The general assumption that Australian business do not want to work with universities is less wrong than incomplete, demonstrated by a new report from the Chief Economist.
Just 3 per cent of innovation-active firms report higher education institutions “as a source of innovative ideas.” The reason why is very bad for university outreach experts.
“Only 7.8 per cent of innovation-active businesses report lack of access to knowledge or technology as a barrier to innovation. This suggests most businesses do not collaborate with research institutions because either they do not perceive it is beneficial to them or they are simply unaware of how such collaboration might improve their business performance.”
But, this is not because business distrusts researchers, Australia ranks 7th in the OECD for government R&D expenditure financed by industry. “This favourable result may reflect stronger links between business and non-university publicly funded research organisations, such as CSIRO.”