Industry Growth Centres Initiative
National Roadshow
Department of Industry
The need for a Reform Agenda
Australia is falling behind
 Advanced countries are aggressively reforming their economies
 Reducing the cost of doing business
 Strengthening networks and linkages
 Improving the performance of the innovation system as a whole
 Focusing on system failures in addition to market failures
 Australia ranks
 Poorly in regards to overall competitiveness
 23 out of 26 OECD countries for businesses collaborating on
innovation
 Last out of 30 OECD nations for business – research collaborations
 81 out of 143 countries on the how effectively we get returns from
research
An action plan for Australia’s future
The reform agenda
 The Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda released on
14 October 2014 is:
 The key business-focussed element of the government’s Economic
Action Strategy
 Focused on economic settings and incentives to enable strong
businesses to grow
 Capitalising on Australia’s strengths, creating jobs, and exploiting our
nation’s competitive advantages
 Equipping businesses and employees with skills to succeed
 Creating a nimble economy able to adapt to changing economic
conditions and seize new opportunities
Four ambitions of the Agenda
Ambition 4: Industry policy that fosters
innovation and entrepreneurship
Reshaping industry policy and focusing research spending to stimulate innovation and
entrepreneurship, improve competitiveness, and create new job opportunities
New Industry Policy
A sector based approach to drive growth, productivity and
competitiveness in Australia’s industries
 Strong alignment with contemporary industry policy thinking internationally
 United States’ Small Business Administration’s regional cluster
initiative
 Canadian business-led networks of Centres of Excellence
 United Kingdom’s Catapult Centres
 A sector based initiative will:
 Enable key growth sectors within the Industry portfolio to become self
reliant and grow
 Position Australia as a world leader to tackle competitive pressures
through collaboration
 Ensure our key growth industries can deliver the economic prosperity
needed in a globalised economy
Building on Australia’s competitive strengths
 A sectoral approach to industry policy is not about picking winners or
protecting industries
 Targeted and strategic investment, prioritising limited government
resources to remove impediments in areas of Australia’s competitive
strengths
 Sectors where Australia either enjoys a comparative advantage, is
currently internationally competitive, or is likely to have an opportunity to
exploit favourable global market developments or has a significant impact
on the Australian economy within the Industry Portfolio are:
 Food and Agribusiness
 Mining Equipment, Technology and Services
 Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals
 Advanced Manufacturing
 Oil, Gas and Energy Resources
Industry Growth Centres Initiative
Key features of the Initiative:
 New $188.5 million industry policy to boost productivity and
competitiveness
 Initial five Industry Growth Centres to be established in key industry sectors
 Also comprises:
 Industry Growth Project Fund
 Industry Growth Network
 Commercialisation Fund –delivered through Entrepreneurs’
Infrastructure Programme
 Will complement and leverage existing State and Territory innovation and
collaboration programmes
 Industry-led so your involvement is essential
Industry Growth Centres activities
The Initiative will provide a framework to transition industry to high
value added products and services in areas of competitive strengths
 The Initiative will establish an initial five industry-led Growth Centres that
will address four key themes:
 Regulatory Reform
 Access to markets and value chains
 Improving Skills
 Fostering collaboration and commercialising research
 The framework provides flexibility for Industry Growth Centres to deliver
sector specific activities but common activities include:
 Competitiveness plans
 Regulatory reform plans
 Industry knowledge priorities
 Industry skills strategies
Potential Growth Centre activities
Food and Agribusiness
Improve SMEs capability
to access export markets
through specialist
training & advice on
target markets.
Mining Equipment,
Technology and
Services
Facilitate field trials for
Australian technology
on mine sites.
Medical Technologies
and Pharmaceuticals
Advanced Manufacturing
Bring researchers and
companies together to
develop best practice
processes for identifying
and developing
prototypes or drug
candidates, to improve
the commercialisation of
potential therapeutic
products.
Investigate opportunities
to speed up regulatory
approval processes for
industrial chemicals
manufacturing by
ensuring approval
processes are
appropriate given the
level of risk.
Oil, Gas and Energy
Organise inbound trade
missions of key
procurement personnel
from international
project developers to
explain global supply
chain access
requirements and
showcase Australian
supply capability.
Industry Growth Centres
 A non profit business staffed by a small and experienced management team
with shared back office services for all Centres
 Governed by strategic Industry–led five person Board tasked specifically to
develop and implement a competitiveness agenda
 An overarching Board will provide external advice to the Minister on strategic
policy matters and performance related to the Industry Growth Centres
 Each Industry Growth Centre will have operational funding of $3.5 million per
annum to support basic activities and services
 Industry Growth Centres will be funded for a four-year period and are then
expected to be self-sufficient
 Industry Growth Centres will engage with the sector to establish a national
network
A focus on science and research
 The Initiative aligns with the Australia’s Chief Scientist recommendations
outlined in the position paper, Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics: Australia’s Future
 The Initiative will:
 Increase the transfer of knowledge between researchers and business
by fostering collaboration
 Increase industry demand driven research by the identification of
industry knowledge priorities to inform national research priorities
 Improve the translation of publically funded research into commercial
outcomes to help drive innovation
 Target STEM skill gaps in the key industry sectors
Collaborating for impact
The Initiative will establish a $63 million Industry Growth Project Fund
 The project fund will support collaborative infrastructure by:
 Supporting large scale collaborative projects to provide targeted
actions to build capability and competitiveness of the sector
 Benefiting the sector as a whole and not just project participants
 Focusing on market, value chain or technology issues
 Requiring matched industry funding
 The project fund will :
 Be for exclusive use by the Industry Growth Centres
 Be awarded through a merit based process
 Not fund basic or discovery type research
 Further consultation will occur in 2015
Industry Growth Centres Selection Process
 Proposed schedule of events
 Chairs of Industry Growth Centres to be announced by government
 Engagement with sectors to establish Industry Growth Centres
commences early 2015
 The Chair and Facilitator will work with the sector to form one proposal
for each Industry Growth Centre
 Industry Growth Centre proposals approved by Minister for Industry
 Staggered establishment of Industry Growth Centres starting early 2015
 Anyone can be involved in the engagement process and when the Industry
Growth Centres are operational.
Interaction with Entrepreneurs’ Infrastructure
Programme
Further details about how to be involved in Industry Growth Centres Initiative are available on
the website:
www.industry.gov.au/growthcentres
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY
Industry House
10 Binara Street
Canberra City, ACT 2601, Australia
Telephone +61 2 6213 6000