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Towards an Australian Innovation Led Industrial Strategy: A Public Administration Perspective
Australia’s search for an industrial policy has been long and contested. Centralised models drawn from small unitary states do not fit the realities of a vast federation with diverse regional economies. This Insight argues that the way forward is mission-oriented and place-based: the Commonwealth defines national missions and platforms, while States and regions adapt and deliver through their own specialisations, building resilience, competitiveness, and innovation.

Dr John H Howard
2 days ago11 min read


Absorptive Capacity: The Missing Link in Australia’s R&D Collaboration Problem
University–industry ties are rising, but mainly with foreign firms. The real barrier is domestic absorptive capacity: many Australian SMEs lack R&D talent, systems to use outside knowledge, and resources to scale. Multinationals adopt our research, while local work stalls at TRL 6–7. Stop blaming universities. Industry must invest in skills, universities must back implementation, and government must support transfer agents. Without this, R&D returns will stay weak.

Dr John H Howard
6 days ago5 min read


Contacts, Connections, and Collaborations: Creating Value in Innovation Ecosystems
Innovation ecosystems often exist as dormant networks despite structural potential. The critical difference between contact lists and active collaboration lies in problem-focused interaction, trust-building, engagement, and governance mechanisms that align diverse organisational incentives. Successful activation requires shared challenges that demonstrate mutual value, system integrators that facilitate cross-sector engagement, and policy frameworks that reward collaborative

Dr John H Howard
Aug 196 min read


Towards a Globally Competitive Urban Innovation Ecosystem: Sydney’s Opportunity
Sydney has impressive innovation assets, top universities, vibrant tech, and leading health precincts, but underperforms as a unified ecosystem. With 33 councils and competing districts, the city lacks the integration seen in Amsterdam, Boston, Singapore. New research argues Sydney must stop mimicking Silicon Valley and instead build metropolitan-scale coordination, trusted intermediaries, and collaborative governance to turn fragmented brilliance into global competitive adv

Dr John H Howard
Aug 128 min read


The Personality Science of Startup Success: Policy Insights for Australia's Innovation Economy
Research analysing 26,000+ startups globally reveals founder personalities predict success with 82.5% accuracy. Teams combining diverse personality types are twice as likely to achieve successful exits. Six distinct founder personalities identified, from technical "Fighters" to business-focused "Leaders." For Australian innovation policy, this suggests moving beyond supporting individual entrepreneurs to fostering personality-diverse founding teams through redesigned policies

Dr John H Howard
Aug 86 min read


Why the Australian Innovation System Needs Fraunhofer Institutes
Australia’s innovation system is world-class in research inputs,but falters when it comes to commercial outcomes. This is our long-standing "innovation paradox." What if we could finally solve it?
Drawing on the case of Kaiserslautern, a small German city transformed into a global tech hub through the establishment of Fraunhofer Institutes, this Insight makes the case for introducing Fraunhofer-style applied research institutes in Australia.

Dr John H Howard
Jul 2910 min read


Economic Reform Must Include Industrial Transformation
Australia’s productivity woes stem from more than tax or regulatory inertia. As Emeritus Professor Roy Green argues, decades of industrial decline, underinvestment in research, and a failure to embrace strategic transformation have left the economy exposed to global shocks and wage stagnation. Green outlines a pragmatic agenda for industrial renewal—joining up policy, innovation, and workforce development—to secure Australia’s economic future.
Roy Green
Jul 247 min read


The Integration Imperative: Building Innovation Districts That Work
Successful innovation districts achieve integration across four critical domains: placemaking that treats public spaces as economic infrastructure, economic development based on systems thinking, commercial frameworks that align public and private interests, and governance institutions with clear mandates and adequate resources.
Cities should treat innovation district development as a complex system requiring integration across multiple domains and timeframes.

Dr John H Howard
Jul 177 min read


The Hidden Wealth of Food: Cultural Value, Social Meaning, and Economic Opportunity
Australia's food policy suffers from commodity-focused analysis that undervalues the full food system. While agricultural production accounts for 2.4% of GDP, integrated food chains contribute more, estimated at 10-15%. This blindness stems from farm-gate metrics, while consumption innovation lacks institutional support. Food has evolved beyond sustenance into cultural expression in multicultural Australia. Policy needs consumption-led approaches, recognising food's community

Dr John H Howard
Jul 85 min read


Stretching the System: Why Australia’s Agricultural Innovation Model Must Evolve Beyond Its Original Design
Australia’s Rural R&D Corporations are rightly celebrated, but the system around them needs to evolve. This Innovation Insight reframes agricultural policy not in terms of who holds power—but what functions the system must perform to meet today's national challenges. A future-focused rethink from CSIRO’s Food System Horizons.

Dr John H Howard
Jul 16 min read


Thinking in Public: Australia’s Missing Innovation Policy—Will It Ever Be Found? A new book from the Acton Institute for Innovation
At a time when the language of innovation is everywhere yet the architecture for delivering it is so often absent, the need for honest, grounded, and practical thinking is urgent. The goal of this book is not to predict the future, but to inform and provoke those with the responsibility and agency to shape it.

Dr John H Howard
Jun 302 min read


Making the Invisible Visible: Software as Strategic Infrastructure in the Australian Economy
Software is the invisible engine of Australia’s real economy. It silently powers everything from energy grids to medical diagnostics, mining automation to advanced manufacturing.
Too often, software is left out of economic plans, policy settings, and capability strategies.
It’s time to treat software as national infrastructure — a strategic enabler, not just commercial code. If we want productivity growth, energy transition, and sovereign control of critical systems, we need

Dr John H Howard
Jun 278 min read


Modernising Industry Classifications for a Services-Driven Economy
The tectonic shifts in the global economy—from manufacturing to services, from tangible goods to intangible assets—demand more than incremental adjustments to our statistical and analytical frameworks,
Australia, a nation increasingly powered by services and innovation, risks undermining its competitiveness by clinging to an outdated framework. The case for adopting modern, flexible, and globally aligned industry classification systems has never been more compelling.

Dr John H Howard
Jun 246 min read


Innovation, Productivity, and Competitiveness: Five Questions for Australia’s Economic Future
Australia’s economic future depends on lifting productivity through deliberate, coordinated innovation efforts. This demands more than tax breaks or start-up hype. We need systemic clarity about innovation; mature ecosystems that enable diffusion, PMI-oriented public intervention, regional governance, and outcome-based metrics. Only then can Australia boost competitiveness, inclusivity, and resilience beyond legacy sectors and cyclical growth.

Dr John H Howard
Jun 205 min read


Coalition of the Willing: Innovation Policy for a Changing Australia
For the first time in many years, there is a genuine opportunity to move beyond the oppositional politics that have hindered structural reform. This new parliamentary composition—more diverse but potentially less fractious—opens the door to building coalitions of the willing for major national reform.
If we are to grasp this political moment, we must also confront the structural ambiguity that has long undermined innovation policy in this country.

Dr John H Howard
Jun 177 min read


The Knowledge We Ignore: Activating Common Knowledge for Better Innovation Policy Outcomes
Australia's innovation policy faces a blind spot: the systematic neglect of common knowledge that enables breakthrough innovations to scale and endure. While current frameworks excel at measuring patents and R&D expenditures, they overlook the tacit expertise, institutional practices, and professional networks that serve as innovation's connective tissue. This Insight reveals how integrating common knowledge with proprietary systems can transform Australia's innovation perfor

Dr John H Howard
Jun 1013 min read


The Restless Portfolio: How Australia's Bureaucratic Reshuffling Reveals a Crisis of Industrial Vision
Since 1963, Australia’s federal industry portfolio has been restructured more than 20 times. This extraordinary level of administrative churn exposes a deeper crisis: a persistent uncertainty about the purpose, priorities, and pathways of industrial policy.
This Innovation Insight calls for a reevaluation of institutional maturity—one that strikes a balance between executive flexibility and enduring strategic direction.

Dr John H Howard
Jun 39 min read


Innovation Policy Design: a Battle of Conceptual Vagueness
I've been analysing Australia's innovation policy and discovered something striking: the Administrative Arrangements Order (which allocates government responsibilities) doesn't mention "innovation" anywhere.
Departments are assigned responsibility for research, science, and technology, but no department is given responsibility for innovation itself.
This helps explain why we keep cycling through reviews, Ministerial statements, and "renewed" strategies without delivering tran

Dr John H Howard
May 279 min read


Scene-Setting in Transition: Signals from Australia’s New Industry and Innovation Minister
Ministerial speeches at the start of a new tenure rarely change the course of history, but they do set the tone and expectations. When Senator Tim Ayres addressed the CRA Collaborate Innovate Conference on 20 May, he stepped into a familiar ritual in the ebb and flow of policy leadership: the scene-setting speech. For a minister with just a week on the job, the question is not “Did he deliver a new vision?” but “How well did he manage the balancing act between expectation and

Dr John H Howard
May 238 min read


Behind the Buzz: How Innovation Ecosystems Deliver Value—and How to Measure It
In today’s constrained fiscal environment, governments are rightly asking hard questions. Why should public funds support innovation districts and precincts unless there is clear evidence of productivity uplift, industry renewal, or public benefit?
This Insight explores the economic, industrial, and civic value of innovation ecosystems. It argues for a shift in focus—from short-term outputs to long-term productivity gains. It also offers a practical framework for measuring wh

Dr John H Howard
May 229 min read
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