Parliament House,
Canberra, ACT
[check against delivery]
NICTA is an essential part of Australia’s innovation system.
It is helping to create advanced technologies that will be the everyday tools of tomorrow.
It is helping to train researchers and build research teams that can address our most pressing challenges.
Innovation is about solving problems – whether they be economic, social or environmental.
The technology is often exciting, but it is ultimately a means to an end.
Innovation isn’t about adding bells and whistles.
It’s about improving people’s lives.
Innovation
Few industries understand this better than the information and communication technology sector.
The latest ABS figures suggest it is our most active innovator.
Forty-six per cent of businesses in information, media and telecommunications introduced an innovation in 2006-07.
That’s well above the average for all businesses of 32 per cent, and just above second-placed manufacturing on 44 per cent.
Equally impressive is the fact that 35 per cent of firms said they used information technology skills in their innovation activities – no other category of skills rated higher than that.
Moreover, most ICT innovation is driven by the private sector.
Australia spent $2.5 billion on ICT research and development in 2004-05, and $2.2 billion of that – or 87 per cent – was spent by business.
This was well above the business share of R&D spending overall, which was 54 per cent.
Collaboration
One of the best ways to boost our innovation capacity and performance is through collaboration.
The Australian ICT industry ranks near the top of the table for collaboration on innovation in general, and on R&D in particular.
Most of that collaboration is with clients, suppliers, competitors and consultants rather than the formal research sector, but NICTA is demonstrating just what can be achieved when researchers and industry team up to work on real-world problems.
NICTA has built strong links to business, governments, research agencies and universities – links that facilitate knowledge transfer and stimulate new ideas.
The trend internationally is for innovation to be driven by pull from users rather than by push from technology, and that is especially true of NICTA’s work.
The Embedded Systems Australia industry cluster established and led by NICTA is a prime example.
Other participants include Microsoft, Cochlear, Resmed, and Canon Information Systems Research Australia.
Their focus is on computer systems built into devices to perform specific functions.
These systems drive technologies ranging from MP3 players and mobile phones, to medical equipment, traffic lights and modern industrial plant.
Meanwhile, NICTA has recently appointed Dr John Parker – previously of Cochlear – to guide the development of next-generation medical implant technologies that will make it possible to create smaller and more sophisticated medical devices.
Projects like these generate new commercial opportunities and have the potential to deliver significant economic benefits – but that’s only part of the story.
They also have the potential to increase the wellbeing of individuals and communities.
They can make Australian society stronger, safer and more inclusive.
Internationalisation
Australia produces a huge amount of research per capita, but the fact remains that most of the world’s knowledge is created elsewhere.
If we want to tap that knowledge – and participate in solving global problems – we need to be part of networks and collaborations that extend far beyond our own shores.
NICTA is already attracting eminent researchers and promising students from around the world.
Overseas research organisations have paid it the very high compliment of studying its approach with a view to adopting it as their own.
NICTA's growing international reputation opens up global opportunities for the centre itself and for the Australian ICT industry.
For example, NICTA is participating in a collaborative project called OneLab2 under the auspices of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development.
The project aims to revolutionise the way information is delivered over large networks, including the Internet.
It is worth 8.9 million euros, with 6.3 million euros coming from the EU, and the balance from the participants.
Projects like these put Australia in touch with top European researchers, increase the chances of Australian research being taken up by European industry, and give Australia a share in the ownership of research outputs it may not otherwise have access to.
Planning for the Eighth Framework Program to begin in 2014 is already under way.
Like NICTA, I am keen to see Australia increase its involvement in what is the main instrument for funding research in Europe.
The future
The Economist's Intelligence Unit ranks Australia's ICT industry as the seventh most competitive in the world, and the second most competitive in the Asia-Pacific.
It employs more than a quarter of a million people directly, with tens of thousands more employed in ICT occupations across the economy.
A strong ICT industry needs strong research capabilities.
NICTA is going a long way towards providing those capabilities.
It is transforming the way we work, play and learn.
It is helping to make Australia more productive, more secure, better informed and better connected.
Just look around you and you will see what I mean.