Since 2000, successive national reviews of Australia’s research and innovation system have reached the same diagnosis and proposed the same remedies, each presented as new. What they share is a near silence on execution. This Insight traces how implementation knowledge was displaced from the public service and never acquired by the scientists, economists and business advocates who write innovation policy, and sets out what the next review can do differently.

In research policy, the "Valley of Death" is a familiar lament. We assume that with enough tax credits or grant schemes, the bridge from discovery to market will build itself. Yet beneath the surface lies a more fundamental disconnect: the tension between what we can see as the "sociology of the academy" and the "epistemology of the engineer".

How can innovation policy become both empirically rigorous and open to wisdom that cannot easily be measured? This new Innovation Insight examines the strengths of evidence-based policymaking in building accountability and transparency, while also questioning whether excessive reliance on measurable outcomes risks excluding critical interdisciplinary perspectives. As research and innovation challenges become more complex, the need for richer, integrative policymaking grows.