Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics: Inquiry into Australia’s Innovation System

This submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics inquiry into Australia’s innovation system maintains that Australia knows broadly what is needed to be more innovative but lacks a consistent, coordinated approach across governments and portfolios. Noting that state and territory governments spent about $1.3 billion on R&D in 2011–12 and regulate areas such as clinical trials, Research Australia recommends a national ‘whole of governments’ innovation strategy, including a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) reform agenda item on innovation, that sets out benefits, mechanisms, relevant policies, evaluation measures and an appropriate ratio of research to innovation funding. It maintains that research funding should prioritise knowledge creation and excellence, with separate, complementary innovation funding, including milestone-based follow-on funding for proof-of-principle work. It supports collaborative research–industry grants, career paths that value commercial experience and re-entry from industry, continued commercialisation support, and access to de-identified public data, including linkage of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Medicare data with hospital and registry data. On health care, a sector spending around $140 billion a year, it cites National Health Performance Authority reports and the CareTrack study on variation and gaps in appropriate care, and recommends funding for health systems research, clinician research roles, research buy-outs for general practitioners, implementation and comparative effectiveness research, change management and decision support tools. It proposes extending the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s mandate to efficiency and giving it capacity to fund evaluation of innovative practices through the NHMRC, and sees the proposed Medical Research Future Fund as a source of translation funding.