July 27, 2016

Like Pokemon, UOW's innovation is everywhere

Pokemon Go's $9.9 billion boost to the share value of Nintendo is the same as the total research income evaluated by the ARC, writes UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings.

By now almost all of the Univer­sity of Wollongong’s campuses will be flagged as locations for one or more of the 151 Pokemon Go characters, and players will be haring around in an attempt to capture these virtual creatures. Media reports suggested this game added $9.9 billion to the share value of Nintendo soon after its release.

This augmented reality game has had a global impact. It is, however, a disturbing thought that the jump in share value is, by coincidence, exactly the same as the total research income evaluated by the Australian Research Council for last year’s Excellence in Research for Australia exercise.

Rather like the distribution of Pokemon characters, the ERA shows that research excellence is widespread, both by location and discipline.

Submissions rated at the highest level — “well above world standard” — are to be found across a wide range of universities. Half of the 22 subject areas have at least one four code research field rated 5* in a non-metropolitan univer­sity. Most of these are in fields ­related to science, engineering and health.

The uncertainties in the global economy are beginning to generate convergence in high-level policy as national governments are scrabbling to muster ideas and create mechanisms to assist growth in new jobs.

Economies as diverse as Australia, China, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Britain and the US have all polished their innovation policies. The story is slightly different in each place but the intent is the same. Universities are being asked to demonstrate that their research makes a difference. Research outputs are old-school and research outcomes are all the go. Governments want clear evidence that investment in basic research is translated into local and national impact.

One of the strengths of the Australian system is that we invest in the research activities of all our universities. This has a direct consequence for our local economies and communities. Highly skilled people and new ideas provide the foundation for regional strategies. Universities should be a source of strength as they are globally connected and, with careful engagement, able to shape the local agenda and the transition to new industries and new jobs.

More than a decade ago, Britain’s Ronald Dearing pointed towards the key role that universities are now expected to play: “Just as castles provided the source of strength for medieval towns, and factories provided prosperity in the industrial age, universities are the source of strength in the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century.”

The nexus between community, business and university is more important than ever.

Expectations have evolved since Dearing’s insight and now universities are deeply involved in the creation of new enterprises and the development of the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Many institutions seek to foster an entrepreneurial culture for students and staff and have a range of opportunities for students to experience or create­ ­companies working in emergent sectors.

A greater proportion of the present generation of graduates appear more willing to take the risk of establishing new technology-based companies. At present almost half of Australia’s start-ups are located in NSW.

At Wollongong we have launched, with the support of the NSW government, iAccelerate, a new type of centre supporting start-ups and advanced businesses while providing entrepreneurs with the benefits of working with a research-intensive university.

This centre sits alongside many other corporate engagement activities and is a flexible structure providing ongoing operational support to about 280 entrepreneurs. About 65 companies have been created and already six have an international presence.

Unusually, 47 per cent of these companies have a female chief executive. It’s unusual because the global benchmark is more like 10 per cent. Our challenge is to help these companies mature, to link them with sources of capital and to retain them in NSW.

Then we need to keep on repeating this cycle.

The global competition around new enterprise creation is fierce and the scale of federal government support in other countries is substantially greater than here in Australia. The upside is that international venture capital funds are fluid and increasingly are looking to overseas markets for opportunities. Great ideas arising from incubators here in Australia will be competitive in this marketplace.

One of the key features of the Australian higher education landscape is that we have allowed research excellence to flourish wherever it is found rather than concentrating activities arbitrarily in a few institutions. This diversity has allowed universities to drive their regional innovation systems and generated a platform to support the creation of new industries and new jobs. None of us is prescient and we cannot predict where the next disruptive technology will pop up. But we can be certain that, rather like high-value Pokemon characters, it is sure to be in an unexpected location.

Originally published in The Australian. 

Photo: Nuwandalice | Flickr (cc).

UOW academics exercise academic freedom by providing expert commentary, opinion and analysis on a range of ongoing social issues and current affairs. This expert commentary reflects the views of those individual academics and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the University of Wollongong.