2022 update to the List of critical technologies in the national interest
In August 2022, Shoal made a joint submission with PowerHouse Ventures Ltd to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources 2022 update to the ‘List of critical technologies in the national interest’. The ‘Critical Technologies’ list currently identifies 63 technologies that are deemed paramount to Australia’s national interest. They are underpinned by a Blueprint with four goals and seven action pillars, balancing national security with economic opportunity.
As a team of systems engineers and mathematicians, we spend our working week looking at complex systems and the relationships that affect and influence them. We know that having the current ‘Critical Technologies’ list of 63 technologies, underpinned by a Blueprint with four goals and seven action pillars results in an overly complex system that will dilute effort. So, we pitched to simplify the list into ‘Technologies of initial focus’. In our view, it is vital for Australia’s future prosperity that policy addresses the significant and increasing failure of Australia as a nation to translate our very robust and broad scientific research capability into local industry, productivity, and jobs. However, the gap between research and development in Australia is widening. Australia consistently ranks in the top 10 nations of highly cited scientific papers in major research fields, yet our manufacturing base and industry diversity continues to decline. Our future focus must be on Development Translation, increasing our manufacturing base and capability.
The submission was written by Graeme Dunk, Shoal Group, and James Kruger, PowerHouse Ventures.
You can read our submission here.