For the not-for-profit (NFP) sector, the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) marks a shift towards a culture of innovation rather than a specific financial investment. However, there are flow-on opportunities available for the sector.
The four-year package will focus on promoting science, maths, computer skills in schools, industry-research partnerships and risk-taking in business (through tax subsidies).
Turnbull outlined the four priority areas of NISA as:
- “Culture and capital, to help businesses embrace risk and incentivise early stage investment in startups;
- Collaboration, to increase the level of engagement between businesses, universities and the research sector to commercialise ideas and solve problems;
- Talent and skills, to train Australian students for the jobs of the future and attract the world’s most innovative talent to Australia; and,
- Government as an exemplar, to lead by example in the way Government invests in and uses technology and data to deliver better quality services.”
The full outline of the $1.1 billion investment is presented in the breakout box below.
A positive ideological step forward
The not-for-profit (NFP) sector has largely applauded Turnbull’s encouragement of innovation.
Jan Owens, CEO of the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA), has called the move to support the ideas and innovations of young Australians a “watershed moment for Australia’s future”.
“FYA has consistently called for an urgent, national investment in all young Australians to drive our country forward and prepare them for a changing world. Today’s Innovation Statement demonstrates a positive and important response from government towards making this a reality,” said Owen.
Owen praised the emphasis on STEM and digital skills in schools and welcomed initiatives aimed at fostering innovation in the regions, boosting the incubator ecosystems and providing easier access to equity-sourced crowd funding.
“Innovation has the power to create a more inclusive society in which no-one is left behind. If we equip our young people with the right set of skills, a thirst for innovation, and the ability to collaborate, we can ensure they take our nation’s economy in a positive direction and build the kind of lives and society that will set Australia up as a leader both economically and socially for generations to come.”
Catherine Stace, CEO of the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation echoed Owen’s sentiments that this announcement signals change as government and NFPs recognise the vital importance of innovation, collaboration and science.
“The Innovation Strategy announcement signals the end of an era for the charity sector as we know it. An incremental laggard mindset is no longer good enough,” she said.
“Charities can step up to their new role as change agents, bridging the gap between government and innovation by providing connections, collaboration and infrastructure in the soft skills required to deliver innovation on a mass scale to Australians. In doing so they are likely to fast-track their own missions; after all, that’s what innovation is all about.”
NFP flow-on opportunities
Jeremy Tobias is CEO of GiveEasy, an organisation that provides innovative fundraising and digital solutions to NFPs and produces the annual sector Innovation Index.
The initiatives rolled-out will help to turn rhetoric into action and deliver Australia from ‘the lucky-country’ to the country that ‘makes its own luck.
Speaking to Third Sector about the announcement, Tobias said that, “The announcement marks a substantial shift in our national identity and the way in which we think about the future.
“The package offers huge incentives for entrepreneurs, with the provision of generous tax offsets and reforms to venture capital partnership arrangements, to boost the development of a globally competitive Australian startup ecosystem.
According to Tobias, there are three main areas for potential flow-on opportunities to the sector:
- Transfer of startup culture – Most large NFPs want to bring back a flourishing startup culture that will give them more opportunities to absorb agile, lean and smart ways of working.
- A much richer talent pool – With more business-savvy Australians choosing to join early stage startups over stable corporates, the country will have a more robust talent pool with a greater appetite for risk and step change innovation. And innovation, as uncovered by the GiveEasy Innovation Index, is certainly needed in the sector.
- Making the threat of disruption real – NFPs will need to drop their belief that disruption could only happen in the corporate sector; local disruptive influences will make everyone lift their game.
“For many Australians, this package will move ‘innovation’ from a mere buzz-word to a legitimate part of the country’s policy agenda. The initiatives rolled-out will help to turn rhetoric into action and deliver Australia from ‘the lucky-country’ to the country that ‘makes its own luck’,” said Tobias.
However, Tobias warns that the challenge will be to pick up where the package ends, and continue to build innovation capability and keep promoting a culture that embraces innovation.
“By adopting an entrepreneurial culture within our NFP organisations, focusing on being truly innovative in our thinking rather than just taking a me-to business model, coupled with a measurable focus on innovation, we will become the nation of global disruptors, delivering turbo-charged value to our stakeholders and donor community,” he said.
A culture change, not a financial investment
How Turnbull’s NISA package will financially impact NFP sector initiatives is unclear.
Michelle Stewart, Head of Research and Strategy at Cure Brain Cancer Foundation commented that while $1.1 billion is a significant investment, it will not be sufficient.
“Research is expensive and this would only be a relatively small amount of what is needed.
“Rather than being the “be-all and end-all”, this is a signal to the global investment community that Australia is open for business,” Stewart said.
Stewart said that for NFPs this announcement is more about changing the culture to one that is open to creative, innovative risks and unafraid of failure, rather than a specific financial investment.
“Changing our entrepreneurial culture and injecting innovation into the Australian agenda requires all parts of the system, including NFPs, to be engaged.”
Let’s keep the conversation going
Turnbull’s announcement ties in with Third Sector’s upcoming conference and expo in 2016 which is themed Innovation for a Stronger Community. It promises to attract senior executives and decision makers from industry, government and academia who will keep this conversation going.
To find out more and to register your interest in attending or exhibiting, contact Ori Danieli atori@octomedia.com.au.
A breakdown of Turnbull’s National Innovation and Science Agenda:
- Investors in innovative startups will receive a 20 per cent non-refundable tax offset based on the amount of their investment as well as capital gains exemption.
- A 10 per cent non-refundable offset for capital invested in new Early State Venture Capital Limited Partnerships.
- Replacing the ‘same business test’ – which denies tax losses if a company changes its business activities – with a more flexile ‘predominantly similar business test’.
- Changes to insolvency laws, including reducing the default bankruptcy period from three years to one, introducing a ‘safe harbour’ for directors from personal liability for insolvent trading if they appoint a professional restructuring adviser.
- Establishing a $200 million CSIRO innovation fund to co-invest in new spin-off companies and a Biomedical Transition Fund to co-invest $250m with the private sector.
- Funding for national research infrastructure, including $520m for the Australian Synchroton.
- Providing access to entrepreneurial Australians to landing pads in Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv and three other locations.
- A new Cyber Security Growth Centre.
- More than $50m for online computing challenges for Year 5s and 7s to learn coding, online learning activities for teachers and targeted ICT and STEM programs like ICT Summer Schools for Year 9 and 10s.
- More than $13m to support women and girls in STEM and the research sector.
- An entrepreneurs visa for up-and-coming entrepreneurial talent.
- A new independent body – Innovation and Science Australia – and a new committee of cabinet.
AAP.