The 4I model for improving efficiencies in Australia's world-class research universities

In some scientific domains, it makes absolute sense for universities' research direction to be guided by industry's visions given that higher education institutions are largely shielded from market forces by billions in government funding whereas industry is primarily market and profit-driven.

For this to work, universities must move from a mindset of generating research income to one of value creation in their partnerships with industry. This can be facilitated by appointing more people with business backgrounds, and a good understanding of market needs and technology are appointed to universities' business development (BD) offices.

Universities' business development activities should focus on innovation and less on commercialisation

I believe that successful research commercialisation depends firstly on having a sufficient portfolio of market-ready and market-driven research. This requires a proactive process of developing innovation capabilities in the university where BD professionals work together with researchers to conceive, develop and implement ideas to serve an unmet need in new ways that create value.

From my observation, I find that universities' BD activities generally follow a reactive rather than a proactive approach. BD professionals generally step in to formulate and implement BD strategies after a research breakthrough has been made with the objective to transfer the new discovery to industry for further development. This often lead to 'difficult to sell' innovations that are not aligned with industry needs.

According to a report commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training, research commercialisation only generates at best 3-5% of a university's revenue. Therefore, it makes good business sense to re-evaluate investments in research commercialisation and channel more efforts into developing innovation leadership instead.

An example of such an initiative is at the School of Engineering of the University of Melbourne where selected academics are interviewed by an expert 'value assessment panel' to develop a 10-year research roadmap; an experience akin to the interrogation on the TV show Shark Tank.

In summary, a world-class higher education system is a great equaliser for different nations regardless of socioeconomic status, gender or ethnicity. By following the 4I model of inspiring, innovating, and intersecting with industry needs, I hope that Australian universities will move up the economic value chain from focusing on basic research to developing more mature technologies that are ready for industry adoption.