Conducting high-level research in the digital age increasingly requires the involvement of teams of researchers, multiple institutions and many countries.

As a country with a proportionally strong research output and proximity to Asian partners, Australia stands to contribute and benefit significantly from better research and innovation networks across the countries of Asia.

Strengthening Research Across Asia: An Asia Research and Innovation Network is the second paper released by the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) as part of the IRU Research Series. The IRU has identified four crucial issues for the Australian research system each of which address the Government’s aims to improve the commercial outcomes from research. They are:

• Promoting industry driven research to complement Australia’s extensive university led research outputs;
• Strengthening Australian interaction with the expanding economies of Asia through linked research systems and support for industry in those countries;
• Emphasising translational research. Translational research tests the findings of basic research in practical, real world contexts to put the research to work improving products and processes, feeding back the outcomes into the next stages of the underlying research;
• Encouraging regional and outer urban research ecosystems that see research conducted throughout Australia with benefits delivered to communities and industries.

The following Statement will explore the way ahead for creating a strong Asia Research and Innovation Network.