6.1.1 Knowledge development There are several ways to consider how new knowledge is developed in an innovation system, and indeed the types of knowledge involved. Types of knowledge include technological, organisational, financial and business, behavioural and social, among others. R&D expenditure and patent counts are widely used as a form of output to measure levels of technological innovation. It is well acknowledged that these are imperfect measures, but they are often used due to the lack of alternative data sources. Developing more relevant, timely and rich innovation metrics is an ongoing focus, as identified recently by the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS, 2019) and more than a decade ago in the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into public support for science and innovation (2007). According to these two measures, Australia has varied performance. Figure 11 shows the energy-related R&D expenditure16 as a proportion of GDP for Australia and several comparable OECD countries. Australia has always had less expenditure on overall and energy-related R&D; this expenditure increased throughout the first decade of the 2000s before declining from 2013 and stabilising at a lower rate. Of the five countries shown in Figure 11 below, Australia is the only one where energy-related public R&D declined as a percentage of GDP over this period.
Australia performs well when it comes to patents. It is ranked 7th in the G20 and 8th globally for its share of successful green patents filed between 2000 and 2016. Twenty-one per cent of these patents were in energy, followed by 20% in processes (including adoption of energy efficiency in manufacturing), 11% in transport (including electric vehicles, smart cars and hybrids), 6% in waste and 5% in buildings (ClimateWorks and CPD, 2020). In terms of technological knowledge development, the literature review shows Australia performed well and this is supported by the stakeholder interviews and workshops. Where gaps exist, it is in knowledge development for translation of technological innovation into transformational change.
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The main emphasis needs to be on the adoption of technology and the development of skills around those technologies. And indeed, the development and implementation of non-R&D innovation in the form of new business models, systems integration, design, work and management practices, all of these things that are less tangible, not easy to measure, but nevertheless are a key element of an innovation ecosystem and which require both entrepreneurial skills and the ability to collaborate with both complementary firms in a value chain and with research and education institutions.
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Interview participant.
Figure 11. Energy-related public R&D as a percentage of GDP 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0
1995
1997
1999 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
UK
From OECD (2019)
16 Energy-related R&D includes all forms of energy research and development activities including for fossil fuel related energy.
OECD statistics average this to be ~30.2% of total public energy-related R7D over the same period (OECD, 2019).
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E3 Opportunity Assessment: Developing the future energy workforce
2017
2018
