Presentación Michael Sargent

M A Sargent & Associates

Michael Sargent

Santiago, January 22nd, 2010


Why Use-Inspired Research?

Society

Industry

Resources

R&D

Improved Society

Improved Industry

New Industry

NewOpportunities

New Industry

Use Inspired Research

Knowledge Inspired Research


The Changing Face of Research

• Research

• Researcher

• Environment

• Data

• Fundamentals

DisciplineMulti-DisciplineTrans-DisciplineInter-Discipline

Individual Large Teams

Competitive Collaborative

Constrained Limitless

Synthesis Analysis

The Driver of Change:The capabilities of modern research infrastructure to produce, manage and analyse data


World class innovation =

world class innovators .

world class research infrastructure.

world class collaborative environments

World class innovation = world class innovators


Distribution of R&D Expenditure

Australia 2007/8 Chile 20100%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

0.1358024691358020.191304347826087

0.308641975308642

0.447826086956522

0.358024691358025

0.180434782608696

0.197530864197531 0.180434782608696

State Expenditures on R&D

BusinessMission orientatedBasic + Applied ResearchHuman capital


Collaborations

Desire to Use

Desire to

Know

CONICYTnow

CORFOnow

Where Chileneeds to increase

effort


Key Australian policy outcomes

• Centres for cooperative research between universities and industry

– Since 1991 168 centres funded, with 48 currently active involving 1230 companies

– BERD now 1.27% taking Australia to top 10 of GERD as a % of GDP

• Improved proportion of post-graduate qualifications– Postgraduate qualified people are now about 5% of workforce

– nearly 30% of tertiary students -over 250 000- are post-graduate students

• Support for entrepreneurship– Seed funds, incubators, start-up grants,technology transfer

organisations, entrepreneurs-in-residence

• Community outreach programs


Research Infrastructure Categories

Institution Project Integrated Systemic Landmark

Block Grants

Competitive GrantsCollaborative

Project Investment

Increasing international significanceIncreasing level of funding and commitmentIncreased need for collaborative engagement, nationally and internationallyIncreased competition for resources and funds

$1M$10M

$100M

$1 000M


Collaborative Infrastructure Principles

• Investments should enhance R&D contributions to national priority goals

• Focus on areas where the country is, or potentially is, world-class and can provide international leadership

• Development on a collaborative, national basis to serve the research and innovation system broadly

• Access is a critical issue. There should be as few barriers as possible to accessing major infrastructures

• Consideration of whole-of-life costs and operational funding where appropriate


Some Important Gaps

• ICT Infrastructure– no group had an overview of the needs and strategies for systemic

intervention

• Bioinformatics– organic development in silos of effort and information

• Data accessibility– traditional empires of control


Collaborative Research Infrastructure Impacts

• provides access by universities and industry to leading edge research infrastructure

• improves the quality of research

• facilitates interaction and innovative interaction across the research and innovation system

• enables new ways of conducting research

• provides opportunities for new types of research

• attracts and retains high quality researchers


Distribution of R&D Expenditure

Category Aus ($A)

Aus (%)

Chile Chile (%)

AdvHumCap 1.1 14 88 19

Basic Res 2.5 31 207 45

Mission Res 2.9 36 83 18

Bus Innov 1.6 20 83 18

Total 8.1 461


Some Observations

• Collaboration at researcher, institutional and government levels is essential

• Governance and access regimes are key determinants of success

• Strategic intent underpins rational prioritisation of investments

• Strategic review provides a living framework for ongoing investment

• Cultural change in the research sector is a key issue

• (Full time) Operations resources are the key resource for sustainable investments and open access - and yet are the scarcest and most under-respected resource in the system -until you have to find them

• The link between research descriptions and infrastructure descriptions is rarely a one-to-one match, so trans-disciplinary discussions on strategies are important

• Systemic needs (eg modelling platforms, data management and fusion) are rarely effectively articulated as a part of the investment proposals

• The larger the investment the more socio-economic groups you are competing with


National Research Priorities

• Australia’s National Research Priorities are:

An environmentally sustainable Australia

Promoting and maintaining good health

Frontier technologies and transforming Australian industries

Safeguarding Australia

• National Research Priorities are designed to focus the Australian Government’s research effort into those areas that can deliver significant economic, social and environmental benefits to Australia.


A Reality Check

• GDP of US$800M (PPP) (about 5% of USA’s)

• GDP/capita on par with the 4 dominant Western economies

• Australia ranks globally 19th in size of economy– only about 5% of the size of the economies we like to compare ourselves with

• Australia ranks barely in the top 20 of nations in innovative activity

• In the OECD, Australia is:– in the second highest quartile in researchers per 1000 employment– in the middle quartile for venture capital investment as % GDP– in the bottom quartile of trade intensity

• 97% of R&D output occurs outside Australia

Smarter, focussed, cohesive

Australia has a strong robust economy, an innovative socio-economic structure, and a market-oriented economy. It has :

However:


Barriers

• Collaborative action required– funding regime predominantly competitive or short-term project

collaboration

• Access to facilities– hidden costs borne by ‘owner’ and not met by research funding

programs

• Sustainability and strategic evolution of activity– no ongoing process to review currency and relevance


Defining Research Infrastructure Capabilities

• Survey existing infrastructure

• Use of focus groups and consultation to ‘translate’ from the research theme to the underpinning research infrastructure requirements

• Use expert groups to define broad scope of capability required

• Use steering committee to identify overlaps and gaps, and barriers to access and usage

Research

Themes

ResearchInfrastructur

eCapabilities


Access and Pricing Principles

nfrastructure should be accessible by all classes of researchers including - meritorious researchers (these include research students and early career researchers); commercial users; and international users.

The terms of access should be transparent to users and potential users.

Pricing formeritorious researchers should not exceed the marginal cost of providing access

Co-investors will have a preferential price position compared with others


Governance Principles

• Governance arrangements for each capability should be relevant to the proposed strategic investment plan, and ensure:

– adequate oversight of the investment– oversight of the operations of the facility– management of the access and pricing regimes– coordination between partners– annual review of the strategic position, relevance and value of the

facilities• The governing body must provide:

– an investment and operating plan for the five year funding period– an access and pricing plan– an annual report of activities– an annual business plan for the following year

Governance arrangements may vary between capabilities, ranging from companies through unincorporated joint ventures


Some Questions

• Do we know what we have?

• Do we know what we need?

• Is what we have being used effectively?

• If not, what are the reasons for this?

• If we need to make further investments, what investments?

• If we need to make further investments, how should we do this?

The answer to all these were: we don't know

Technology

Presentación Michael Sargent