There’s a review of the Rural Research and Development Corporation system and, what a surprise, the ever-vigilant Innovative Research Universities has opinions

No, this isn’t the Productivity Commission review, that was back in 2011 (time flies when one is having fun).

This new one is for the federal Department of Agriculture and with IRU members teaching and researching in agriculture its policy people clearly could not resist.

They report the RRDCs are important in connecting researchers to industry, but can improve by;

*  working with universities on cross-sector research challenges, for example, genomics and big data

* cooperating with universities on discovery research

* by being clear on the distinction between discovery research and commercialisation, when working with universities

Standard IRU  – even in the weeds, they see broad-acre policies.