Coca Cola using AI to replace its creatives... Artificial Advertising for an Artificial Product!

Another Bob Pritchard Insight

We have been considering the potential for employment loss of up to 60% in just the next few years through the combination of robots, AI and machine learning.  We have discussed how robots are replacing up to 90% of staff at Insurance companies, manufacturing plants and even news stories in the media.

Coca-Cola spends about $5 billion a year on advertising and a lot of advertising agencies and creative directors have created extraordinary campaigns and made countless millions creating messages that have fueled massive sales, generation after generation, despite the rather pathetic attempts of legislators and nutritionists to slow this growth.


 

 As part of a recent restructuring to make Coke a digital business, the brand hired its first chief digital marketing officer.  That digital transformation includes four focus areas: 

• Customer and consumer experience, 
• operations, 
• new businesses and 
• culture. 

Within the customer and consumer segment, Coke is interested in using artificial intelligence to improve content, media and commerce, particularly when it makes the creative process more effective.

In theory, Coke believes AI could be used for everything from creating music for ads, writing scripts, posting a spot on social media and buying media. It doesn’t need anyone else to do that but a robot, coupled with AI and machine learning.

Coke isn’t alone in envisioning human-less creative. AI is already being used to create commercial music and jingles and publishers like the AP are experimenting with using robots to write copy.  In terms of Coca-Cola’s interest in AI for media buying, Coke already buys ads programmatically but it is currently less than half of its media budget into programmatic. Still, with $4 billion in advertising, that is still a huge chunk of change that advertising agencies are no longer getting.

Coca-Cola is also looking for ways to use programmatic technology to fulfill ecommerce sales through tactics like subscriptions.   Coca-Cola thinks AI could be used for everything from creating music for ads, writing scripts, posting a spot on social media and buying media.

Souped-up vending machines are particularly interesting in countries like Japan, where mobile adoption and vending machine sales are high. Coke has a Japanese app called Coke On that lets consumers pay for drinks. Once the company has that, then they can use beacons so that they know when people are passing by the machines and you can understand habit of consumption, location and time.

At the same time, marketers need to keep in mind privacy concerns with the Internet of Things and need to find the right balance of using consumer data to provide better services that consumers appreciate without crossing the line.

That includes devices like Amazon Echo and also Coke’s own packaging, bottles and trucks. For example, Coke is testing beacons in Belgium in retail stores that pull in live data as shoppers move around the store.  You can follow them in real-time and then they have historical data that helps them predict behavior.
 Coca-Cola is now evaluating whether an AI bot can replace these flesh and blood creative teams. Mariano Bosaz, the brand’s global senior digital director, said that he’s evaluating how brands can use artificial intelligence because he’s interested in replacing those creative  people with robots.  Content creation is something that Coke have been doing for a very long time, they brief creative agencies and then the agencies come up with stories that they audio visualize. Coke wants to start experimenting with automated narratives.

How are robots, AI and machine learning going to affect your industry?  No matter what industry you are in, it will, and dramatically.

Google has shipped 10M Cardboard VR viewers, 160M Cardboard app downloads

BY INGRID LUNDEN

Feb 28, 2017

Google is putting a lot of its virtual reality focus right now on its Daydream VR framework, but today Amit Singh, the company’s VP of VR, also gave an update on its earlier (and still active) effort in the area, Google Cardboard. He said that to date the company has shipped 10 million Cardboard VR sets, and it has seen 160 million downloads of Cardboard apps, with 30 individual Cardboard apps downloaded at least 1 million times each.

The comments were made on stage at Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, where Singh is speaking today (see picture above).

It’s an interesting milestone and shows that even while Google is pushing the next iteration of its VR efforts with Daydream to hit a wider range of devices and users — Daydream-compatible mobile handsets can be turned into VR headsets (when inserted into an accessory to mount it on your head) — the very pared-down, free first version Cardboard continues to show momentum. It was only in July of last year that Google said it had hit 5 million headsetsshipped since it first launched in 2014.

He also gave an update on Daydream, which Singh described as a “more immersive” experience than Cardboard and the result of what Google has learned from the first product. He said people using Daydream-ready phones/headsets are watching about 40 minutes per week. There are now six phones and 100 Daydream apps to explore on the market, he noted.

Well over 50% of all content consumption on Daydream is of YouTube content, Singh said, and it’s going to put more focus now on providing more premium (professional not necessarily paid) content on the platform in the form of series.

“You will start to see significant series coming out this year,” Singh said. He said that there have been over 1 million views of an NFL series in the U.S. Now in Europe Google has partnered with Sky VR, he announced today, a VR initiative from Europe’s dominant pay-TV provider.

“Sky VR is coming to Daydream,” he said. Initial content will include both primary films and original series, as well as supplementary programs, Singh noted. Some will be a red carpet show for Star Wars, clips from the Jungle Book, and Sky Sports experiences with personalities like David Beckham and sports like Formula One. Other premium content partners on the Daydream platform include Hulu, Netflix and HBO.

In a separate blog post published after Singh’s stage appearance, Google also noted some new content for Tango, Google’s augmented reality platform. The Sims app now will let you travel around the Sims house; the Chelsea Kicker app will make a Chelsea football player appear in front of you for a selfie or to show you a trick with the ball; and (perhaps less exciting and more Minority Report) an AR app from the WSJ will let you visualise stock trends in midair.

I’ll be speaking to Singh later today and will update this post with more of his thoughts.

Updated with AR detail from blog post made public after initial story was published.

Thriving in a changing digital landscape - lessons from Telstra

• BY STEPHEN ELOP • RESEARCH, NEWS For Stephen Elop, Group Executive, Technology, Innovation and Strategy at Telstra, his time as CEO at Nokia taught him a number of lessons about change. Here he looks at what the Aussie ICT sector can do to thrive.

If you go back to 1955, the life expectancy of a business was 75 years. Today, a large business is expected to exist for about 15 years. Of the Fortune 500 in 1955, 88 per cent of businesses no longer exist.

There’s plenty that has changed in that time, but it’s us – the technology industry – that has driven the pace of change more than any other. Despite this, recent research from Telstra Wholesale, Powering your business through relentless change, shows that we’re still shying away from the pain that comes from being agile and managing disruption ourselves.

In the years I’ve worked with Australian companies, I’ve seen them deal with the same challenges that companies across the world face. But because Australia, in some ways, is an island both literally and figuratively, there may be some circumstances where it takes a bit longer for some disruption from afar to come to Australia. This gives us a huge opportunity to get ahead of those changes, but many businesses still aren’t reacting.

So how do we change the behaviour that’s holding us back?

Change the mindset

A fresh perspective is a powerful thing, but the senior leaders we spoke to in Powering your business through relentless changeshow that we’re being held back by tradition – the way things have always been done.

Conversely, disrupters have a mindset that they’re going to deliver a much better customer experience using a very different business model. They have that mindset and they believe in it and they’re passionate about it, and so they drive hard on it. With that mindset, an amazing amount of work is possible.

Make the most of partners

In Australia, perhaps more than in a much larger country, partnerships are fundamental. It’s a relatively small market given the population size and it has some unique challenges like the breadth of geography and its distance from other major centres.

Because of those factors, I believe that the Australian businesses that succeed are those that become very good at curating capabilities into the country. These companies see the importance of getting the balance between the need to create technology versus curating technology right for the future.  An example is Telstra’s multi-cloud strategy where we are partnering with companies like Amazon and Microsoft to present to our customers a variety of cloud-based capabilities rather than building it ourselves. Each of *Amazon, *Microsoft, *Google and a number of other companies are investing heavily in this technology. What we are doing is working closely with these partners to bring the best that the world has to offer to our customers both locally and globally.

Keep pushing the boundaries

It’s essential to constantly reinvent yourself. A decade or so ago, Telstra’s fixed line business was the cornerstone of our business. In the next five years, nbn will change the state of play dramatically. We have a strong market position and good financial resources, but it’s time we start asking how we take it to the next level. How do we change and lead the market?

So while the current business model is very good, we’re going to place some big bets on technologies that we believe in and disrupt our own model.

Because if we don’t, someone will. And they’ll succeed as a result.

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• As former CEO of Nokia, Stephen Elop has experienced extreme business change, and recognises behaviours which hold companies back. In this article he advocates:
  
• Don’t be held back by tradition
  
• Deliver a great customer experience
  
• Make the most of your partners
  
• Keep reinventing yourself

 

10 Habits of the Most Innovative People

Anthony J James [AJ] Innovation, Digital TransformationGlobal Head of Digital & Innovation, Growth Strategist, Global CMO, LinkedIn Agency Publisher of the Year - Asia Pacific

Success in any industry goes hand-in-hand with innovation — the ability to produce new ideas, build better solutions, and launch new products. The most successful people are not simply the hardest working, they are often the most innovative.

From Edison, to Branson and Musk, here are 10 habits of some of the most innovative, high profile people around (at the moment). What would you add to this list?

1. They constantly look for patterns - do you know what Apopheniais?
2. They are brilliantly lazy - it comes down to efficiency
3. They are obsessive note-takers
4. They preach perfection, yet live for the reality of progress
5. They have a relationship with their fears
6. They don't wait for things to break, they are constantly fixing and iterating
7. They find novel ways to nurture the creative process - mines long showers!
8. They pursue multiple projects, interests and ventures, not just one
9. They possess a healthy arrogance
10. They embrace paradoxical thinking and overlook conventional boundaries

A key part of innovation is implementation and commercialisation — it is not being the first to come up with the idea, but having the boldness to be the first to produce it and bring it to market. When others see risk innovators see opportunity, where others see roadblocks they see potential and outcomes.

How many on this list can you see reflected in yourself? What would you add to the list?

Read more detail on this subject at Huffingtonpost.com

Accelerating Innovation with Leadership

Bill GatesCo-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

As the U.S. presidential candidates lay out competing visions for the country, I have been thinking about a topic they have not yet discussed in detail: what political leadership can do to accelerate innovation. Innovation is the reason our lives have improved over the last century. From electricity and cars to medicine and planes, innovation has made the world better. Today, we are far more productive because of the IT revolution. The most successful economies are driven by innovative industries that evolve to meet the needs of a changing world. From the advances that put a computer on every desk to the discoveries that led to lifesaving vaccines, major innovations are the result of both government investments in basic research and the private-sector creativity and investments that turn them into transformative products. 

I’ve heard some people argue that life-changing innovations come exclusively from the private sector. But innovation starts with government support for the research labs and universities working on new insights that entrepreneurs can turn into companies that change the world. The public sector’s investments unlock the private sector’s ingenuity.

I was lucky enough to be a student when computers came along in the 1960s. At first they were very expensive, so it was hard to get access to them. But the twin miracles of the microchip revolution and the internet—both made possible by U.S. government research—completely changed that. It’s no wonder that today most of the leading hardware and software companies are based in the U.S.

Accelerating innovation requires both political leadership and private sector leadership. As U.S. voters decide which candidates they want to elect to fill national, state, and local offices, and as many countries around the world undergo similar political transitions, I think we should consider what kind of leaders can drive the innovations we need.

The best leaders have the ability to do both the urgent things that demand attention today and at the same time lay the groundwork for innovation that will pay dividends for decades.

As a country and around the world, we confront a wide array of urgent issues that our leaders must address—from terrorism to job creation to migration. Our next president will be part of a new group of global leaders who will wrestle with these urgent problems. Those leaders can either prioritize alleviating poverty, making everyone healthier, and accelerating economic growth—or they can let progress stall. The key to prioritizing progress is support for innovation.

When we innovate, we create millions of jobs, we build the companies that lead the world, we are healthier, and we make our lives more productive. And these benefits transcend borders, powering improvements in lives around the world. Our global culture of innovation has been most successful at those moments when science, technology, and great leadership come together to create miracles that improve modern life. I believe we are in one of those moments.

One of the most indelible examples of a world leader unleashing innovation from both public and private sectors came in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy spoke to the U.S. Congress and challenged the country to put a man on the moon within the decade. That speech came at a time of cultural and political turmoil, when national and economic security dominated the headlines. President Kennedy believed looking to the skies would inspire the country to dream big and accomplish huge things.

That speech didn’t just launch humankind on a successful journey to the moon. It also inspired America to build a satellite network that changed the way we communicate across the globe and produced new forms of weather mapping which made farmers far more productive. In the face of fear, President Kennedy successfully summoned our country to harness American ingenuity and advance human progress.

It’s important to remember what made the moonshot the moonshot—that is, what transforms political rhetoric into game-changing breakthroughs. A moonshot challenge requires a clear, measurable objective that captures the imagination of the nation and fundamentally changes how we view what’s possible. And it requires marshaling the resources and intellect of both the public and private sectors. When we do that, we chart a course for a future that is safer, healthier, and stronger.

Because we are at a pivotal moment when the conditions are ripe for transformative innovations, there are many important things this new group of national leaders—including whoever is elected in the U.S. in November—can accomplish over the next decade. There are four objectives I think we should prioritize:

1. Provide everyone on earth with affordable energy without contributing to climate change.
2. Develop a vaccine for HIV and a cure for neurodegenerative diseases.
3. Protect the world from future health epidemics, which might be more infectious than Ebola and more deadly than Zika.
4. Give every student and teacher new tools so all students get a world-class education.

Provide everyone on earth with affordable energy without contributing to climate change

There is enormous potential to develop technologies that will make energy cheaper and reduce our energy imports without contributing to climate change or air pollution. In the next eight years, we could start the transition to a new type of clean fuel that doesn’t emit carbon, deploy batteries that let electric cars run far longer on a single charge, and produce dramatic drops in the total cost of renewables.

Last year, the U.S. and 20 other countries committed to doubling their energy R&D budgets, and 28 investors pledged to invest in the output of that research. This is only the start. By increasing government support for clean-energy research, presidents and prime ministers could attract more private investors to the field. As early-stage ideas progress, private capital will pour in to build the companies that will deliver those ideas to market.

Develop a vaccine for HIV and a cure for neurodegenerative diseases

With the right leadership and investments over the next decade, we can discover and deliver a vaccine for HIV. Many have forgotten about the scourge of AIDS, treating it like a disease that can be managed instead of the deadly virus that kills more than 1 million people worldwide every year. Based on recent progress, I believe world leaders could help make an effective AIDS vaccine a reality within the next decade. And with a vaccine, we would be on the path to ending the disease altogether.

We can also make tremendous progress on ending neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. These diseases are devastating for the people and families that they affect. They are also huge drivers of out-of-control health care costs, which deplete government budgets that could be used for other critical functions. New digital tools and the rapid advancement of science are providing new momentum and hope in the search for cures.

Protect the world from future health epidemics 

Global leaders should be proud of their role in bringing the Ebola crisis to an end and helping the affected countries recover. Many agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. military, did exemplary work in the face of significant risks to their own safety. Other leaders around the world mobilized their infrastructures as well. But the Ebola epidemic and the rise of the Zika virus also highlight the need for new advances. There is a significant chance that a substantially more infectious epidemic will come along during the next decade. If one does, we will need to be able to detect it, develop a test for it, and produce cures very quickly. Using advances in biology, scientists are developing these capabilities. With vision and support, we will be able to identify and prevent epidemics before they devastate families, communities, and economies.

Give every student and teacher new tools so all students get a world-class education

Education is one of the areas in R&D that is often overlooked and can have immediate payoff. The world can develop technologies that can help students learn in ways that are more tailored to their needs. But that is just one part of the equation for educational success. High-quality online courses are still in their infancy. So is personalized learning, which combines classroom time with digital tools to let students move at their own pace. Technology can make teachers’ jobs easier and their work more effective by letting them upload videos of themselves in the classroom, connect with other teachers, watch the best educators at work, and get real-time feedback from their students. The private sector has started work on these ideas, but funding for government research budgets would boost the market and help identify the most effective approaches, giving teachers and students new tools that empower them to do their best work.

I hope our leaders seize these world-changing opportunities by investing in great research institutions, which translate into big opportunities for innovators.

When these ideas help shape a future that is healthier, more productive, and more powerful, it will be because world leaders stepped up to do the urgent and the important at the same time.

This was originally published at gatesnotes.com.

Address to the AFR National Innovation Summit by the Honorable Greg hunt / minister of Innovation in Australia

Introduction

Thank you Joanne [Joanne Gray, Editor, BOSS, AFR] for that introduction.

Michael Stutchbury, Editor-in-Chief, The Australian Financial Review; my fellow keynote speakers; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

It’s my great pleasure to address the inaugural AFR Innovation Summit.

Let me start with a simple proposition – innovation is about both old and new businesses.

That’s why my first visit to a major firm in my new role was to a 100-year old firm – Dulux.

Dulux is no aging centenarian. It has a thriving research and development centre in Melbourne with over 60 scientists.

This is a firm that has invested in research which has led to more durable paints. And in the process, has created more manufacturing jobs, more construction jobs with a $165 million manufacturing plant in Melbourne. Dulux has tripled its share price in the last six years.

Similarly, on my way here this morning I visited Tyro – a relatively new fintech firm employing 300 people, that operates Australia’s first and only cloud based EFTPOS banking system for small and medium businesses as well as health claim rebate services.

This means that SMEs now have greater choice of EFTPOS banking products, giving flexibility and reducing costs. New jobs for real innovation.

This speech then is deliberately about innovation in both old and new businesses. It is the third in a series of keynote addresses setting out my portfolio priorities since taking on the Industry, Innovation and Science portfolio.

The first was on science, delivered last week in Canberra to the National Research and Innovation Alliance, a group of 16 science and research national peak bodies.

Yesterday in Port Pirie, I delivered the second, focusing on industry and the need for a new wave of microeconomic reform.

Today, I’m rounding off that series with a discussion of the Government’s innovation plan and my vision for industry, innovation and science working side by side to drive our economic future, but it is based on real world business needs and examples.

Today, I want to lay out our plans not just to complete the first wave of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, but also to pursue a second wave based on investment attraction and a third wave built around business simplification and our 2030 science and innovation plan.

For myself and the Prime Minister, innovation is a serious, long-term plan to secure Australia’s future economic prosperity.

Australia is now in its 26th year of uninterrupted economic growth against a background of major structural reforms and global shocks.

Despite this growth, our productivity performance has been lagging for almost a decade. Innovation is, however, a major driving force for productivity growth and that is why we must be resolute in our commitment to it.

Innovation and the Portfolio

This brings me to the Innovation portfolio.

In essence the Industry, Innovation and Science portfolio is about job security and job creation.

By that I mean industry is about the jobs of today, innovation is about the jobs of tomorrow and science is about the jobs of the future.

Innovation therefore matters to the mechanic in Melbourne, the coffee roaster in Sydney and the mining services firm in Central Queensland.

Innovation matters because 45 per cent of our firms are involved in it.

Innovation matters because it drives 60 per cent of our national productivity.

Innovation matters because it gives us better medicines and safer cars.

Innovation is therefore about new or improved goods or services, new processes or new business models.

That is, it’s all about turning ideas into commercial opportunities – to create jobs and better the quality of our lives.

1.         Past: what have we already achieved?

In setting out our innovation model let me look to the past, the present and the future.

Our inventiveness as a nation, our entrepreneurial spirit, and our inquiring minds and scientific capability stand us in good stead.

We have a history of being well hooked into waves of global innovation.

1.1       Global innovators

Our great innovators of the past have included our scientists, doctors and inventors.

Our world has been transformed by the work of Alexander Fleming and Sir Howard Florey whose complementary work gave penicillin to hundreds of millions. They literally changed our lives.

Edison’s light bulb, Bell’s telephone, the Wright brothers’ Kitty Hawk all shaped our modern world.

We have gone from the iron age to the steam age, to the electronic age and now to the biomedical age.

Innovation has driven our world forward and will continue to do so.

1.2       Australian innovators

Here in Australia, we have great examples of innovators. CSL is one example of a large and brilliant Australian innovator.

When the Australian Government established CSL in 1916, few would have imagined it would grow to become a global biotherapeutics leader.

A century on with major facilities in Australia, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and US, it delivers innovative therapies such as plasma products and vaccines to patients around the world.

Since its incorporation in 1991, and listing on the ASX in 1994, CSL has grown to a $53 billion market capitalisation.

CSL understands the value of R&D, with its R&D investments in 2014–15 totalling $463 million and driving its growth.

At the smaller end, let me talk about Spinifex.

Spinifex was established as a startup in 2005 and was based exclusively in Australia until 2014.

It specialises in new approaches to treating pain that could benefit untreatable chronic neuropathic pain.

Following its innovation success, Novartis acquired the company for $200 million upfront, and potentially $500 million in milestone payments.

2.         Present: what does it mean today?

These part successes lead us to our current policy and its application to both new and existing businesses.

2.1       Current policy

In 2016–17, we are on track to provide $10.1 billion to support research and experimental development. This is an increase of 3.55 per cent on the Budget Estimate of $9.7 billion in 2015–16.

Over the last ten years Australian Government support for R&D has increased by 52 per cent —from over $6.6 billion to $10.1 billion.

As part of this, the National Innovation and Science Agenda contains measures worth more than $1.1 billion.

Implementing the measures in the agenda is one of my top priorities.

NISA is built around four principles: building our science culture and capital, strengthening collaboration, encouraging science and innovation talent, and Government leading as an exemplar.

2.2       Existing businesses

Let me turn to how we apply this to existing businesses.

Innovation is not just about tech startups or IT; it’s also about established businesses doing things better to stay competitive in a changing environment.

Innovation is happening on the factory floor, on our farms, at the supermarket checkout and in the office, in addition to the leading-edge research occurring in our science laboratories.

Let me give three current examples from large businesses and one from a small local business.

Telstra is currently testing its next generation of mobile data communications. Lab tests have delivered 5G download speeds greater than 20 gigabits per second. This will not only transform the product Telstra provides to its customers, but in turn will change the way Telstra’s business customers run their own enterprises.

On Monday, I visited  Bluescope Steel – the largest employer in my electorate of Flinders.  I was told about, what in hindsight was, a simple change to the way they company rolled steel, yet had contributed to a significant cost reduction.

By lowering the temperature at which the steel was poured by 30 degrees they not only reduced energy consumption but allowed the steel to be rolled at a faster rate.  This directly reduced costs and improved output.

Yesterday I visited the Nyrstar smelter in Port Pirie.  This plant, which started life as a lead smelter almost 130 years ago, is now a state-of-the-art integrated multi metals recovery plant which employs around 740 people.  This followed a $514 million transformation project which commenced in 2014. 

Our small businesses are also innovating.

I recently visited Melbourne Garages in Hastings. They have quadrupled business, not by reinventing the garage door but reinventing how you buy it.

In their new service model, they do your design, planning permits, construction and finishing.

The most recent international comparisons, compiled for 2012–13, show Australia’s proportion of innovation-active SMEs ranks well in the OECD—at five out of 30 countries.

2.3       New businesses

Innovation is of course about new businesses as well.

In recent weeks we have launched three key initiatives as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda to encourage early stage investment in innovative startups to boost growth by fostering new enterprises and promote entrepreneurship.

First, earlier this month I launched the Biomedical Translation Fund – a $500 million for-profit venture capital fund targeting investments in companies with projects at advanced pre-clinical and Phase I and Phase II stages of development. 

These investments are expected to help solve the second ‘valley of death’ funding problem which holds back the commercialisation effort of ground-breaking new medicines, therapies and medical devices.

Second, on 1 July 2016 new tax arrangements came into effect for angel investors to encourage more investment in startups.

These new measures include a 20 per cent tax offset based on the amount of their investment capped at up to $200,000 per investor and a 10 year capital gains tax exemption for investments held for 12 months or more.

Third, our early stage venture capital partnership, which also started on 1 July 2016, allows for a broader range of investment activities. They increase the fund size from $100 million to $200 million and provides a 10 per cent non-refundable tax offset on capital invested during the year.

These measures are about building investment.

Innovative entrepreneurs create opportunities for themselves and others. Between 2006 and 2011, Australian startups added 1.44 million full time equivalent jobs to the economy.

Just recently, I spoke with Mike Pritchett, the CEO of Shootsta, a digital media startup based in Sydney.

The company has created a niche market in video production by modifying the traditional video production model to give better value to customers.

Shootsta gives companies the tools to film their own corporate video content, but provides the more technical, post-production services, reducing costs for customers.

And it counts some big names among its clients, including Qantas, Toyota, KiwiBank and Bank of Queensland.

Our innovation system performs very well in some areas.

These include the quality of science and research in our universities and research agencies, the strength of our education system, and our favourable business environment.

The latest data shows 45 per cent of all Australian businesses were innovation active in 2014‑15, up from 37 per cent in 2006–07.

However, there are persistent weaknesses within Australia’s innovation system, for example, in relation to collaboration between the industry, science and research sectors, and commercialisation of viable research.

Therefore, I’m pleased to open the second Cooperative Research Centre Projects round today.

The CRC–P funding stream supports collaborative research projects that will develop products, services or processes to solve problems for industry and deliver tangible outcomes and commercial benefits.

3.         Future – where will we be focusing next?

Now I want to turn to our future waves of innovation.

And here, we are looking at three waves.

3.1       First Wave: Implementing NISA

We’ve already made good progress in the first wave of implementing the National Innovation and Science Agenda.

So far we have taken three big steps.

First, we are investing in Big Science.

Last week, I formally completed the handover of the Synchrotron to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

With its unique imaging power, this important piece of research infrastructure has enabled breakthroughs in a spectacular range of scientific fields.

We’ve allocated $520 million for the Synchrotron under NISA.

We’ve also contributed to and secured private sector investment to build the world’s first silicon quantum computing circuit.

In addition to the Government’s $25 million commitment, Telstra and Commonwealth Bank of Australia have each pledged $10 million to fund this world-leading research.

This investment will help ensure we not only maintain our competitive edge in the global race to build a quantum computer, but also grow a quantum ecosystem and industry in Australia.

A quantum sector will create new high-tech job opportunities for our nation.

Second, as I noted, the Government has amended the tax system to encourage investors to direct their funds towards high-growth, innovative startups.

Third, we have taken steps to boost women’s participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Only one in four IT graduates and fewer than one in ten engineering graduates are women. Encouraging greater gender equity will help us realise our potential as a nation.

We’ve held two roundtables involving innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers and leaders of many different science and industry sectors, to examine expanding opportunities for women in science and entrepreneurship.

Importantly, we’ve allocated $112 million for science education.

3.2       Second Wave: New ways of attracting investment and infrastructure

Today I want to outline the second and third waves of our National Science and Innovation Agenda.

The second wave will focus on encouraging private sector investment in innovation and new infrastructure for science.

While we have already established the Biomedical translation Fund and the CSIRO commercialisation fund, the venture capital sector has made it clear that there is a mid-level gap for commercialising technologies.

As companies grow from $20 million to $200 million in value, there is often real difficulty in finding investment capital.

In this context I will be exploring with the sector the value of a broader National Innovation Fund based on matching debt or equity, rather than grants, for this mid stage commercialisation.

The other component of the second wave is the focus on Big Science infrastructure.

Access to leading-edge research infrastructure is critical to pursuing scientific endeavour.

The Government has committed $2.3 billion over the next ten years to support research infrastructure, including the Synchrotron and the Square Kilometre Array, as well as the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.

The Array offers many opportunities for industry and science collaboration, and for job creation. Building infrastructure of that scale can only be achieved with industry’s involvement.

The task now is to find the next Synchrotron or Square Kilometre Array.

Therefore, the Government has asked Australia’s Chief Scientist to complete development of a National Research Infrastructure Roadmap this year.

3.3       Third wave: business simplification

Now I want to turn to the third wave of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, which will be ongoing over the next three years. Here, our focus is twofold.

First, to make it easier for business to interact with government and improve the business environment by tackling the burden of unnecessary regulation, particularly where there might be duplication across federal, state and local government levels.

I have already written to each of the states and territories offering to create single business entry points for government applications.

I have also offered to strike MoUs on genuine priority areas for deep deregulation with each state and territory.

If doing business can be simpler, more people will do business.

Second, we will also be helping sectors move into the future.

CSIRO, for example, has highlighted a number of technologies that may revolutionise the construction sector: from robotic exo-suits that help workers manipulate heavy objects to smart machines that lay bricks and tiles, to 3D printers producing houses onsite.

The third wave will see Innovation and Science Australia, a new expert board chaired by Australia’s father of venture capital, Bill Ferris, prepare a national 2030 plan for innovation, science and research.

The board’s strategic advice on priorities and investment for innovation will help lift Australia’s performance and increase our global competitiveness.

In this context, today I’m pleased to announce two programs to help small business.

First, the renewal of funding for CSIRO’s SME Connect, to allow the programme to continue the good work it has accomplished.

SME Connect has helped more than 180 Australian SMEs create jobs, expand their products, services and customer base, and access international markets.

For example, in collaboration with Victorian biotech company Anatomics, CSIRO has helped develop and produce a 3D titanium heel implant.

The implant was produced using a CSIRO 3D printer and implanted by surgeons at St Vincent's Hospital in a patient with cancer of the bone who was facing amputation of the leg.

Secondly, I’m pleased to announce 74 projects have been successful in their applications for Priming Grants, which link small business with international researchers.

To give one example – a researcher from Edith Cowan University is engaging with a firm in China on the manufacturing of energy-harvesting glass panels for windows, skylights and facades for green buildings.

Conclusion

The story of Australia has been a story of innovation.

From Edward Hargraves’s use of a tin dish to discover gold in NSW – an early innovation that triggered the 1850s gold rushes – to the establishment 100 years ago of CSIRO that has delivered us WI-FI and extended wear contact lenses, to the startups of the 21st century.

We’ve shown we’re a nation that can harness its ingenuity to create opportunity and prosperity.

We have enjoyed 25 years of economic growth because of a strong focus on our competitiveness and innovation. But we need new waves of innovation to continue our growth.

Therefore, our next wave will be about encouraging investment and supporting Big Science infrastructure. Our third wave will be about business simplification and transformation.

Today I have set out these first, second and third waves of the Innovation Agenda, and the message is clear – innovation is for old and new businesses and is about creating jobs and a better quality of life.

Ultimately, if we create the right investment incentives and science infrastructure, and simplify doing business, we can continue to harness the ingenuity that led to our success in the past, for not just the next 25 years but for the next 100 years.

That’s why innovation matters to every Australian.

Thank you.

(ENDS)