advice
• Leadership creates and fosters innovation culture
• Problems with resistance to change
• It’s about getting rid of fear and rewarding risk appetite
• Barriers → small country, tall poppy syndrome, too much focus on primary industry, Australian industrial sector for innovative partnerships is limited - needs to be broader
• Fear of failure, fear of taking risks - linked to financial support. Failure means experience and learning
• Government’s role - assisting younger people with funding etc overseas representative to assist inbound investment information about government initiatives is not widely available, get connected t o government information about partnerships and collaboration.
• Universities - they are doing enough, put people and technology together to foster creation in an innovative environment. Good at promoting creation, perhaps more focus on IP
• Science, tech, engineering, maths, shortage of graduates who have the full complement of skills
• Creating linkages - helping fund accelerator programs/incubators - fostering partnerships between students and industry = market ready
• Science graduates having difficulty gaining employment
• Weakness - tapping into experience could be improved, lack of recognition

Melbourne

• Funding - being the small player
• Partnering - with larger firms
• No one willing to take the risk
• Don’t appreciate protecting IP - lack of knowledge
• Lack of awareness of protections
• Lack of information provided or it is hard to access
• Advertising of info event is poor
• Lack of education within universities
• People concerned about loss of control from investors
• Lack of understanding of how to structure business
• Founders not prepared to ‘give something for something’.
• ‘Scary’ taking on big companies, lack of risk culture/appetite
• Grant systems are very complex, most target large companies
• Structuring of incentives and grants needs improvement
• Up to Government to create innovative environment
• Compared to california, easy to access grant etc
• Australia needs easy to access and easy to understand programs
• Government needs a big picture pan, and to look where money is invested, strategic decision making
• Collaboration between all sectors
• Find people with innovative talent and engage with them
• Revolutionize funding
• Make Australia attractive to overseas investors
• Improve education, for future specific jobs. Radical overhaul of education system, stem must be as basic as literacy
• Support failures → teach/grow risk appetite
• Create collaborative / supportive communities, funders, inventor, students
• Partnerships between startups, universities and investors etc
• Funding models are wrong → focus on big business, don’t focus on collaboration, need to increase R&D funding with faster returns
• Reduce barriers to funding
• Connect smart people and smart money
• Lack of leadership vision, everything is ‘short term’ and not ‘long term’
• Political system is not unified
• Reductions in tax incentives is an issue
• People need to stand up and demand change to increase engagement
• Issues at the foundation level - Education
• Getting a foot in the door to engage with government is needed
• They need to structure better and lead an innovative Australia
• Compared to Israel, we need to look at models such as this
• Use resources better based on models that work
• Education → forced to specialise too early
• Create an infrastructure for innovation
• No collaboration is present between fields of study
• Look to other successful innovation communities
• Incubators → not all people need to do a full course, universities are too business minded
• Best time for innovation to be pushed is now, the mining boom is on the decline and it is needed for sustainability within the Australian economy
• Application of innovation in a fast paced environment is new, and everyone must participate: SME’s, corporates, schools, students
• Collaborating across all government departments
• Trying to push more R&D across QLD and preparing the state for disruption
• Companies to take on research, building on what’s already there, business of protecting IP, saying you can’t patent instead of patenting everything would be a starting point
• How to lead a culture of innovation and build a culture within government
• Allow employees to take risks, set KPI’s around failure
• Government must incentivise collaboration to find new ventures etc
• People need to focus on challenges and opportunities for them
• Put the issue out to everyone, not just particular groups for tender, let go of the idea you have a solution
• Commercialisation guidelines are too rigid, application with innovation to take worldwide
• Seed capital getting connection; passion, funding, different states in seed funding, right at the beginning and creating the right support network.
• Mentors needed to point in the right direction, with commercial experience. Government should have a role in this, IP and legal help if turnover is under $500,000; funding movement should indicate a create Australia
• Culture of failure →  schools not allowing children to fail, start young
• Culture of business → doing the same things repeatedly
• Competitiveness - two products with the same idea should encourage and discuss openly
• Trust should be established through NDA
• Universities have to encouragement to involve community. Need to promote partnership deals with business.
• Innovation culture has to start in primary school, working on team work
• Innovation needs to be part of staff/business KPIs otherwise workers go into deliverables
• Toxic cultures need to be avoided, the earlier we create culture the better, it's a mindset
• Funding options → tax incentives improved, R&D phases is the execution phases
• Education especially for small/new business → look at prior art, IP strategy, patent or design? Premature Disclosure.
• Marketing strategy - access to legal advice, financial resources, not understanding market and your company's technical/innovative point of difference. Collaboration.
• Federal/state roles - More education, effectiveness of registration, enforcement, financial incentives

2015 National Workshop Series

Brisbane - 1 July 2015

Pillar 1 - Productivity

A number of countries, including those without a surplus of natural resources, compared to Australia are highly innovative.

1. What can we learn from them?
2. What are Australia’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to innovation?
3. How best can we enhance and develop Australia’s innovative capabilities?

• “Filling a Box” → Incentive for whom?
• Need Mentorship/Access to Expertise?
• Government needs to show leadership in attracting investment/funding for innovation
• Crowd funding → no gate keeping of who gets what  
• We need a long-term vision, bipartisanship
• Build a culture of research and business boosting each other
• Look at UK tax concessions for investors
• People are unaware of available grants. GraThents are difficult to access and are not built with commercial business in mind.
• Stronger communication network → Industry needs to lobby government money more effectively
• Use superannuation to fund research
• No legislation to protect SME’s in the development stage before patent

Pillar II - Commercialisation

1. What do you think are the key features common in those organisations which have created a successful internal innovative culture and output?
2. Many organisations creating innovative products/services fail to maximise their available opportunities. Why do you think this may be so?
3. What do you consider are some practical measures by which organisations seeking to innovate can overcome the challenges they face?

• University research should be linked to commercialisation outcomes not research papers.
• Start with the end game in mind → What will come from these research efforts? Is it beneficial or just research?
• There is an urgency to get to the market. More time in the development stage can result in further innovation.
• Be prepared to test products in the market
• Start business debate on Patent Box in Australia

Pillar III - Innovation Culture

1. What do you understand to be the existing regulatory framework / legislative policies in Australia which impact on innovation?
2. What, if any, inhibitors to innovation are there within our economic and political environment?
3. What do State and Federal Governments need to change and/or improve in order to foster innovation?

• Better networking with incubators and other local providers to get the right resources to the right people.
• Thoughts on incubation programs? Talk to businesses directly to find out exactly what they need.
• Develop Silicon Valley culture on the country level, not the state level.
• Is the investment pathway broken? Do whatever it takes to bring investors on board.
• Do whatever it takes to get ALL employees involved.  
• How do we promote that culture where we are sharing ideas? → Risk culture in business! Payment doesn’t come without risk.
• How do we spread the innovation culture to other industries, such as the government? Knowledge share → get people together.
• Business support for employee share scheme
• Links between business and government and research institutions
• University collaborations
• Collaboration → Partnerships; reward structures based on innovation effort.
• Create the right structure to promote innovation and support projects → different approach for big business vs. startups
• Set a quarterly challenge to focus innovative thinking

Sydney - 29 July 2015

Pillar 1 - Productivity

A number of countries, including those without a surplus of natural resources, are, compared to Australia, highly innovative.

1. What can we learn from them?

• Visas - invest in startup companies, $5 mil minimum
• Abolish depreciation - immediate write offs, carry forward
• Existing regulatory frameworks/legislative policies in Australia which impact on Innovation → tax/write-off policies on IP
• Industry centives - big industry needs to go. Small industry

2. What are Australia’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to innovation?

• Lack of vision/ short-sightedness inhibits innovation
• Inflexible work practices
• Industrial relations/laws
• Must see innovation and productivity as a core mission of Australia
• Strengths - incredibly inventive. Do lots with little.
• Weaknesses - no fostering; financial experience lacking; rivalry between universities, private sector, no structures, no mentors, lack of QA/QC. Critical mass is lacking.
• Access to funding. Government / private funding/ super
• lack of consistency in policies, lack of vision

3. How best can we enhance and develop Australia’s innovative capabilities?

• Access to university education
• Support patents
• Educate children from a young age that success, failure and risk are good things.
• Incentives for researchers
• Venture capital fund/establishment
• Giving people freedom/autonomy to create and fail
• Universities - undergraduate level courses, postgraduate courses, foster a culture

Pillar II - Commercialisation

1. What do you think are the key features common in those organisations which have created a successful internal innovative culture and output?

• Be clear about what company is doing
• We are too focused with traditional energy
• Small companies with creative/interactive personalities.
• Well managed brilliant,eccentric, or talent outlier - the thinker with diverse experience and training, with the freedom to try
• Visionary leadership
• Foster open environment where people can be challenged
• No idea is dumb

2. Many organisations creating innovative products/services fail to maximise their available opportunities. Why do you think this may be so?

• Rigidity in thinking -- too slow, lack of capital, resources (talent).
• Having a financial interest and the opportunity for leadership by the right person.
• Lack of adequate resources (HR, money and time)
• Inherent conservatism
• Researchers expectation/industry gap expectations
• Connection with research

3. What do you consider are some practical measures by which organisations seeking to innovate can overcome the challenges they face?

• Provide freedom
• Focus on opportunity/need
• Collaborate externally

• Minimise internal conflict and define accountability
• Focus on what you are good at
• Need leadership who truly support innovation and an innovative staff
• Have uni’s participate in integrating commerce people with researchers eg. Link business students with faculty researchers with the objective of translating research to commercial products
• Having a financial interest and the opportunity for leadership by the right person. Cross industry fertilisation
• Understand the reality of no $ → fund it or move countries
• Make environment more flexible/predictable
• Business needs to be more inquisitive of beside the industry they are in

Pillar III - Innovation Culture

1. What do you understand to be the existing regulatory framework / legislative policies in Australia which impact on innovation?

• Inflexible work practices
• Industrial relations/laws
• Barriers to employment - unfair dismissal
• ESOPs - employee share option plans
• third party contractors/flexible contracting
• Complacency kills. For australia its too easy - we make money other ways. No fostering of intellect. No sovereign wealth funds. No national initiative.

2. What, if any, inhibitors to innovation are there within our economic and political environment?

• Cultural
• Use superannuation to fund research
• Incentives for researchers
• Commercialisation pathways
• Politcs is inherently conservative and risk adverse
• Tax system/regulatory obstacles/complexity

3. What do State and Federal Governments need to change and/or improve in order to foster innovation?

• Tax System : R&D Tax Incentive
• Governmental infrastructure not connected/streamlined
• Politics are inherently conservative/ Risk averse
• Australia needs to be tolerant of failure - most startups will fail
• Election cycles are too short, thus we think short-term.

Live Q&A

• How do we change the complacency?

• We have to get the critical mass.
• Change the way we do things
• Start a conversation
• Executives need to spend time understanding the problems

• How do we promote translational research mechanisms internally and outside the country?

• Bring in world class expertise
• Money is not the problem. We must change the model and begin to think in a different way.
• Develop motivational tools

• How do we break cultural barriers in productivity?

• Inject KPI’s and vision of deliverables
• Define areas of need
• PPP with conditions and KPIs
• Need a society to value intellect from an early age
• People need to be paid at market rate
• Group industry professionals together to advise government

• How do we break cultural barriers with academics entering industry and attempting to return to academia?

• Targeting of funds
• Incentives from Universities
• Better mix of industry professionals and academics

Perth - 5 August 2015

Pillar 1 - Productivity

A number of countries, including those without a surplus of natural resources, are, compared to Australia, highly innovative.

1. What can we learn from them?

• More focus on science, coding, tech early on in the education process
• Understand there is a lag time to STEM based R&D Projects
• Systems and cultures that value industry, uni collaboration
• We should follow the lead of Japan and Germany both of which still have heavy industry as a significant part of their economy
• Naturally optimistic outlook to the USA; Appetite for risk, Junior explorers; translating the appetite for risk outside of the resources industry (weakness); business incentives to invest in new technology
• Resources, water and renewable energy,

2. What are Australia’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to innovation?

• Lack of collaboration hubs
• those who are passionate about helping starts up cant get paid
•  Strengths: Centre of Excellence for Mining and Exploration
• Weaknesses: Lack of diversity in leadership, lack of questions and diversity of thought. Funding for education

  ---

• Strengths, people, geographical location
• More needs to be invested in high education, innovation, research

3. How best can we enhance and develop Australia’s innovative capabilities

• Celebrate our innovation heroes right early at primary school level
• Government to set a mandate
• Commitment by government
• The mind is forced to work better, to be more enterprising when you are poor/do not have resources. For example minds in WA soon start to be more creative, innovative
• Enhance collaboration - through diversity!
• R&D budgets to facilitate the connections built with solutions and problems
• promote what we have achieved to attract international collaboration/investment
• We need a long term national innovation plan; Specialise in say 6-10 areas
• Be prepared to take risk
• Properly fund education
• We are in a good position on being in Australia. WA resources helped the whole Australia’s export  prosperity, now is our time to work in partnership with the eastern states to be more innovative.
• To work in partnership with whole Australia and overseas
• Ask questions, collaboration, Admitting/knowing that you don't know, funding - government and private
• Focus and investment in innovation
• Long term plan, vision, programs focusing on stem starting at pre-school
• Best practices, sustainability of investment, incentives for private enterprise enhancement
• Think innovation - globally and scale up; structural cause to promote/encourage drive innovation between capital and government
• Culture of investment is core. Australia Investment = real estate + ASX Top 200. OUtside that we consider the reward greater than the risk. Australian’s don’t like risk. Changing culture takes decades

Pillar II - Commercialisation

1. What do you think are the key features common in those organisations which have created a successful internal innovative culture and output?

• Patience, leadership, good understanding, systematic approach
• Innovative culture with processes and policies to back up
• Open to ideas; investment; conviction of where market is going - longevity
• Recognition and reward, flexibility and open approach
• Entrepreneurial spirit; acceptance of change, understanding of risks
• Tenacity, passionate champion

2. Many organisations creating innovative products/services fail to maximise their available opportunities. Why do you think this may be so?

• Not balancing opportunity VS rigid plan
• Insufficient protection
• Commercialisation to be part of the R&D strategy
• Understand the market, understand the value proposition
• Employees must be allow to try and fail
• Timing; promotion; reliance on rebates
• Operational flows; short term incentives
• Go it alone, no broad support system, immature industry
• Risk, fear, financial buffer

3. What do you consider are some practical measures by which organisations seeking to innovate can overcome the challenges they face?

• Implement an innovation and/or commercialisation team
• Culture that allows failure
• Create supportive internal R&D processes; task risk; employe ‘out-of-industry’ people
• Use super as a funding tool

Pillar III - Innovation Culture

1. What do you understand to be the existing regulatory framework / legislative policies in Australia which impact on innovation?

• Help for small business with regulators; ability to meet with regulators (PDA offer this); one on one support; get it right from the start
• We are in a global environment; need to offer support/concessions at all level of the process: R&D, Commercialisation, Tax

2. What, if any, inhibitors to innovation are there within our economic and political environment?
3. What do State and Federal Governments need to change and/or improve in order to foster innovation?

• Make R&D or innovation part of leadership culture
• Conforming is driving out innovation in schools. Everyone’s a winner, no incentive to drive to stand out
• Encourage innovation from an early age, think outside the box

Melbourne - 12 August 2015

Pillar 1 - Productivity

A number of countries, including those without a surplus of natural resources, are, compared to Australia, highly innovative.

4. What can we learn from them?
5. What are Australia’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to innovation?
6. How best can we enhance and develop Australia’s innovative capabilities

• Question 1

• We need to incubate innovative IP
• How do others invest? Not just capital, e.g. Super
• Companies build next door universities e.g. Cambridge
• Study other countries innovation strategy by going to the country and experiencing what they do.

• Question 2

• Strengths in Innovation:

• Google map, Solar

• Weaknesses:

• Mindset
• No incubators in Australia between industry and science
• Innovation is only recognized if you make a lot of money

• Questions 3

• Overall bi-partisan private business collaboration to IP
• Disconnect universities from pressure of funding
• Pay universities to work for 3 months in industry

Pillar II - Commercialisation

4. What do you think are the key features common in those organisations which have created a successful internal innovative culture and output?
5. Many organisations creating innovative products/services fail to maximise their available opportunities. Why do you think this may be so?
6. What do you consider are some practical measures by which organisations seeking to innovate can overcome the challenges they face?

Pillar III - Innovation Culture

4. What do you understand to be the existing regulatory framework / legislative policies in Australia which impact on innovation?
5. What, if any, inhibitors to innovation are there within our economic and political environment?
6. What do State and Federal Governments need to change and/or improve in order to foster innovation?

• Question 1

• Intellectual Property : Provision patents too short. Organic evolution 1 year
• Companies and government need a long term view
• Israeli government model of innovation - panel is government funding
• Grant system is too limiting - too much work
• Incentives for commercialising your IP
• Patent Box

• Question 2

• Superannuation invest in ILC. No small businesses
• Bipartisan approach to R&D - not limited to political terms
• Funding is a key inhibitor to innovation  - no incentives within a lot of companies; no government funding for innovative activities
• Lack of VC market and poor tax structures to assist in the distribution of risk

• Question 3

• Incentive for super funds in innovative countries
• 1% GDP on innovation is too low
• Keep innovative people in Australia -- do not send abroad
• Make innovation part of the education system

LIVE Q&A

• What are the expectations from boosting commercial return research?

• KPI’s - lack of understanding, no hard edges
• Scared of losing money and status

• What are the roles of rewards in the innovation process?

• Recognizing innovative activity and how much profit this generates
• Innovation as a naturally occurring part of the business
• We tend reward the individuals rather than the group - not optimal since it is very much team based
• Recognition over reward

• What is the focus on super funding for small and medium sized businesses?

• Larger companies investing in SME’s
• Government emphasis on how to assist the SME’s
• people feel they do not have the knowledge to invest in the sector

• Why is the provisional patent only one year?

• the period is to incentivize the development quickly