June 23, 2025
The third of the Society’s new lunchtime series, ‘Provocations and Inspirations’, was held on Monday, 23 June 2025 at the Union, University and Schools Club (UUSC) before an audience of approximately 60 people.
Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM DistFRSN, Australia’s Chief Scientist during the years 2021–2024, delivered an incisive presentation on a topic of vital importance to Australia, ‘The Producitvity Challenge: the role of innovations and R&D in Australian business‘ — made all the more pertinent by the imminence of the forthcoming Productivity Roundtable that is being planned for by the Australian Government for August 2025.
In her talk, Dr Foley outlined practical pathways for strengthening the innovation ecosystem, addressing barriers, including risk aversion in industry investment, fragmentation of the research landscape, and policy discontinuity, and considering how to foster greater collaboration between research institutions and industry partners, creating more effective commercialisation pathways, and developing coherent long-term innovation policies that can position Australia to have more knowledge-intensive industries.
A gallery of images from the occasion is available for viewing and downloading, and a recording of this important presentation is available on our YouTube channel
