Title: Collaborative research: the Australian experience

Authors: John McFarlane

Addresses: 8 Legge Place, Green Point, NSW 2251, Australia

Abstract: A significant feature of R&D activity in Australia is that the majority of resources are directed towards the early stages of R&D, rather than the later stages, which are more closely linked with commercialisation. Government agencies and universities perform around 60% of Australia|s R&D and about 85% of this is concentrated in the research stage, rather than the development stage. As a result of this situation, basic research dominates research effort by a ratio of 2:1. A government initiative that has been put in place to address this issue is the Co-operative Research Centres (CRC) Program. The paper provides an overview of the program to date and discusses empirical evidence from CRCs. There is evidence presented to support the case for a further review of the program, especially where there are good commercialisation prospects for the R&D, but no significant evidence of spillovers occurring to other agents.

Keywords: co-operative research centres; collaborative research and development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1999.002724

International Journal of Technology Management, 1999 Vol.17 No.4, pp.387-401

Published online: 05 Jul 2003 *

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