Embracing tech for long-term sustainability

Embracing tech for long-term sustainability

Adrian Beer, Chief Executive Officer, METS Ignited

• Building an environmentally sustainable underground electric mining vehicle, then converting the technology to meet the needs of the Australian Army.

• Developing a digital workforce management system to streamline safety and compliance for highly regulated industries, then converting it to support the healthcare response during COVID-19.

• Combining sensor technology and engineering know-how to create an off-the-shelf monitoring solution providing independent diagnostics, validation and oversight on asset performance in multiple processes.

• Creating and commercialising an innovative robotic platform to improve ore quality through better blasting while moving people out of harm’s way.

What do all of these have in common?

Australian ingenuity, an entrepreneurial spirit and strategic support for commercialisation. If we looked at these examples in more detail, we might realise Australia’s immense potential to power the local economy and the global transition to net zero.

Underpinned by research, Australia’s resources sector has maintained a long-term focus on continuous improvement. The sector has a long history of designing and delivering incredible innovation, which often only achieves recognition when transferred across other sectors and exported overseas.

Often, this innovation is developed for operational benefit and remains within the supply chains of the primary industries that funded its creation. How do we expand on this potential? How do we take our ground-breaking Australian research, which creates safety, productivity and environmentally-friendly solutions, to the next stage of commercial maturity – right here at home?

What is different about these four examples is not the what or the how, but it is the who. In all of these, the solutions are supplied as products and as services designed specifically to meet the needs of the end market.

By not only investing in the technical solution, but in the commercial pathway, we suddenly see huge upside potential for the innovation.

When innovation is accessible, and when it can be procured through a commercial channel, it can be accessed by multiple end-market customers, and multiple industry sectors.

Maybe Australian technology companies are the right translations partners, to cross the chasm or so-called ‘valley of death’, in commercialising Australia’s innovation capabilities.

Changing the game

If we want to improve the sophistication of our local economy, we need to make sure we are more than just a high-tech quarry – we need to do much, much more.

With decades of sustained investment in Australia’s research sector, we have all the ingredients on the shelf. It is time to consider some new recipes, a new chef in the kitchen; to set a menu and create real value, to make Australia really cook.

We all know our sector is under the spotlight, often heavily criticised and poorly understood. We also know our sector is capable of fundamental cultural change, as demonstrated by the approach to safety. Now more than ever, we must build on our experience while also embracing our capacity for change.

Unlocking ‘stranded’ technology

The world is transforming to meet the needs of a globally sustainable future. One of the most direct pathways to lower global emissions is to quickly and efficiently unlock the technology that is ‘stranded’ within our innovation ecosystem in large firms or in research institutions.

I am often told that ‘we’ve heard it all before’, and there are numerous tactics used to defend the status quo. But as an industry, we are losing the battle for acceptance, for talent, and for investment.

Currently, there is an extraordinary volume of stranded technology sitting within the supply chains of our primary industries or sitting on the shelf of research organisations. Much of it addresses the challenges we face. If we don’t get it into the market, we are failing to utilise our full potential.

Commercialising public-funded industry research

This vast opportunity is not limited to the resources sector. When innovation is not bound by the market that funded its development, it can realise a far greater market potential. With public-funded industry research, outcomes are typically measured by the number of PhDs, the number of papers published, and the number of patents granted. If this is where our ambition ends, we stop well short of our full potential.

Public research funding must have more than just end users. We must include partners who will productise innovation - companies that intend to commercialise our world-class research and want an economic return on investment. We want partners who are motivated to serve the widest possible market, maximising the reach and impact of our innovation.

If we increase the opportunity for revenue growth, export development and job creation, we create more potential for further research and deliver a return on investment with a multiplying effect on our national economy.

What about net zero?

The net zero challenge isn’t a new thing to our sector - we’ve been working on this for decades. What’s different are the external drivers, and the heightened pressure for the scale and speed of the change. While the application of technology is one part of the solution to progressing our net zero aspirations, the other is culture change.

Australia has enormous potential in both the supply and demand side for clean energy. This sustainability and climate change imperative is also a catalyst for improving Australia’s commercialisation woes.

Creating a local market with greater supply could attract international investment into our economy. New innovation is crucial in the production and development of electric vehicles, and we have countless other Australian businesses working on the frontline combating climate change.

In turn, this would also increase the local demand for greater downstream supply of critical minerals and energy metals. Boosting investment in more onshore processing and downstream value-adding can help secure valuable supply chains.

Commercialising this locally will also create major growth levers for the Australian economy - it’s a win-win proposition.

Seize the opportunities

The global skills shortage is universal, across multiple industry sectors. If we want to solve this, we must attract the brightest minds, with the greatest diversity and a whole bunch of new ideas. Embracing change and new technology is the only way to take our sector forward, to meet the expectations of our stakeholders and the society we supply.

With the heightened awareness of sovereign capability, the drive to reignite our local manufacturing capability, and the push to reach net zero emissions by 2050, there has been no better time in our history to be bold.

We have the chance to act now, to do more, and to build real sustainable value. We can maximise the value of our resources, talent and innovations here in Australia, and reap the full economic benefits beyond just the commodities themselves.

Where to from here?

This is not an ‘either or’ game. Research funding and industry investment are critical to our future. But they are only two legs of the stool. The key to unlocking innovation stranded within our supply chains or world-class research is the innovation supply chain. It requires a supply, a demand, and a market to transact. We need to shore up our local translation engine, the technology companies who have the experience to commercialise innovations and sell them to the world.

This cannot be at the expense of research. We must continue to support public funding of researchers to do research, and we must celebrate our resources industry for investing in innovation and defining research demand.

But when it comes to commercialisation – let’s invest in the right place. Let’s work with our local technology sector and support them to do what they do best.

The time has come to commercialise our local innovations, translating them into products and services, delivered by Australian technology companies, to serve global markets… right here from within our national economy.

Commercialising stranded innovation creates attractive opportunities for the next generation of our sector, increases the reach and success of our local innovation ecosystem, accelerates innovation learning from multiple industry sectors, and improves the sophistication of the national economy.

And you thought our export contribution was something to crow about! 