Forum for Operational Oceanography News

Can FOO be part of the 'ideas boom'?

March 2016

The Australian Government has just released its National Innovation and Science Agenda with the tag line of ‘welcome to the ideas boom’.  Full details can be found at http://www.innovation.gov.au/.

The Innovation Agenda is a call to action.  It says that ‘We need to embrace new ideas in innovation and science, and harness new sources of growth to deliver the next age of economic prosperity in Australia’.

As we all know, marine industries are key to ‘the next age of economic prosperity in Australia’.

So this ‘ideas boom’ resonates very well with our discussions at the inaugural Forum for Operational Oceanography held in July 2015.  It also resonates very well with the National Marine Science Plan released in August 2015, and its focus on ‘driving the development of Australia’s blue economy’.

Please take some time to consider the Innovation Agenda, and let us know if there are particular aspects that you think FOO should focus on.  The Innovation Agenda has 29 initiatives, many of which have no relevance to FOO.  At a minimum, it’s suggested that you might want to have a look at the following:

Building World-Class National Research Infrastructure

CSIRO Innovation Fund

Data61 - Australia's Digital and Data Productivity Network

Faster Research-Industry Collaborative Project Grants

Innovation Connections - connecting industry to innovation infrastructure

Promoting Innovation through publishing and sharing public data

The FOO Steering Committee will next meet in late January 2016, and this will be a significant item of business.  Input from the broader FOO community would therefore be very useful, so don’t be shy in sharing thoughts and ideas.

Tim Moltmann

on behalf of the FOO Steering Committee, and the National Marine Science Committee