On 22 May 2026, Prof Tony Haymet delivered the closing keynote address at Collaborate Innovate 2026 in Perth.
Welcome.
It's a real pleasure to be here and thank you all for staying for the last session.
I wanted to give you my thoughts on where we're going in Australia. They're very much my thoughts.
I'm not speaking for the government, certainly not speaking for any minister. But my comments are not entirely free without constraints since I do have a job advising the current government.
So, it's time for a few more cliches and my two are:
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” and “a stitch in time saves nine”.
Two sayings coined long ago. But they still ring very true today, particularly for research and innovation.
They remind us to protect what works and fix what doesn’t – and to do so as soon as possible.
Because right now, Australia has extraordinary strengths in research and discovery.
But we also have places where good ideas stall – or go offshore – before they can be scaled here.
Before I go further, I warmly acknowledge the Elders of the Whadjuk Noongar people on whose traditional lands we meet.
I pay my respects to them and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.
And as well as paying respects, soon we’re going to be able to release a report that I hope does more than acknowledge our respect but actually does some concrete actions.
Today, I want to talk about what an Ambitious Australia looks like in practice. And I want to consider how we strengthen the RD&I system to get there.
This conference looks to the future as we consider the findings of the SERD Review and the Ambitious Australia report and its 20 separate recommendations.
The report is clear about what many of you in this room already know, our system has real strengths, but it also fails to fully capitalise on them and that can limit scale and impact.
I'm especially pleased to discuss this with this audience, both in my speech and the panel with my colleagues, because you span the full pathway from discovery to development to application.
Many countries are good at generating ideas and Australia is one of the best.
In fact, when I go to what we now call our like-minded countries, Japan and South Korea, talk to my colleagues in Canada and the UK, they're jealous of the number of inventions that Australians make.
They think we're an idea-generating powerhouse.
They also know that we let an awful lot of them offshore.
But they’re still asking, well, how did you set up the system to generate Google Maps and 802.11 and Java and molecular clamp technology?
And I tell them, it's just the way Australia is.
Part of it is the traditional disrespect that PhD students have for their advisors.
And so they're not afraid to say, you're completely wrong, I've got a better idea.
I've had numerous post-doctoral supervisors from overseas call me up a week after one of my students goes to them and say, please send me more. They're the only people who have told me I'm wrong.
I think that's a key to the way that innovation and research goes.
But we have some obvious limitations that we'll come to.
In my view, by far the main point of the Ambitious Australia report was how to increase private industry investment in Australian R&D, contained in recommendations 5 (a) (b) and (c), and 7.
Now I know I'm going to mention numbers. I’m not going to give you a quiz.
Recommendation 14, by the way is incorporating Indigenous Knowledge Systems, which I think we can do tomorrow.
There's another recommendation, which is increasing PhD stipends, which we should have done quite a long time ago.
And kudos to universities like UNSW who did it out of their own pocket.
I'm going to mention some of the recommendations by name, because I really want you to read the report with a critical eye.
The SERD review was set up to solve a problem, I think by Minister Ed Husic. And let me say, we've been very lucky to have two wonderful ministers for science who, although not scientists, really seem to get it, Ed Husic and now Tim Ayres.
I think the idea there was to take our traditionally low investment by private industry, 1.7% of GDP, and increase it to the OECD average of 2.7%.
I think that's really what we need to do.
If we could do that one thing alone, find the magic bullets that can stimulate industry to increase that investment, then I think we're well on our way to fixing whatever it is that we're not doing well.
But in addition to that, the report tables some separate big system level questions, ideas to ponder now and in the years ahead, I'll touch on some of them today.
Firstly, a question of scale. Can we translate our demonstrated research strength into repeatable results – not just one-off successes?
And secondly, maximising value. How do we ensure more of the capability, jobs and returns from our research are realised here in Australia?
The Ambitious Australia report has laid out the evidence and provided a diagnosis – plus one potential roadmap for reform.
And this is where you can help turn that roadmap into results. Because your CRC community helps move us from plans on paper to outcomes on the ground.
But as we pursue those outcomes we must think carefully about a few priorities I want to cover in this speech:
- our research focus and timeframes
- researcher mobility and job security
- and the tools we use and the guardrails that govern them.
If we want a pipeline of future industries, and new products for existing industries, we cannot only fund research that looks useful today.
We must invest in both “the now” and “the next”.
That means deliberately backing two kinds of science at once.
On one hand: research with clear applications to industry, defence and national priorities.
And on the other: blue-sky discovery that may not have an immediate payoff but can deliver profound long-term returns.
As Ambitious Australia makes clear, discovery and translation are not separate. They are part of one system. If either is weak, the whole system underperforms.
Now, I know this room is focused on impact, as you should be – on turning research into commercial and community outcomes quickly. But blue-sky research is not optional. It’s essential!
When we invest in science, we strengthen our economy in the short- and long-term. And our ability to respond to complex challenges, from energy and water security to the use of critical minerals – and beyond.
So, we must continue to invest in our inventors and innovators, and small groups of innovators. Because they are the wellspring of discovery and transformation!
Australia has countless examples of small teams generating big discoveries.
As Ambitious Australia documents, we need better systems and settings to identify these great discoveries and to scale them, and to help companies commercialise them – before the world comes knocking at our door.
We’ve seen this before. Small teams of Australian researchers develop world-leading capability – like the molecular clamp technology at the University of Queensland.
It was a perfect example until the very last step where the final deal was a $2.5 billion investment from a foreign company.
Now, I've been to visit that lab.
There's still heaps going on in that lab.
I think I counted eight different projects, but the original technology, much of the benefit will be reaped overseas.
The molecular clamp aims to stabilise fragile viral proteins so vaccines can be made faster and more effectively.
It’s a strong example of what our system does well: world-class research, developed here, with global value.
But it also highlights the complexity of translation and scale.
And those molecular clamp inventors were part of the story of them visiting every single startup fund in Australia and not being able to get investment until they went to London, where the first company they went to invested in them years ago.
So, this is not a story of failure.
You have to have the inventions in order to have the capitalisation.
But we've already got the invention.
We don't want to destroy this system that we have of stimulating young Australians to invent things.
What we need to do is scan the horizon much more thoroughly and pick up on their inventions.
Early in my career, I lived and worked abroad, collaborating across countries and learning new ways of thinking.
That overseas experience shaped my path – and fuelled my progress.
At the same time, we need to embed an entrepreneurial mind-set early-on.
And there's this wonderful panel we had this morning, and they had incredibly wise things to say about how they wish they knew more about the business world and how their science and engineering was going to be used.
And I echo their thoughts.
This whole process can help researchers to see science not just as an academic pursuit, but also a pathway to real-world impact and commercial success.
But in the meantime, there are bills to be paid and groceries to be bought.
So, we must confront a harder truth: too many researchers face deep uncertainty about funding and career continuity.
That insecurity is a barrier to ambition. It is also a risk to the workforce capability we have built and will depend on into the future.
For a truly ambitious Australia, we must give researchers greater confidence in their futures.
This means supporting mobility and backing people and projects over the long term. Because enduring capability is built by people – and it requires sustained commitment and certainty…
And great equipment and facilities too!
To be an ambitious Australia, sustained investment in research infrastructure is critical.
That infrastructure can accelerate discovery across multiple disciplines and deliver long-term returns.
Right now – and in the years ahead – one of the most important pieces of the puzzle is high-performance computing and data infrastructure.
It now underpins almost all modern research.
If that capability is constrained, we risk slowing everything down – from materials discovery to healthcare breakthroughs to analysis of mining investigations.
Australia’s position is still quite strong, but capacity is constrained. Demand for supercomputer time already outstrips supply, and global benchmarks are moving rapidly ahead of us.
Some nations are investing heavily – but the question for Australia is not simply how much we spend.
It is how we invest, and where we focus, to maximise national benefit.
That means making clear-eyed choices regarding big questions:
• How to balance computing power and data.
• Do we take the data to the computing or the computing to the data, for example?
• When do we build sovereign capability versus partnering with other countries?
• And how to meet rising demand from areas like AI.
Artificial intelligence is also supercharging the pace of research and innovation.
At unprecedented speeds, it’s compressing cycles of discovery, testing and translation.
But the goal must not be just speed.
It must be trusted progress at scale. Because while AI can accelerate these processes, its adoption relies on confidence – among researchers, investors, the community... you name it.
And that confidence cannot be assumed. Rather, it must be built.
It’s built through high levels of transparency and through robust ethical frameworks to ensure new systems are safe to deploy and scale.
Late last year, the government released its National AI Plan. As an immediate action from the plan, an Australian AI Safety Institute is being established to monitor, test and share information on emerging AI capabilities, risks and harms.
I welcome this move.
I believe the Institute’s work will contribute to building the social licence that is so crucial to creating an ambitious and innovative Australia.
That matters even more in an environment where misinformation can spread quickly and undermine confidence in new technologies.
And this is where the humanities and social sciences are essential.
Their insights help us:
- navigate ethics
- understand behaviour
- anticipate social impacts
- and respond to them effectively.
Because innovation depends not just on capability, but on trust – and on people.
And that makes social context – and the disciplines that understand it – critical.
I want to circle back to those old sayings, which still ring true today: protect what’s working well, fix things that aren’t - and do so early.
Let’s look to the long term – and be ambitious.
The work of the recently announced National Resilience and Science Council will go a long way to addressing those points. And I look forward to having a key role with the Council.
In wrapping up, I’d like to come back to the Ambitious Australia report. It covers a lot of ground, with broad-reaching recommendations.
As Chief Scientist, I am particularly supportive of increasing PhD stipends (as per recommendation 12b), supporting Indigenous Knowledge research and researchers (recommendation 14) and clarifying career paths.
I am also passionate about ensuring our researchers have access to the infrastructure they need (recommendations 4 a, b and c).
And we must always keep in mind recommendation 20 and the value of a national narrative about the enormous benefits of RD&I.
So, as we stand at this important point in time, I urge you to keep building those pathways – from lab discovery to commercial reality.
You are a crucial part of that process, and it’s been a pleasure to join you at this important and timely conference.
Thank you.