Defence Trailblazer Innovation Summit

Supporting university-industry collaboration to drive innovation 

The Defence Trailblazer hosted an Innovation Summit aimed at bringing together leaders in academia, innovation and government to explore the opportunities and challenges of innovation via university-industry collaborations.  

Discussions and presentations focussed on strategies and practical insights that included cross sector perspectives on – understanding academia-business needs; the lessons learned from successful collaborations and a roadmap for long lasting change.   

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The Foundations of Collaboration

Effective university-industry collaborations are often the product of experience, networks, and relationships built over several years.

What human and other factors support university-industry collaborations to succeed, and how are they achieved?

The Art & Science of Collaboration

Effective and productive collaborations are built on a complex mix of goodwill, trust, shared goals and effective communication.

What are the tangible and intangible elements of successful collaborations, and how are they achieved in complex contexts?

The Mechanics of Collaboration

In any innovative process, Strong leadership and a clear vision for the desired outcomes are vital – but there will be obstacles.

Is there a useful checklist for a highly successful innovative team and what does that include across the cycle from concept to market and beyond?

 

A couple of things that really resonated with me were the reference to the fact that we really need a strong ecosystem, innovation ecosystem to nourish our research right through to the translation commercialisation stage.

Patricia Kelly

Chair of Cooperative Research Australia

I think some of my key takeaways are of the need for collaboration and understanding perspectives. I think there's also a need to build places where people can come together and share those ideas and also incubate some of the small tech companies, give them an opportunity to grow in a safe environment, get the funding they need so they can go on and take over the world.

Dwayne Rivett

Co-founder of Fivecast

A lot of good ideas for how to address some of the challenges and barriers that we see for innovation across industry, academia and government.

Sumen Rai

Director of Defence Innovation Partnership