A few days ago OnQue investigated why so many of our most innovative and successful start–up founders continue to take their talent overseas. We raised the question as to whether there would be any potential for change under new leadership. With an all new slogan, "Welcome to the ideas boom" it turns out there is...
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has recently announced a billion-dollar innovation scheme which will give $90 million back to the cash-strapped CSIRO and make it easier for IT start-ups to do business with the government. The package combines funding injections, tax incentives, changes to bankruptcy laws and rebadging and reallocating money.
In an an effort to grow Australia’s innovation community the rollout plan covers four key areas: Culture and Capital; Collaboration: Talent and Skill; and using Government as an Exemplar. Heres a brief lowdown on what to expect.
Culture and Capital
According to the current Government 4,500 start-ups are missing out on equity finance each year. The plan is through tax breaks and incentives such as giving early stage investors a 20 per cent non-refundable tax offset based on the amount of their investment, as well as a capital gains tax exemption, the numbers of missed opportunities will decrease.
In addition, the cap on committed capital will be lifted from $100 million to $200 million and there will be a 10 per cent non-refundable tax offset for capital invested in early stage venture capital limited partnerships.
The default bankruptcy period will be reduced from three years to one encouraging reasonable risk and a new $200m CSIRO Innovation fund will be established along with a $250m Biomedical Translation Fund.
Collaboration
The scheme aims to bring the best of breed in business and research together. Research grant funding will be streamlined and refocused on collaboration and the Research Connections program will be be relaunched as ‘Innovation Connections’.
A Cyber Security Growth Centre will be established with $26m invested into quantum computing.
The Government also plans to create “landing pads” in places like Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv and Israel in order to increase links to key economies as well as establishing a Cyber Security Centre and investing $26m in quantum computing.
Talent and Skill
To train Australians with the skills needed to work high paid, high productivity jobs there will now be $51m allocated for coding programs from years 5 to 7 specialising in STEM programs (science, technology, engineering and maths).
An allocated $13m will go towards supporting greater participation of girls and women in research and STEM industries and $48m invested into encouraging students to participate in maths and science.
And then theres the new Entrepreneurs Visa, which aims to encourage the world’s talent to move to Australia.
Government as an Exemplar
The Government currently spends $5 billion each year on information and communications technology. This will now become more accessible for small and medium business by improving the Digital Transformation Office's services and setting up a Digital Marketplace.
The Government also plans on introducing measures to make better use of the vast array of existing public data.
Tax changes on science and technology in this package only just begin to undo the cuts inflicted by the Coalition's 2014-15 budget which led the Parliamentary Library to conclude that after the 2014-15 budget, Government funding for research and development matched historic lows when measured against 37 years of budgets.
Let us know your thoughts on the Innovation Scheme below, do you see these new policies as positive? Or do you think the Government could do more?