Innovation Performance Indicators Australia 2009 Edition 

This 2009 Innovation Data Card (.pdf 609KB) presents the most recent data available on a range of innovation performance indicators for Australia and is the first edition of this Data Card.

The Innovation Data Card highlights the following:

• In 2006-07, Australia’s Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GERD) was 2.01% of GDP and was below the OECD average of 2.26% but above that of Canada, the UK and Ireland.
• Business was the greatest contributor to Australian expenditure on R&D, providing 57% of the total Australian expenditure ($21 billion) on R&D.
• 20.7% of Australian innovation-active businesses reported collaborative arrangements in 2007-08.
• 33% of the Australian adult population have attained some form of tertiary education, which is above the OECD average of 27%.
• ‘Lack of skilled persons’ was reported as the greatest barrier to innovation for innovation-active businesses in 2006-07.
• In 2007-08, 39.1% of all businesses in the Australian economy were ‘innovating businesses’ - this is an increase of almost 7% from the previous financial year.
• In 2007-08, wholesale and retail trade were the top innovating industry sectors. Retail trade was not in the top six industry sectors in the previous year.
• Innovating businesses tended to introduce new goods and services in 2007-08 in line with trends from previous years.
• In 2006-07, most innovating businesses introduced or implemented innovations that were ‘new to the business’ only. Less than 10% of innovating businesses introduced or implemented innovations that were ‘new to the world’.

Data has been sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Thompson ISI National Science Indicators Database.

Innovation Performance Indicators Australia