Capitalising on the Clever Country

Source: https://about.uq.edu.au/leadership-governance/vice-chancellor-and-president/speeches-and-articles-vice-chancellor-and-president/capitalising-clever-country Parent: https://about.uq.edu.au/faculties-institutes/bel/about/contact

The Australian

Date: 25 February 2026

As Australians, we should be proud of our track-record as a clever country – a nation of genuine scientific ingenuity and invention.

The world-leading discoveries made in our nation’s universities and research institutes have given birth to all sorts of life-changing innovations – from IVF and WiFi to the bionic ear and the cervical cancer vaccine.

In fact, we punch well above our weight when it comes to our scientific output – producing around 4% of the world’s published research, despite being home to just 0.3% of the world’s population.

However, it’s also true that not enough of this research is being translated in a way that creates new industries and jobs, here, in Australia.

Instead, too many of our promising home-grown ideas are stalling in the so-called “valley of death” between discovery and commercialisation.

So, if we want our ingenuity to translate into greater prosperity and societal benefits, we need to be honest about what works – and commit to doing more of it.

What separates countries that invent from those that build industries on the back of that invention is not the quality of their ideas, but how well their systems connect academic research with industry and government support.

In academic circles, this is referred to as the “triple helix model” of innovation. Or as Australia’s former Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, once memorably put it, when it comes to innovation “it takes three to tango”.

The lesson from around the world is that innovation requires deep partnerships between government, industry and academia that align public investment, research excellence and commercial capability.

South-East Queensland’s now rapidly maturing biomedical innovation ecosystem offers a powerful case study of what’s possible when that alignment is achieved.

Between 1998 and 2012 the Queensland Government invested $3.4 billion in the state’s scientific research infrastructure, under its ‘Smart State’ program, while also leveraging significant co-investment, especially from philanthropist Chuck Feeney.

This investment was absolutely crucial to establishing a number of world-class research institutes at The University of Queensland (UQ) in the early 2000s, including the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, the Queensland Brain Institute, the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and the UQ Centre for Clinical Research.

The Smart State program also funded major new research facilities for the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, and the establishment of the Translational Research Institute (a partnership between UQ, QUT, Mater Research and Queensland Health).

But importantly, these investments weren’t a short-term stimulus. The Smart State program was deployed as patient capital, with a long-term view of building capacity in Queensland’s biomedical ecosystem.

And, just as importantly, it was complemented by a broader framework that enabled success, including a safe and effective regulatory regime; a robust culture of evidence-based research; and thriving innovation precincts.

As a result, Queensland now has a flourishing biomedical innovation ecosystem that continually attracts new talent, infrastructure and partners to our state.

We see this in the Translational Science Hub – a partnership between the Queensland Government, UQ, Griffith University and Sanofi that is focussed on developing next-generation vaccines and therapies.

We see it in the Queensland–Emory Vaccine Centre, a joint initiative of UQ and Emory University in the USA, designed to bridge the gap between laboratory research and vaccine development.

We see it in the emergence of local biotech companies like Vaxxas, which is now scaling the manufacturing of its needle-free vaccine technology from its global headquarters in Brisbane.

And we can see it in a growing pipeline of locally developed treatments with life-changing potential: including a novel heart-attack therapy derived from spider venom, and ultrasound-based approaches to treating Alzheimer’s disease.

And crucially, this momentum keeps building, because in the coming months the new ENTRI facility will officially open in Brisbane as Australia’s first biomedical manufacturing facility dedicated to scaling biotech startups.

These successes are not accidental. They’re the product of an ecosystem in which universities are open to collaboration, industry is prepared to invest at scale, and governments provide the policy certainty and co-investment that innovation demands.

So, if we’re serious about building an innovation-led economy to secure Australia’s future prosperity, we need to double-down on what has already proven effective: long-term investment, genuine tripartite partnerships, and a shared ambition to take Australian science to the world.