The Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council was a CEO-led private sector initiative pursuing Australian success in advanced manufacturing. The AAMC brought together industry leadership to drive innovation success and resilience in the Australian economy.
Through access to showcases, resources, news and site visits the AAMC was able to advocate on behalf of Australia’s Advanced Manufacturing Industry with key decision makers.
It made clear that Australia’s Advanced Manufacturers are involved in the development of new markets, new products, new technologies and new ways to manufacture existing products.
Its purpose met, the AAMC has now come to close. However, access to key reports, content and continuing contact details can be found here.
The AAMC is proud to have published a series of local advanced manufacturing showcase stories highlighting Australian achievement in the field, while acknowledging the world is not standing still, and nor can we.
There are thousands of manufacturing companies in Australia demonstrating creative and technological prowess - and business acumen – and taking their innovations to the world. A number share their inspirational stories in detail in our 68-page publication.
We encourage you to read these fascinating insights into the many and varied pathways manufacturers are taking on the road to success.
View the full report here:
View the Federal Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda here:
Australian businesses and universities continue to march to the beat of different drums when it comes to research, says a Queensland University of Technology academic.
Professor Arun Sharma, deputy vice chancellor (research and commercialisation) at QUT, says that it appears almost as if university research has evolved independently of the innovation that the economy needs.
While he says that universities and businesses don’t have to be fully aligned in their research priorities, Professor Sharma notes that the disparity in Australia is serious.
A report by Universities Australia released late last year (see table below), showed that the higher education sector was spending the largest slice of research money (29 per cent) on medical and health sciences.
Table courtesy of University research: policy considerations to drive Australia’s competitiveness, Universities Australia, November 2014.
However the business sector was directing its research dollars chiefly to engineering (47 per cent), followed by information and computing sciences (30 per cent).
“This could be indicative of a mismatch in Australia’s research effort but more probably reflects the differing roles of universities and business,” the report said.
Professor Sharma has played a leading role in developing Australian research in information and communication technology. He co-founded the centre of excellence National ICT Australia Limited, as well as sitting on various roundtables, including the Queensland Premier’s State Smart Council from 2005-11.
He says some of the disparity in Australia can be explained by the fact that university research is often funded by external research income, which dictates what is researched.
A large part of this funding comes from competitive peer-reviewed grants, which he says are an essential component of any innovation system – but more often consider the needs of the university research workforce rather than the business sector.
At the AAMC, we have been collecting fast facts about Australia and how we compare in advanced manufacturing measures. Did you know?:
Multinational Enterprise (MNE) coordinated Global Value Chains are estimated to account for 80% of global trade. [2]
[1] Pettigrew, A. G. (2012) Australia’s Position in the World of Science, Technology and Innovation, Occasional Paper Series, Issue 2. Office of the Chief Scientist, Canberra.
[2] OECD, WTO, UNCTAD, IMPLICATIONS OF GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS FOR TRADE, INVESTMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND JOBS, 6 August 2013, p.7, 23
Austrade recently released a comprehensive and insightful document, Why Australia – Benchmark Report 2015.
The report provides up-to-date data on areas including growth across various industries, the strength of the university sector, Australia’s globally significant industries and engineering pipeline construction activity across the country.
According to the report, Australia offers a powerful combination of solid economic performance, a highly skilled workforce, legal and political stability and close ties to the fast-growing markets of Asia. It also noted that:
The Prime Minister and Industry Minister announced the Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda (Competitiveness Agenda) on 14 October 2014. It identified four ambitions:
The Industry Growth Centres Initiative is the centrepiece of the Government’s new industry policy direction and part of Ambition 4 of the Competitiveness Agenda.
https://www.industry.gov.au/industry/Pages/Industry-Growth-Centres.aspx#header
The Dow Chemical Company’s Advanced Manufacturing Plan for Australia was released in Sydney in 2011, by Chairman and CEO of Dow, Andrew Liveris, as a plan for action – a comprehensive set of economic priorities and policy recommendations to create a stronger, more balanced economy.
KPMG’s discussion paper on Manufacturing Competitiveness in Australia was developed in collaboration with John Pollaers, Chair of the Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council, and through discussions with key industry executives and government stakeholders, with a view to redefine our understanding of manufacturing.
Australia’s Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, released his report Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics: Australia’s Future in September 2014. Professor Chubb said a long-term STEM strategy – with more focus on cross-disciplinary collaboration and less on academic publication – is imperative. Australia will “get the future we earn.”
The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership was formed in 2010 by the White House and the US Department of Commerce to identify and tackle the most pressing challenges facing the American manufacturing sector. It is a group of university and college presidents, CEOs from the nation’s most successful manufacturing firms and policymakers across the federal government.
The Business 20 (B20) is a forum through which the private sector produces policy recommendations for the annual meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) leaders.
The summary report and more detailed task force and working group reports are at the links below.
Driving growth and jobs – B20 policy recommendations to G20
B20 Financing Growth Taskforce Report
B20 Human Capital Taskforce Report
Please send all enquiries to aamc@aigroup.com.au
