High quality, innovative research and development

The 2006 World Competitiveness Yearbook ranks Australia:

• Seventh for R&D expenditure per capita for countries with a population over 20 million;
• Ninth for expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP at 1.76 per cent;
• Ninth for the availability of Information Technology skills, ahead of Japan and the United Kingdom;
• Sixth for technological cooperation after the USA, Canada and Germany;
• Third for development and application of technology, after the USA and Canada but well above Germany (seventh) and Japan (eighth);
• Seventh for funding of technological developments; and,
• Tenth for total expenditure on R&D.¹

The total ICT R&D expenditure in Australia is nearly $3 billion² per annum accounting for approximately 25 per cent of gross expenditure³ on R&D. Australia's R&D in the ICT sector is concentrated in the research fields of information, computing and communications sciences, and accounts for approximately 74 per cent of private and 77 per cent of public R&D expenditure.

The Australian Government's science and innovation package, Backing Australia’s Ability – Building our Future through Science and Innovation is a ten year, $8.3 billion funding commitment stretching from 2001-02 to 2010-11. Backing Australia’s Ability represents a commitment to pursue excellence in research, science and technology, through three key themes:  

• the generation of new ideas (research and development);
• the commercial application of ideas; and
• developing and retaining skills.

In May 2007 the Australian Government released its Industry Statement, which contains a variety of government initiatives to support R&D. In particular, the Australian Government has extended eligibility of the R&D tax concession. The new changes mean multinationals in Australia will be eligible to access a 175% Premium Tax Concession on incremental spending on R&D where the intellectual property is not held in Australia. It's predicted that more than 300 companies will use the concession annually under this new arrangement. The new industry statement expands on the initiatives arising from Backing Australia's Ability.

Quality

Australian computer science and engineering academics and researchers are highly regarded by the international community. They have contributed to many leading milestone scientific discoveries and commercial developments, including: being credited with developing what is thought to be the world's first multimedia computer in 19514; EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale); the Black Box Flight Recorder; Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, the silicon on sapphire semiconductor; and, the worlds first Mobile Location Centre (MLC) capable of pinpointing a mobile subscriber's geographical location in real time to assist emergency services teams.

In 2006, Australian researchers developed the world's fastest gigabit per second point to point connection. Rated at six gigabits per second the connection was capable of transferring a DVD in less than ten seconds. In addition, Australian researchers developed the adaptive frequency-hopping technology for Bluetooth, used in personal data assistants, cell phones and other devices.

Quantity

Prolific ICT research
 
Industry plays a leading role in developing business solutions through applied ICT technology and this is reflected in the leadership taken by the private sector in R&D, with strong support from world-class universities and government facilities.

More then 50 per cent of all gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) was in engineering and ICT. Since 1996-97, GERD has increased by an average of 9.9% per year. Australia ranks seventh out of OECD nations in terms of its annual growth rate in this measure.

In 2004-05, Business Expenditure on Research and Development (BERD) increased for the sixth consecutive year to A$8.4 billion, an increase of 10.4 per cent on 2003-04, compared to a 10.2 per cent increase the year before.

The majority of BERD in 2004–05 was conducted in the research fields of engineering and technology (A$4.8 billion or 57.1 per cent) and information, computing and communication sciences ($2.2 billion or 26.2 per cent).

Major ICT research fields where R&D expenditure occurred were in Computer software ($815m) and Information systems ($707m), tracking at 35 per cent and 31 per cent respectively.

Infrastructure

Research and development infrastructure

Australia is home to high quality research infrastructure and facilities. Several Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) have already established facilities in Australia for R&D including; NEC, Novell, Alcatel, Honeywell and Toshiba. Through the Backing Australia's Ability initiative, the Australian Government will commit over A$3 billion to enhancing Australia's R&D capabilities.

Within Australia, the three most significant centres for ICT research are:

• CSIRO – ICT Centre – www3.ict.csiro.au
  The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is Australia's largest publicly funded research agency and one of the largest and most diverse research organisations in the world. The CSIRO ICT Centre is the hub for ICT research at the CSIRO. Australian industries are enthusiastic adopters of ICT solutions so the Centre focuses its ICT research in areas where its work has the potential to create competitive advantage for Australia as well as leading to globally adopted solutions. The Centre actively develops partnerships with businesses and governments to create paths to market for their research results.
• National ICT Australia (NICTA) – www.nicta.com.au
  Australia's ICT Centre of Excellence, NICTA is Australia's premier ICT specific research body, employing 300 researchers and over 200 PhD students in strategically important areas of ICT.
• The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) – www.dsto.defence.gov.au
  DSTO is responsible for ensuring expert, impartial and innovative application of science and technology to meet national security needs.

ICT CRCs

The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program focuses on collaborative links between industry, research and educational organisations. Several exist in the ICT sector.

Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (acid) - QLD – www.interactiondesign.com.au
acid conducts research in interaction design and user experience design. Its research activities are conducted across five foundation projects:

• suburban communities;
• creative communities;
• virtual communities;
• indigenous communities; and,
• beyond :30 seconds: new models of television advertising.

Audience research is the core activity of the programme which will then be translated into other initiatives including content production, application development and hardware solutions.

Contact: Professor Jeff Jones +61 7 3337 7821

Capital Markets CRC (Evolution of an existing CRC) - NSW – www.cmcrc.com
The Capital Markets CRC focuses on the design and operation of cross market, real-time fraud detection services in the securities markets.

The CRC examines information technology, security market design/microstructure, compliance systems, experimental markets, corporate governance and securities legislation. This involves research in the areas of data mining, data management, data visualisation and language technology with the disciplines of finance, accounting and the law.

Contact: Professor Donald Stokes +61 2 9233 7999

CRC for Spatial Information - VIC – www.crcsi.com.au
The CRCSI works to identify Australia's future spatial information needs and seeks innovative solutions to these needs. The CRCSI aims to accelerate industry growth, generate intellectual property, seek efficiency gains for government, and better position the research and education programs of universities and other institutions.

Additional funding provided in 2006, will allow the CRCSI to deliver high quality spatial information services to the vast rural and regional areas of Australia through a combination of emerging spatial technologies on existing corporate information systems.

Contact: Mr Peter Woodgate +61 3 8344 9213

Smart Services CRC (Evolution of an existing CRC) - NSW – www.smartinternet.com.au
Smart Internet Technology CRC's (Smart Internet) key purpose is to develop new technologies in the Smart Internet arena, carrying out research into disruptive Internet technologies that have global commercial opportunity. Smart Internet combines research in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Social Interaction and Network Development to create enabling technologies for smart Internet applications that will allow users and network providers to manage the complexity of the Internet.

Contact: Professor Darrell Williamson +61 2 8374 5080

¹ World Competitiveness Yearbook 2006
² Total ICT R&D is the sum of private and public sector expenditure on ICT research fields. Total ICT R&D was calculated using private sector data for 2003-04 and public sector data for 2002-03 purchased from the ABS – DCITA Click here
³ Gross expenditure is the sum of all research fields for both the public and provate sectors. Gross expenditure was calculated using datasets purchased from the ABS – DCITA Click here
⁴ www.abc.net.au/science/slab/csirac/default.htm