As Australians prepared for the federal election in May, there was a natural tendency to provoke thinking on how candidates across the political spectrum may set and then execute new policy which drives our nation forward. One area receiving little focus from the politicians, but of great importance, is the approach we take as a nation to innovation. Some great commentary has been provided in recent weeks from industry associations such as ACS, AIIA and StartupAus on what we could do to strive for better – such as that captured neatly in this article by The Australian Financial Review.
Of course government does provide a number of programs to assist startups in developing innovative products and services. Shark Tank’s Steve Baxter, one of Australia’s leading investors and entrepreneurs, shared with me a recent blog he posted which details a number of these programs. The blog highlights, in Steve’s inimitable style, that there is a lot of choose from once you know where to look.
Academia have long been strong leaders in the development of innovative ideas in Australia, and are getting better and better at engaging with industry to co-create innovations which strive for better outcomes. For example, Swinburne University of Technology launched its new Data for Social Good Cloud Innovation Centre (CIC) for Australia, powered by Amazon Web Services at the AWS Summit in Sydney on 1 May. The centre is the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. It will use innovative cloud technologies and intelligent data analytics to solve real-world health, wellbeing and social challenges affecting Australians.
Sky News has recently been screening a new show titled The Innovation Forum. The show explores issues, challenges and triumphs relating to education, policy, creativity, planning and all things which contribute to the growth of Australia’s innovation industries. A recent episode featured our own Global Digital Leader for GHD, Kumar Parakala. On the show Kumar called for Australia to introduce more innovation hubs right across the nation to provide platforms for new thinking in many different areas so that new visions for a better future can start to attract more direct investment into our economy.
I recently chaired a CEDA panel on Chasing Moonshots with leading luminaries in the Australian innovation space. Dr Charlie Day, the CEO of the federal government independent statutory board Innovation and Science Australia summed up the situation nicely by stating that Australia needs to provide the right platforms that enable us to remove barriers so we can get innovation right, rather than having regulatory or industry constraints pulling us down based on what we think may go wrong.
In May, GHD is hosting our Smart Seeds program in over 10 cities around Australia. Smart Seeds provides an innovation platform for emerging leaders from within GHD and from our client organisations to a use a design-led process to solve complex industry challenges. Since 2012, this program has allowed GHD to work together with our clients to create lasting community benefit by reimagining a better future. Hundreds of excellent ideas have been generated over that time, with many of them implemented by our clients. We also recently launched AquaLab, GHD Digital’s innovation program for our clients in the water industry. It was created to foster the co-creation of leading-edge digital solutions to address challenges facing the water industry now and in the future.
For us to strive for a better future in Australia, it is incumbent on all of us to do our part, whether large or small, to contribute to innovation that can drive our country forward. Collective collaboration between government, industry and academia is essential for us to continue to provide innovation of global relevance.
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