Following the National Innovation Policy Forum (NIPF) in November 2025, I had the opportunity to reflect on the event with Jane O’Dwyer from Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) in mid-December.
We started with the raison d’être of the NIPF to increase the linkages between industry, the innovation system and policymakers. To this end, as patrons of NIPF, David Thodey and Catherine Livingstone have been catalysing the thinking over the past few years as the conversations and ambitions of NIPF evolved. The NIPF to date has moved from describing the problems to seeking government and industry-shaping innovation policy and looking to ways to improve technology transfer, commercialisation and translation. When we recorded, there was great anticipation that SERD would offer insights in to how the federal government will respond to these opportunities.