Today's meeting of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation
Council has focussed on the importance of innovation to Australia's future
as a can-do country.
The Council's fourth meeting, held in Canberra, discussed the National Innovation
Summit, to be held in Melbourne in February 2000.
The Summit will identify concrete steps for the development of a more innovative
culture in Australia, translating ideas and research into new jobs and new
opportunities. The three themes of the Summit are investing in ideas, creating
a competitive environment and building industry - research linkages.
Today's PMSEIC meeting also identified the success of the Australian wine
industry as a great example of how research that is closely aligned with
industry needs and effectively transferred into practice can play a key
role in industry development.
It was agreed that other industries should be encouraged to develop close
linkages with research bodies and effective ways of adopting new practices
and technology.
Valuable ideas for developing a more co-ordinated national strategy for
science and technology awareness were also discussed. The proposition that
'champions' and 'ambassadors' of science and technology be adopted to promote
awareness will be further investigated.
A presentation was made to the Council on nanotechnology, an exciting new
frontier in science and technology which is already generating real opportunities
in biomedical, computing and materials applications.
The Council is the Government's principal source of advice on issues in
science, engineering and innovation and aspects of education, research and
training. Members are drawn from Australia's business, research and engineering
bodies.
Copies of the papers presented to Council members can be found at the PMSEIC
homepage, under details of the fourth Council meeting at: