Mike Wood, commissioner of the Productivity Commission, told the ABARE OUTLOOK conference in Canberra today that government contributions to research and development were very worthwhile in Australia, but that support must be commensurate with the resulting public benefit.

“Greater transparency surrounding the research and development process is necessary to justify ongoing public support,” Mr Wood said.

Mr Wood did, however, warn that the commercialisation trend of research and development has gone too far. He said the public availability of research should be expanded in some areas. 

Peter Reading of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) told the conference that one of the key indicators of the success of research and development was growth in total factor productivity.

“The GRDC chooses key performance indicators which clearly link research goals to total factor productivity, and to farmer"s profitability,“ Mr Reading said.

The conference also heard that a crucial element of measuring the success of research and development is the rate of uptake. The three main elements for an innovation to be taken up by farmers are awareness, capacity to adapt and motivation to use the new technology.

Paul Ford of the Geoffrey Gardiner Dairy Foundation spoke about the importance of industry input for setting research priorities, citing the success of R&D in the dairy sector as an example.