Forthcoming Meetings:

Mid-Year Meeting:  

Thursday 28th August, 2008 in House of Representatives Alcove,  New Parliament House Canberra.   Conference Theme:  "Australian Industrially Oriented R&D towards 2020"

Pre-conference Dinner:   7 pm  Wednesday 27th August, 2008.   Rydges Capital Hill Canberra,  Arthur Streeton Room

One important component of AIRG’s ongoing mission is to provide a strong link between the leaders of Australia’s Industrial R&D management and the Federal Government’s policy makers in Canberra.  Therefore, our aim with the AIRG’s Winter Meeting each year is to facilitate a wide-ranging and open discussion of the major issues influencing business investment in R&D across Australia, and hence to engage in discussion regarding the ongoing and future competitiveness of Australian companies.

 
Once again, the AIRG is holding its mid-year meeting in the House of Representatives Alcove of New Parliament House in Canberra on 28^th August, 2008.    The theme of the winter meeting this year is “Australian Industrially Oriented R&D towards 2020”.  This theme builds on key issues revealed at recent AIRG national conferences, but, perhaps more importantly, it has been designed to build and reflect on the outcomes of the current National Innovation Review, the findings of which are expected to be publicly available prior to the meeting. 

Given this current and critical topic, we have been able to invite a very strong group of speakers to this winter meeting.  They come from various Industrially-oriented Australian R&D providers and work in four critical Australian market segments -  Minerals & Mining, Human Health & Biotechnology,  Food & Agriculture and Manufacturing.  They will speak - from the various viewpoints of research providers who work either within Industry, in Universities, or elsewhere in the Public sector.  We anticipate that they will be able to provide us with a broad perspective regarding how they see their roles as R&D providers today and how these may evolve and/or change over the next decade with the prospect of future economic and market shifts.   

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, has agreed to attend part of the meeting and he will address the group around mid-morning on the 28^th.   Minister Carr has advised us that he is also keen to hear our feedback and will enter into discussions with delegates at the meeting.   We are expecting senior staff from his office and the Department to attend the full meeting.

 
Additionally, as in previous years,  a pre-conference dinner meeting will be held at Rydges Hotel, Capital Hill on the evening of 27^th August, 2008.  As in past years, a number of opposition members of Parliament and Shadow Ministers have committed to attend.    Following the change of government at last year’s federal election, we anticipate a most interesting interchange as we hear how policy and views of the alternative government representatives may have evolved over the past year.

We believe that this meeting will provide you with a great opportunity to gain insight into (and to add your weight to) the vision for the role of R&D and technology in Australia over the next decade.  You will hear the views of a number of Australia’s leading companies and be able to discuss major issues with policy makers.

For further details and registration forms,  contact the AIRG Office on 03 9439 0075 or e-mail airg@bigpond.net.au.

Southern Region Meetings:

Thursday 19th June, 2008 at 6.30pm at Siblings Restaurant.

Speakers:   Mr. Alexander Gosling & Dr. Errol McGarry

Thursday 16th October, 2008 at Siblings Restaurant

Speaker: 

Prof. Erol Harvey, CEO MiniFAB, Professor Microtechnology Swinburne University of Technology  -  “  MiniFAB's Story - Global Partnerships versus Nano-irrelevance?"

Northern Region Meetings:

Thursday 15th May at 6pm at the American Club,  Level 15, 131 Macquarie Street, Sydney.

Speaker:   Dr. Petri Kalliokoski,  Vice-President of Innovation at VTT (Finland)

"Building Effective Innovation Systems"

Annual General Meeting:

Thursday 16th October, 2008 prior to the Southern Region Dinner Meeting at Siblings Restaurant.

Executive Committee Meetings in 2008

Thursday 19th June, 2008 at 5pm at Siblings Restaurant

Wednesday 27th August, 2008 at 5pm in Canberra (Prior to Canberra Meeting)

Thursday 16th October, 2008 at 5pm at Siblings Restaurant

Sunday 22nd February, 2009 at 3.30pm  (Prior to Annual Conference)

AIRG Conference 2008

AUSTRALASIAN INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH GROUP 

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2008 

QUAY WEST MELBOURNE,  25/26^th FEBRUARY,  2008.

The Australasian Industrial Research Group (AIRG) held the  2008 Annual Conference on 25/26^th February, 2008 at Quay West in Melbourne. 

In the 21^st Century,  globalization and the rise of the “new economies” has created a business environment in which a focus of innovation across all business functions is a key factor in the creation of competitive advantage.  Innovation  has become the major driving force in economic growth and social development and this has not been limited to the traditional developed nations. Technology is changing rapidly and new products are emerging from new competitors in new economies and in this fast-changing environment product lifetimes are shorter and new technology is rapidly copied or superseded.  Increasingly sophisticated customers now have more choice and expect their suppliers to show a high degree of innovation in all aspects of their business as well as in their products. 

The theme of the AIRG Annual Conference in 2008 was “ Innovation Through Technology – Achieving Outcomes”.    The conference consisted of five sessions covering: 

• Why Innovation Matters.    Speaker Terry Cutler
• Characteristics of Successful Innovative Companies                        Speakers:   Dr. Pam Henderson,  New-Edge (USA),  Dr. Paul Carter, Cocklear Ltd and Dr. Merilyn Sleigh,  InAvanti Life Sciences
• Driving Innovation                                                                                   Speakers:  Dr. Richard Paynting,  Klipsch Group Inc. (USA),  Dr. Goran Roos (UK)
• Best Practice                                                                                            Speakers:  Dr. Peter Gray,  3M Australia,  Dr. Matthew Lay,  Rio Tinto and Nigel Poole,  CSIRO
• Open Innovation.                                                                            Speakers:  Dr. Steve Meller, Procter & Gamble,  (USA),   Professor David Siddle,  University of Queensland;  Dr. Adam Groszek,  GKN Aerospace and Associate Professor Ian Williamson,  Melbourne University.

Click here for conference programme [PDF, 125KB]

Meetings in 2007

CANBERRA:

The Mid-Year Meeting was held on Thursday 9th August, 2007 in the Senate Alcove,  New Parliament House with a Pre-conference Dinner Meeting on Wednesday 8th August at 7pm at Rydges Capital Hill,  Canberra.  The Speakers at the pre-conference dinner were Senator Kim Carr, Shadow Minister for Industry, Innovation,  Science & Research and the Hon.  Simon Crean,  Shadow Minister for Trade & Regional Development.

The theme of the Mid-Year Meeting was "A Vision for Australian Industry in 2017 and the Role of R&D"  Speakers were:

• Dr. Ray Shaw,  General Manager Technology Support,  Rio Tinto  (Resources Sector)

• Sam Lovick,  Chief Economist,  CSL Ltd (Biomedical Sector)

• David Hughes, Director Brands Innovation,  Fonterra (Consumer Sector)

• Rob Sharp, General Manager Strategic Programs, QANTAS (Transport Sector)

• Prof. Paul Greenfield,  Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor,  University of Queensland (Education)

In addition a session was devoted to open discussions on "Science Policy, the CRC Programme and the Research Quality Framework"  with representatives from DEST.

                                                                                                                                      For further details contact airg@bigpond.net.au

AUCKLAND

Three meetings were held in Auckland during 2007.

• At Vivace Restaurant on 28th May.

• At Bowman's Restaurant on  Thursday August 2nd.  The Speaker was Hamish Campbell, Senior Business Manager from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology who spoke on:

  - R&D funding,

  - Tax incentives,

  - FRST funding portfolios including some deleted ones as well as new,

  - FRST strategic backing behind selected key industry sectors

  - Types of projects that have funding supports

  - Successful and not-so-successful project case studies

   

• At the Wine Chambers on Tuesday,  23rd October.  The meeting was attended by the AIRG President,  Alexander Gosling, who spoke on the Strategic direction of the AIRG,  and Dr. Errol McGarry,  the CEO of the AIRG, who reviewed the past year and the progress made.

This file opens with Adobe Reader - click here to download it

The AIRG (Australian Industrial Research Group) Annual Conference for 2007 was held at Quay West in Melbourne on 18, 19 & 20th February

                 Challenges and Opportunities for the Next Decade

Australia faces a changing world – economically, technologically, socially and environmentally. We see the rapid growth in the Asian economies especially in China and India and the decline in manufacturing in western countries and the rapid development of new technologies.  The baby-boomers who have powered the world over the past 40-50 years are reaching retirement age presenting the demands of a large elderly population and the loss of considerable skills and knowledge from the workforce.  Finally, we have the changing climate presenting potential threats to large regions of the planet.  Charles Darwin said that the species that survive are not necessarily the strongest or the fastest but the ones that are most adaptable to change. This changing world represents a significant challenge for Australia and we must use our R&D expertise across all sectors to demonstrate our ingenuity and adaptability and to seize the opportunities to remain competitive and prosperous

Within the context of the overall theme,   speakers from Australia, Europe and Asia covered the key issues of the changing economic balance in the world with the rising influence of China and India,  the changes in demographics especially through the retirement of the ageing baby-boomers and the need to provide the skilled workforce for the 21st century and finally,   the effects of climate change and the effects it will have on Australian industry.  Speakers included the noted corporate philosopher, Richard Hames,  the Vice Chancellor of Melbourne University, Professor Glyn Davis and the vice-president of EIRMA Professor Dietmar Theis.