The government has legislation in the parliament to change the name of  advisory board, Innovation and Science Australia to Industry, Innovation and Science Australia – it matters (CMM Friday).

“This change reflects the Morrison government’s acknowledgement of the critical role of innovation and, more importantly science and it reminds us what science is truly about: knowing more, so that innovation can prevail in the products that can be consumed by the general populace that increase efficiency and quality of life for all. For this, there must be clear links between science, innovation and industry, and this bill allows and, in fact, encourages and fosters those links,” Katie Allen (Lib-Vic) told the House of Reps.

She went on to say nice things about the “highly successful” Cooperative Research Centre programme, which will have cheered its supporters up.

But friends of the (sort of similar) Industry Growth Centres will have had fears in circulation added to by comments from Ed Husic (Labor NSW) who suggested that the government will not release a favourable report on the programme, “because it runs counter to their ambition, or should I say their game plan, for those growth centres. They want to kill those growth centres off.” Mr Husic suggested that the government wants to take money from the IGS and, “put it into a grant programme so they can then spend in a way that they think works for their political interest.”

CMM has no clue about this – but Mr Husic is right that the government is sitting on the ACIL Allens report into the IGCs (CMM May 10).

All this matters, because the government’s big innovation idea is a programme to fund translating research into products and services on the market (CMM March 2) which will need funding. Jeff Connolly (Siemens) chairs a working party developing possible mechanisms to do it – which could be good, or bad, for existing industry-related research programmes, like the IGS and the CRCs and perhaps Australian Research Council schemes.

As the ARC reminds researchers in the new “action plan” for its Engagement and Impact metric, the first objective is, “to promote better practice engagement with, and translation of research into benefits for, end-users and the Australian community more broadly.”