The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) has welcomed the vision for innovation and prosperity recently outlined by Anthony Albanese’s Future Made In Australia Act.
ATSE has long called for ambitious action to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of Australia in energy, manufacturing, advanced technologies and more.
The ATSE state such action will crucially help arrest Australia’s slowing productivity growth and declining economic complexity that puts us at 93rd in the World.
“Australian research and innovation will be the driving force behind our future prosperity. Australia cannot afford to neglect R&D any longer,” said ATSE chief executive officer, Kylie Walker.
The prime minister has called for ideas to allow Australia to best capitalise on our comparative advantages and invest in new industries.
According to the ATSE, Australia’s science, research and innovation sector will need to lead the way in this transformation – developing new industries, skills, products and opportunities for the nation.
In order to enable this the ATSE state a step change is needed, as a first step, they are calling on the government to boost investment in research and development (R&D) to 3 per cent of GDP.
“The Prime Minister has said the world won’t wait for us. He’s right. We need an immediate and sustained increase in R&D funding to make sure Australia doesn’t get left behind,” said Walker.
ATSE reports, Australian investment in R&D has reached a 30-year low. With the nation only spend 1.68 per cent of our GDP on R&D.
Meanwhile, our competitors are growing their R&D spending, with the USA, Japan, Germany and many other developed countries spending over 3 per cent of their GDP on R&D each year.
ATSE looks forward to working with the Australian Government as this plan is developed and implemented. Australia’s leading scientist, technologists and engineers stand ready support Australia’s innovation future.
The ATSE has announced the recently development high-impact proposals that directly support the aims of the Future Made in Australia plan:
- Establish better coordination of, and clear objectives for, government procurement processes to help the government better invest in emerging Australian technologies.
- Develop a whole-of-government research funding strategy to get new ideas from conception to commercialisation.
- Invest in the establishment of a circular economy for renewable energy products to allow Australians to use and re-use Australian minerals in Australian-made products.
- Fully implement the Diversity in STEM review to ensure Australia’s best and brightest are working to come up with new ideas for the nation.
- Expand the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan to ensure every student is taught by a specialist science teacher, and invest in digital infrastructure for regional rural and remote schools.
