This report builds on the 2015 ASPI report, Defence science and innovation: an affordable strategic advantage. It takes into account recent domestic and international R&D policy developments and considers trends in relation to whole-of-government national security innovation.

Overview: Australia’s neighbours in the Asia–Pacific are building high-quality science, technology, engineering and mathematics research capacities and infrastructure. As a consequence, Australia’s technological advantage in the defence domain is eroding. To recover that advantage, our policy should be to make the most of the knowledge, capability and capacity in Australia’s civilian science and innovation sector...