28 July 2011
Changing the way Universities and end users collaborate: some conspiratorial suggestions for action
Platform Technologies Research Institute is hosting a Distinguished Lecture presented by Professor Robin Batterham, Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne and President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
Event details
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Title: |
Changing the way Universities and end users collaborate |
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Person: |
Professor Robin Batterham Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne and President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |
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Date: |
2012-08-16 |
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Time: |
10:00am – 11:00am |
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Location: |
Access Grid Room RMIT Building 8, Level 9, Room 63-66 |
Further details
RSVP
Free event. Bookings essential.
Morning tea will be provided.
RSVP to platformtechnologies@rmit.edu.au
Abstract
In this discussion, we consider the special role of publically funded R&D leading to commercial innovation. To quote from the COMS2012 conference; “We are living in times of extreme financial volatility with the world manufacturing focus rapidly shifting east towards the Asian economies. Yet there are still important and vibrant businesses anchored in the high cost manufacturing countries, from which new ideas and new technologies spring onto world markets. People and their governments look to publicly funded research institutions to be the source of new ideas and the innovation that takes them to market, yet in most countries the performance metrics and incentives in place for Universities and Institutions focus on research excellence, publications and student numbers.”
It is suggested that innovative capacity is a far stronger determinant of innovation than the level of publically funded R&D and that collaboration between researchers in universities and innovators in industry is vital yet poorly served by our current funding systems.
What gets measured gets done and our universities are not well rewarded for collaboration. We will list some systems that have resulted in effective collaboration and suggest a few improvements. Getting traction for these improvements will take a more focused approach by the universities and the end users.
The sort of orchestrated agreement that is needed almost amounts to a conspiracy.
About the Presenter
Professor Robin Batterham is acknowledged as an expert in innovation and gives regular keynote talks on the topic. He is Kernot Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne and also President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Until recently he was Group Chief Scientist, Rio Tinto Limited and Chairman of the International Energy Agency Expert Group on Science for Energy.
He has had a distinguished career in research and technology - in the public and private sectors - in areas such as mining, mineral processing, mineral agglomeration processes, and iron making. He is the inventor of over 20 patent families.
Professor Robin Batterham was Chief Scientist to the Australian Federal Government from 1999 to 2005.
He has been President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and the International Network for Acid Prevention and twice President of the International Mineral Processing Congress as well as chairing the Australia India Collaborative Research Fund. He is an elected Fellow (or Foreign Fellow) of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Engineering, the Swiss Academy of Technological Sciences, the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering as well as Fellow of several learned societies.
Professor Batterham’s current research interests centre on innovation in energy systems: options for future generation and distribution, transport options, energy reduction in comminution and in dewatering of low grade materials (brown coal, agricultural wastes and recycled materials) together with breakthrough work on low emission aluminium production.