Workforce, Innovation & Culture

The Workforce, Innovation and Culture portfolios aim to strengthen Australia’s defence capabilities by:

  • fostering collaboration between industry, government and academia
  • building an innovation ecosystem that supports the acceleration of ideas into commercial application
  • providing education and upskilling opportunities for the next generation of trailblazers
  • promoting a culture of innovation within academia

Connecting industry partners with University of Adelaide and UNSW staff and students to skill their workforce and build a talent pipeline.

Industry-Education Gateway

Offering a range of educational opportunities for students and industry professionals in academic and university settings. These include:

  • higher research degree scholarships through the Industry Research Program
  • undergraduate and postgraduate projects and internships
  • micro credentials and graduate certificate courses
  • staff placements and exchanges
  • vocational education and training pathways​
  • access to  students and alumni.
Cyber Security Upskilling & Assurance

Upskilling the cyber workforce through undergraduate, postgraduate and short course education,​ as well as supporting start-ups and small to medium enterprises to operate securely within a defence industry setting.

Building an innovation ecosystem that supports entrepreneurs, researchers, and students to accelerate their ideas into commercial application for the Australian Defence Force.

Entrepreneurial & Commercialisation Upskilling

Providing training and expert guidance for innovators to support their readiness to supply into defence. Through a range of programs, participants are exposed to defence industry and academic specialists, as they discover how their ideas, research and technology can be taken through to the defence market and learn about defence opportunities.

Upcoming activities:

Expert Advisory Panels

A selected group of experts engaged to provide technical expertise, defence readiness guidance, business advisory, and assistance to innovation program participants and partners.

Industry Engagement Program

Facilitated engagement to assist industry and academia in identifying opportunities to collaborate and tackle broader industry wide challenges, from navigating supply chain relationships to co bidding on defence acquisition activities.

Proto-Lab Network

A network of university and industry facilities, equipment and capabilities at various security levels, accessible to partners and Innovation program participants for prototyping, testing and low-scale manufacturing.

Seed Funding Program

Access to funding from the Seed Innovation Fund and external funding sources through the Investor Access Panels  for low-technology readiness level (TRL) research and development activities.

Cross-sector & International Opportunities

Supporting partners and innovation program participants to identify, assess and pursue cross-sector and international market opportunities.

Culture Transformation

Initiatives to incentivise, recognise and reward university staff who engage with industry to commercialise research.

IP Innovations

Promoting open and collaborative intellectual property (IP) measures that are attractive for industry and academics, to enable effective commercialisation.