Excellence in Innovation - Research Impacting Our Nation's Future

"There are compelling stories that need to be told of research impact arising from research at Australian Universities"

The Australian Technology Network (ATN) and the Group of Eight (Go8) universities yesterday released an outcomes report from their Excellence in Innovation for Australia (EIA) - research impact trial. The EIA set out to measure the "innovation dividend" of research conducted by Australian universities and also to be a precursor to a possible companion piece to the current government's research quality assessment program; the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA). The research impact trial showed that it is possible to assess the impact of research outcomes in the wider community, i.e. outside the university sector, and possible to describe a return on investment in terms of benefits to the "end-users" of the research outcomes. This also suggests that it is possible to ultimately link these measurable outcomes to federal funding (as is currently the case for the ERA). The report also details 24 stand-out case studies from the university sector which rated as having either considerable, very considerable or outstanding impact. Some of the fascinating case studies included:

VitroGro®ECM: modern wound care technology helping people with chronic wounds - from researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). VitroGro

A world first plastic automotive mirror – from fundamental research to commercial OEM product - from researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA) Plastic mirror

The Report can be downloaded here: Excellence in Innovation - Research Impacting Our Nation's Future