How should governments engage with innovation ecosystems? Research by the Acton Institute, examining over 90 innovation districts globally, finds no governance model that reliably outperforms others. What matters is whether arrangements align with local institutional foundations and address each ecosystem's binding constraint, the weakest capability that limits returns from all other investment. This Insight catalogues twelve governance categories from Silicon Valley to Singa

The SERD report's proposed National Innovation Council cannot direct Ministers across thirteen portfolios. Section 64 of the Constitution vests that authority in individual Ministers. This Insight proposes an alternative: a Cabinet-level coordination mechanism paired with a statutory Innovation Commission for independent research on innovation and industry economics, complementing the Productivity Commission's efficiency analysis and IISA's continuing R&D Tax Incentive admini

Australia performs strongly in research, yet struggles to translate this into innovation outcomes. This Insight argues that the SERD report reinforces this divide by treating the research system as a proxy for the innovation system. While funding, governance and capital reforms are well developed, the report underweights management capability, industry structure, demand-side dynamics and place-based ecosystems that ultimately determine whether research delivers economic and s

Australia has revisited the idea of a National Innovation Council many times, often in response to concerns about fragmentation and weak coordination. The latest proposal in the SERD report again raises expectations. This Insight argues that the issue is not the absence of a coordinating body alone, but a deeper policy problem shaped by competing ideologies, institutional resistance, and unresolved tensions between science-led and system-based views of innovation.