Southern Cross University backs call for investment in research and innovation

Southern Cross University has backed the call for a ‘game changing’ national investment strategy in wealth-generating research and innovation.

The call for a bold new research and innovation investment is the centrepiece of Keep It Clever – the university sector’s pre-election policy blueprint, released yesterday (October 7) by peak body Universities Australia.

Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Lee said there was an urgent need to invest in research, skills and ingenuity to transform our industries – and create and fill the jobs of the future.

“We are heading into an era of change on a scale not seen since the Industrial Revolution,” Professor Lee said. “We need to equip ourselves for the dramatic economic transformation that lies ahead.”

Professor Lee said regional universities played an integral role in their communities and it was vital they continued to grow.

“Our universities need to produce an extra 3.8 million skilled graduates to meet the projected needs of the new knowledge economy by 2025,” he said.

“We need to ensure that regional communities are not left behind as this transformation occurs.”

The Universities Australia statement notes the ambitious targets set by our competitors – including China (on a path to become the world’s greatest investor in research within the decade), South Korea (which plans to invest five per cent of GDP in R&D by 2020) and the UK (which is investing A$3 billion in industry-university collaboration).

Keep it Clever also includes early data from compelling new Deloitte research that confirms how crucial the university sector is to Australia’s prosperity. It finds: