Large Dividends from Science and Innovation Support
Issued with the research report, Public Support for Science and Innovation.
There are important economic, social and environmental benefits to Australia from the $6 billion public support of science and innovation, according to a report released by the Productivity Commission. Nevertheless, in its final report on Public Support for Science and Innovation, the Commission has identified a number of areas of the science and innovation system where reforms are needed.
Commissioner Mike Woods, in releasing the final report, said, ‘The most important functions of publicly-supported science and innovation are nurturing a highly skilled and creative workforce and generating knowledge that is broadly and publicly useful. Increasingly, public support has focussed on commercialising R&D, but in most instances the private sector is best placed to fund this activity.’
Consistent with this, the Commission argues that the objectives of Cooperative Research Centres should be re-aligned to the broad attainment of economic, social and environmental goals, not just commercial ones. Strong public funding support is justified for Rural R&D Corporations that have a significant public good orientation. But the Commission considers that the level of public co-funding for some of the more industry-focused corporations could be too high and should be re-assessed.
The Commission found that there would be a better chance of stimulating R&D in the business sector if there were changes to the design and scope of the $600 million R&D Tax Concession. Commissioner Woods said ‘we need to increase the likelihood that businesses getting these subsidies use them for R&D they wouldn't otherwise undertake.’ The Commission also identified a need for more nimble R&D collaborative arrangements between business and universities, and has proposed a complement to the CRC program that could achieve this, as well as a 'proof of concept' program that would help universities transfer developed ideas to businesses.
The Commission canvasses some options that might increase the possibility of net benefits from the recent Government decision to adopt the Research Quality Framework (RQF). The Commission favours a scheme that is more strongly weighted against the poorest research performers than currently envisaged. But as the RQF evolves, the Commission suggests the use of a lower cost, risk-minimisation approach that only applies to poor performing areas in universities.
Pocket PC Programming and that is just the beginning
Brian Scarbeau is one of my favorite high school computer science teachers for two specific reasons. One is that he is always trying new things and teaching them to his students. The other is that he blogs about it. Sharing his ideas and experiences with other teachers is a huge thing.
Right now he is getting his students excited about programming by having them program for the Pocket PC. Did I mention that this is only the second week of classes? The thing I like about using Pocket PCs is that it is unexpected. Students all expect that they will be asked to program on big clunky, and there for easier, desktop computers. Something like pocket device would appear to be more difficult. In some ways, of course, it is. But that is pretty much just when you want to do something large and complicated where memory size and CPU performance are issues. Not too many students run into programs like that in their first programming course though.
So when students find out that they can write a real program in Visual Basic .NET for a Pocket PC they start to realize that programming is within their grasp. A little early success goes a long way.
