3-142 SME Engagement in Research Collaborations

Funding or Partner Organisation: AutoCRC Ltd

Start year: 2015

Summary: Australia, like many global nations, is undergoing significant structural economic shifts driven by global external forces. The ability for Australia to remain prosperous will largely be dependent on how our most competitive sectors respond to the wave of disruptions they will face within the short to medium term. An understanding of the probable technological disruptions, which many sectors are facing, is well understood. However what is less clear is how key sectors, value chains and individual firms will respond. The Australia automotive sector faces an additional set of challenges, with lead customers, who were the conduit into global supply chains and therefore innovation guides, exiting Australia post 2017. Innovation within the Automotive sector will face significant disruption given the massive investments in technology, infrastructure and changing customer preference. Future research investment in the automotive sector is being driven by non-traditional industries and will have an impact far wider than the current industry has considered previously. New business models, supply chains and product development opportunities, which focus on mobility rather than vehicle innovation, will be the new norm. Australia's significant research investment and industry development in the automotive sector will need to be aligned to a new future. However this future is yet to be designed and key stakeholders identified and future collaboration framed. This research proposal aims to enable the creation of this future and prepare the sector and its new innovation ecosystem for change and take the first step towards this future.

FOR Codes: Design Innovation, Automotive Equipment, Technological and Organisational Innovation, Interaction and experience design

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.