Australia's industries face unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the actions we now take to harness science and technology investment can help set the path towards a brighter future for Australia. Today, more than ever, science and technology are vital to drive our recovery and build future resilience.

This report highlights opportunities for jobs and growth using science and technology over the next 6-24 months.

Longer term opportunities are also identified as Australia starts to take steps towards building a resilient and future-proof economy from 2022 and beyond.

This report identifies three broad phases to Australia’s economic journey through COVID-19 and beyond, and outlines the medium and long-term growth opportunities associated with them:

• Short-term response (0-6+ months): This is the immediate response to the pandemic starting from mid-March 2020, including the initial public health response, economic stimulus packages and measures to support the supply of critical goods across Australia.
• Medium-term recovery (6-24 months): This phase is about supporting the recovery of industries core to the Australian economy, including through improved health and safety measures (e.g. diagnostics, detection and traceability), digitalisation, and other economic growth opportunities.
• Long-term resilience (24+ months): This phase is about building a resilient economy and reducing the economy’s exposure to future disruptions (e.g. health, climate and geopolitical risks). Long-term resilience opportunities involve technologies that are, in some cases, still in development and that require further investment, technical and commercial testing, and scale up before their economic potential is realisable.