OPINION: Without a change in mindset around investment in scientific discovery Australia will struggle to create critical technology industries and workforces, writes Cathy Foley.
considers important questions of job security and wages, the role of science and technology-led discovery in the jobs of the next two decades must be front and centre.
Critical technologies are at the heart. These are the technologies across medicine, agriculture, minerals processing, energy and recycling that are essential for well-being and for our nation’s security and prosperity. We are a Goldilocks-sized country that can afford to take a systems design approach and embrace fresh ideas.First, an understanding that a sustainable research system is one that includes redundancy. Not every question has a neat answer. Not every idea will spark a breakthrough and some will meet a dead-end – just as there is no such thing as overnight success in business.
As with quantum, the dividends of blue-skies investment are realised not on a scale of months, or a few years, but with decadal commitments that require patience. Reskilling and upskilling on the job should not be seen as a way of plugging gaps, but as a deliberate and planned-for culture of continuous learning in the workplace.Third, as we seek to create new industries and develop new workforces, the approach cannot be piecemeal, a confetti of programs and initiatives. Australia doesn’t have the scale to head in too many directions at once.
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